Distress and anxiety: the hidden emotions behind these states

Anxiety and distress are those mental and physical symptoms that are manifested in all therapeutic consultations, without exception. Anxiety is the visible tip of the iceberg, presenting a huge set of unhealed covert emotions.

Childhood injuries or situations with traumatic characteristics crossed in childhood that remain saved, repressed and unresolved, are the ones that are activated when some memory brings them to the present in adult life, thus generating anguish and anxieties.

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What characteristics does anxiety present?

Let's start by explaining what it is. It is a mental state characterized by intense, real or imagined worry in a person's thoughts.

When we say real we can take as examples, work meetings, take an exam, speak in public, medical consultations, among others; and when we say imaginary, they are those situations that the mind thinks with ruminant insistence that could happen, potentially in the present or future, without any certainty that it will.

Although anxiety at certain levels is normal and productive in life, when it settles for days or months without being able to be managed to dissipate it, it is when we must give it more attention or ask for professional help.

When there is intense concern, certain emotions are activated, such as: insecurity, fears, anguish, excessive concern for the future, which, being unknown to the patient, is there where he lodges and lives, symbolically and unconsciously. They are called anxiety disorders, since by becoming present in the person, they modify or alter all areas and aspects of their life, negatively changing the quality of life of those who suffer from it.

These patients have the characteristics of feeling undervalued, and feeling the desire to control everything, fights, anger, own anger and towards others, manifesting this in the consultation therapy.

This set of unresolved emotions that were being accumulated in the course of growth and development of life also give rise to physical symptoms with various characteristics, such as tachycardia, sweating, nervousness, body movements, insomnia, tiredness, chest pains, headaches, feeling short of breath, among others.

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When is it necessary to consult a professional?

Certain levels of anxiety are necessary, acting as a natural defense mechanism to be able to live and respond to situations that the subject interprets as threatening, this being also, in its fair measure, the engine that allows us to advance, search and project those things that are they want.

When these levels of anxiety are high and go from the acute phase to the chronic phase, it is where the manifestation begins. both somatic and psychic, disturbing the quality of life of those who suffer from it with the appearance of the aforementioned somatizations.

When the state of anxiety is installed, it disqualifies the patient in the different areas of his life, generating significant discomfort both in his internal state, as well as in his relationship, being in the affective ties where these discomforts are accentuated, generating tense situations, crises or conflicts difficult to repair, with an impact negative.

It is in these moments and without being able to recognize or manage what is happening when you should ask for professional help, with the aim of generating a question in the patient and the search for answers, repairing and healing such emotions.

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How to work anxiety pictures?

Anxiety can manifest in the patient in a mild, moderate or severe way, varying its somatic-physical and mental-emotional intensity. When it is of mild intensity, the therapeutic treatment with the staging of the word, working on hidden emotions and the cause that generates said anxiety, will be enough for the change of subjective position or management of the same, effectively alleviating the symptom.

If the intensity is moderate, therapeutic treatment is recommended, adding Holistic tools such as: breathing techniques, meditation and relaxation, deep inhalations and slow exhalations, Mindfulness, concentrating attention on the action that is being carried out in the present, in the here and now, applying these resources and tools at various times of the day in order to stabilize these anxieties and return to an axis and balance between the body, the mind And the soul.

It will also be necessary to start work patient rewards, those who were surely suspended due to such symptomatology, work on their tastes, in activities and in their leisure time.

These tools create the shift in ruminating, insistent thinking that causes more symptoms. In the event that the anxiety is severe, generating the patient's inability to manage it, referral to a professional will be necessary. specialist in the area of ​​Psychiatry who will surely indicate drug treatment to alleviate the intensity that anguish and anxiety could cause in the patient.

interdisciplinary work is indicated, therapeutic treatment and holistic tools are the appropriate combo to improve the symptoms and quality of life of the patient.

Psychotherapeutic treatments aim to delve into those emotions that are latent or behind such somatic manifestations, taking into account their unconscious state, trying to address places that have not been open for a long time, always respecting the internal times of each patient, each consultant.

Work with the patient from the word, with the objective and neutral position of the therapist, with empathic and active listening, seeking to make aware of what was repressed, trying to generate movement and action, to get out of those known areas, helping to heal those Childhood Wounds that could be accompanying your life and causing pain.

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To remind…

Anxiety can be worked on and healed as long as the patient is willing to know the causes of it, allowing to enter their shadows to bring light, knowing that this will involve a process, being painful in some sections, but once crossed, the look towards life will change absolutely, and with that new look the quality in all its aspects will change. areas.

We must dare to close wounds to allow the flow of life from a different position. Only when it can be closed and healed is there room for the new.