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Why are we wrong in the attempt to overcome Anxiety?

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Anxiety has become the first cause of consultation in psychology, leaving behind other emotional problems such as depression. This is by no means a coincidence, we live in a very demanding world, over-stimulated and, mainly, with such a high load of uncertainty that it becomes difficult to handle.

Within specialized anxiety therapy, it is usually necessary to raise awareness and explain to the person suffering from this problem about what anxiety is, since there is usually an enormous need for immediate change due to the suffering that causes. Precisely that need and immediacy (as I said before, we live in a world that generates a lot of anxiety, and immediacy is a good example) makes the process of overcoming more difficult.

You can do the test. When reading this article, I imagine that you only want to read the tips, those direct tips that make you overcome anxiety; That is precisely what I was saying before about immediacy, which is detrimental. How are we going to overcome something that we don't even know what it is or why it appears?

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In the end you will be able to see those tips, but I think it is a mistake to apply them without that understanding.

  • Related article: "Understanding anxiety helps us not to fear it"

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is nothing more than an emotion, such as joy, sadness, anger or the fear. What we call anxiety is anxiety disorder, that is, when this emotion is a problem for our lives, is something like sadness and depression, sadness is the emotion, while depression is the problem.

Well, like any other emotion, anxiety accompanies us throughout our lives, from the moment we are born. We cannot live without anxiety, it would not be good or healthy, it is not possible either, we are emotional beings. Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion (like sadness), but I imagine that you would not see it as healthy for a person not to feel sadness at the loss of a family member. Similarly, anxiety have to live with us.

It is important to know this in order to overcome it, as it will continue to appear throughout our lives on numerous occasions, when we speak of overcoming anxiety, we are not talking about eliminating the emotion, but about overcoming the disorder, that is, living with the emotion in a way healthy. The big problem is what in psychology we know as the "fear of fear."

  • You may be interested in: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

What is the fear of fear?

The fear of fear is a way of processing anxiety in a conditioned way. That is to say, when we suffer from an anxiety disorder, we are so afraid of anxiety that anything we associate with it makes us set off alarm bells and, therefore, generate anxiety. This is one of the big problems.

This can cause us to associate a place, a situation, sweat, heart rate or any aspect that you can imagine with anxiety, leading us to incorrectly interpret any situation and generating anxiety in the face of these aspects. For example, imagine relating anxiety to dizziness, any feeling close to that will set off alarm bells and generate anxiety. The vast majority of times, we ourselves are the ones who cause this anxiety with the way we interpret things.

The problem of attention

We are going to do a mental exercise, I want you not to think about a pink elephant, please, do not imagine or make a mental image of a pink elephant, I want you to simply not think about it. How do we automatically act in that situation? Indeed, imagining that pink elephant, the more we force ourselves to put it out of our minds, the more difficult it will be.

The problem is that you can't stop thinking about something by thinking about that something, the more strongly you we try, the more we get stuck in that loop, a kind of quicksand in our head.

The same thing happens with anxiety, the more we focus on eliminating it, the more we get into it, so it gains more strength.

  • Related article: "Emotional management: 10 keys to master your emotions"

Tips that do help overcome anxiety

I am going to try to give 3 tips that are important when it comes to overcoming anxiety, 3 realistic tips that you can apply, but not without magic formulas.

1. follow a routine

The best advice that can be given to a person who suffers from an anxiety problem is to continue with their day to day, don't avoid your life. I know this is especially hard when you're in pain, but it's important.

2. Physical exercise

Physical exercise is one of the greatest regulators on an emotional level; helps us focus our attention on something positive, makes us go out, activates us on a physiological level and generates physical effort to regulate rest. Physical exercise helps us on a physiological, emotional, psychological and hormonal level.

3. Avoid information overload

Avoid the pink elephant, if you are in that loop, try to reduce and get out of it. Try to prevent your life from revolving around anxiety. I know you suffer when you suffer, but remember those quicksands. This does not mean that you ignore it, if there is a problem, sometimes we need that help to overcome it, but it does mean that you have to live around anxiety.

In Jesus Delgado Psychology we have specialists in anxiety disorders who can help you overcome it if you need to deal with it with professional help.

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