Mental Health Awareness Month was established in 1949 to commemorate recovery from mental illness and increase awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness in the lives of Americans. Every year, May is set aside as a time to provide resources and information to assist individuals and communities who may need mental health care, as well as to increase awareness of the vital role mental health plays in our overall health and well-being.
Anxiety is one of the most talked-about topics in mental health today. While it’s good that anxiety is getting more attention, there are a lot of false beliefs and misconceptions regarding the topic. Many Mental Health Awareness charities have chosen anxiety as the topic of Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 to increase understanding of what anxiety is, when it becomes a problem, and how we may assist ourselves and each other.
The results of our study are examined in this briefing. the prevalence and rates of anxiety in different demographic groups, as well as the main causes and risk factors of anxiety today. After that, it looks at the main anxiety management techniques and makes recommendations to the US government for anxiety prevention.
Key points
A common and important human response to stress or perceived threat is anxiety. These are feelings of discomfort, anxiety, or fear. Anxiety is part of our body’s natural “fight or flight” reaction, which helps us react quickly to potential threats. Anxiety can become a problem if it overwhelms us, persists for a long period, or keeps us from accomplishing tasks we need or want to do. Anxiety levels among people have increased throughout the epidemic and have not yet reached their pre-pandemic levels.
What is Anxiety?
Feelings of unease that can vary from moderate to severe are the hallmark of anxiety, a fairly prevalent emotional condition. Most people have occasional anxiety. Excessive anxiety can cause distress, avoidance, and even physical symptoms like palpitations, upset stomach, or dyspnea.
To be clear, anxiety is a common reaction to stress or perceived threat. It can be brought on by anything from a significant occasion or change to something as straightforward as a work presentation or meeting new people. It is a feeling of unease, anxiety, or trepidation.
Please understand that having anxiety is not the same as having an anxiety disorder, which is a diagnosable mental condition characterized by excessive anxiety that is out of proportion to the situation or event that triggered it.
Anxiety is, therefore, a common and normal emotion, but it can become a troublesome condition that may be identified as an anxiety disorder if it becomes overwhelming or chronic and interferes with day-to-day activities. Nonetheless, there are a number of strategies to control it and lessen its effects.
Causes of Anxiety
There are numerous reasons why anxiety affects your daily life. Let’s look at what causes anxiety in the details below.
- Medications: Taking certain medications, such as birth control pills, can cause them to experience anxiety or depression.
- Genetics: Genes are the primary units of heredity that are passed down from parent to child. Have you ever noticed that when a member of your family is depressed, you find yourself in the same tense situation every other day? Thus, the transfer of genes is solely responsible for this. As a result, genetic variations can cause a variety of anxiety disorders.
- Environmental Factors: A person’s mental stability can be influenced by various environmental factors. Financial crises, workplace stress, and personal problems can all contribute to your anxiety.
Also Read
How Anxiety Affects Daily Life, Sleep, and Overall Health
How Anxiety Impacts Daily Life?
When anxiety becomes more than just an occasional worry, it becomes a constant companion, shaping your days in ways you may not immediately associate with your mental health. There are several ways anxiety affects your daily life.
- Physical tension or pain: Anxiety is more than just your thoughts. It begins to live inside your body. You might discover that your heart is racing, your shoulders are tight, your jaw is tense, and your stomach hurts. Physical symptoms of this type may manifest for no apparent reason. You start to feel uneasy and wonder what’s wrong.
- Disrupted sleep patterns: Maybe you can’t fall asleep because your mind won’t stop racing, or you wake up in the middle of the night thinking about something small that suddenly feels urgent. Or when you wake up, you feel tired as if you never truly rested. As a result, one of the most common early warning signs of anxiety is difficulty sleeping. Anxiety causes sleep problems, which are the most common indicators of anxiety.
- Persistent worry: You might notice that your thoughts are constantly replaying your suicidal thoughts and overreacting to them, or that they are jumping to the worst-case scenarios. Even on your calm days, you may be horrified by the mental exhaustion that can result from this type of thinking and worry.
- Concentration Issues: Anxiety consumes your thoughts to such an extent that you have trouble focusing on anything else. You may even become disorganized and forgetful as a result of repeatedly reading the same sentences. Therefore, anxiety can make your brain filter distractions and concentrate.
- Emotional Overreactions: Due to inattention and overanalyzing, your mind and thoughts are already overworked. The worst scenario is when minor annoyances cause you to feel overwhelmed. It can occur to such an extent that you may cry out of the blue, snap at someone, or yell at anyone for no apparent reason. Therefore, anxiety often heightens your emotional sensitivity.
Tips for Managing Anxiety Day-to-Day
Everything has safety measures. All you need to do is place it in your path to remove it. There are therapies, counselling, and medication such as xanax 1mg, xanax 2mg, and ativan 2mg to manage anxiety day-to-day.
Start with mindfulness: Just slow down a bit for a few minutes, calm yourself, and feel everything that is by your side. You can calm your thoughts with even a short period of silence.
Limit triggers where you can: Anything that triggers you the most and leads to making you feel more anxious, then it’s ok to take breaks and settle yourself.
Practice self-compassion: Talk to yourself in a way that brings you joy. I want you to understand that anxiety is not a sign of failure. It indicates that you are handling a difficult situation and making the best use of the resources at your disposal.
Reach out for support: When coping with anxiety, keep in mind that you don’t have to handle everything by yourself because you can do this with your loved ones.
Bringing everything together
Anxiety profoundly impacts daily life by causing chronic worry, physical symptoms like high heart rate or fatigue, and cognitive issues such as difficulty concentrating, lack of confidence, overthinking, and behaviour change is also a symptom of anxiety, which can impact your daily life.