Anxiety with negative feelings: what to do?

Anxiety is a type of discomfort that is as common as it is diverse. In fact, it is such a complex phenomenon that disturbing thoughts and sensations are mixed in it, the contents of which depend both on the characteristics of the person who experiences it on their own skin, and on the context in which it is find.

A) Yes, in anxiety there are always mixed a series of negative feelings that it is difficult to separate and analyze separately, objectively. Fortunately, this does not mean that it is impossible to learn to deal with that kind of discomfort and avoid it blocking us or causing us to enter a vicious cycle of anguish and stress.

• Related article: Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics

How does anxiety arise?

Anxiety is a psychological and also a psychological state, since it is reflected both in feelings and thoughts in general, on the one hand, and the state of activation of our body, for the other.

In general, it predisposes us to interpret many of the things that happen around us as danger signs, or warnings that we must be alert for what may happen. In fact,

sometimes, this happens even without us knowing very well what it is that we must be prepared for to act short story before: simply, we are filled with a feeling of unease and that things will go wrong if we do not make an effort to avoid it.

A) Yes, typical symptoms of anxiety are tremors, sweating, sensitivity to light, dizziness, digestive problems, and in general phenomena associated with the need to stay alert and highly activated to react quickly and avoid damage even superior to the discomfort we feel at that moment: there is a subjective experience of overload, that our nervous system is at limit.

But while that happens in our body in general... what happens, specifically, in our stream of thoughts?

The vicious cycle of anxiety and negative feelings

Feelings are the way we interpret emotions, that is, our way of interpreting the fact that we are living them. In the case of anxiety, this is combined with a series of negative feelings, and both elements reinforce each other in a vicious circle.

This mutual feedback between negative feelings and anxiety is reflected in two main phenomena.

Pessimistic forecasts

When we are anxious, a tendency appears in us to generate pessimistic forecasts about what what will happen, and this series of beliefs is in line with that need to stay alert, to have all our senses directed towards possible opportunities to avoid what would harm us so as not to suffer all the bad things that we think will happen to us.

Psychological rumination

Rumination consists of the tendency to bring to our consciousness again and again, involuntarily, a series of thoughts or disturbing mental images, which make us feel bad and lead us to think about things that worry us, either about what might happen in the future or what happened to us in the past (in many cases, both times overlap and become indistinguishable for U.S).

As we see that no matter how hard we try we are not able to get rid of those thoughts, that predisposes us more to be alert to try not to return, or to block them when they appear in our consciousness, which in turn makes us more vulnerable to their influence, since we are alert and reinforcing our anxiety.

• You may be interested in: "Rumination Disorder: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment"

Tips to consider

Here are some key ideas about what to do

1. Take care of your health

We are much more vulnerable to anxiety when we are not physically fit.. Therefore, the first step is to check that we are getting enough sleep, that we eat well, that we are active, etc.

2. Don't block thought, manage your attention

Much more effective than trying to block negative feelings linked to anxiety is learn to accept that they are there and limit yourself to directing your attention to other aspects of your present. In this, Mindfulness exercises usually help and are easy to learn and practice.

3. Get moderate exercise

It has been shown that regular practice of moderate aerobic exercise makes us more resistant to anxiety discomfort and allows us to reorganize our thoughts, by offering us a series of very defined goals linked to sensations that stimulate us at all times through the movement of our Body.

4. Go to therapy

If you think nothing is working for you and you still feel bad, go to psychotherapy.

Are you interested in going to anti-anxiety psychotherapy?

If you find that you need help to manage anxiety because it gives you too many problems and you cannot control the situation, do not blame yourself: it happens to many people, and sometimes it is too difficult to overcome this kind of disturbance without support external. Luckily, anxiety can be treated through a psychotherapy process.

Therefore, in case you find yourself in such a situation, I suggest you contact me; I am a psychologist with more than 15 years of professional experience caring for patients, and helping people to manage anxiety properly is part of my job very often.

My work is mainly based on a combination of the tools and methodologies of cognitive-behavioral therapies and third-party therapies. generation, models of psychological intervention that have been shown to be effective in treating many emotional and behavioral. You can count on my help both in face-to-face therapy sessions at my center located in Madrid and through online therapy by video call. You will find my contact details on this page.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association -APA- (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Madrid: Panamericana.
• Kasper, S., Boer, J. TO. d., & Sitsen, J. M. TO. (2003). Handbook of depression and anxiety. New York: M. Dekker.
• Phillips, A.C.; Carroll, D.; Der, G. (2015). Negative life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety: stress causation and / or stress generation. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping. 28 (4): pp. 357 - 371.
• Stephan WG, Stephan CW (1985). Intergroup Anxiety. Journal of Social Issues.
• Sylvers, P.; Lilienfeld, S.O.; LaPrairie, J.L. (2011). Differences between trait fear and trait anxiety: implications for psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review. 31 (1): pp. 122 - 137.