Although anxiety and worry are negative emotions, it is completely normal to experience them from time to time.
Anna Zhustal, a psychologist and author of the self-development book “Inevitable Happiness,” told us how to determine that the level of anxiety has already gone off the charts.
These feelings usually arise from our previous experiences in order to protect us from future dangers.
For example, as a child you drowned in a river, you were saved, but you were very scared. Now, when you go swimming in a pond, you experience a slight anxiety that makes you remember that you cannot swim too far and you need to control the degree of fatigue of the body.
In this way, the brain protects you from repeating the bad experience.
But in some cases, worry and anxiety become your constant companions, displacing all positive emotions and significantly reducing the quality of life.
How do you know when your anxiety is getting too high and you need help?
The main factor to look at when determining the level of anxiety is the ability to do normal things.
When anxiety is controlled, you understand that you are in a state of anxiety (for example, you are worried because your child is sick), but you can continue to work with almost no decrease in productivity, communicate with the environment, difficulties with sleep arise, but not constantly.
When anxiety and worry start to go through the roof, you start to drop out of life. You fail task after task at work because you can't concentrate.
You suffer from insomnia because as soon as you lie down, you are overcome by anxious thoughts concerning either one or several topics at once. Your loved ones and friends may notice that you are reluctant to make contact, and even if you do communicate, it is as if you are not with them in your thoughts.
This condition will also affect your appearance – you will be reluctant to take care of yourself, and you may even stop taking a shower.
A persistent feeling of anxiety can gradually result in stress, which will cause physical changes – your stomach may hurt, your heart may beat faster, and you may sweat.
It is more difficult to get out of this state without a specialist, so prevention is very important. You need to learn to listen to your body and feelings, even when you think that everything is fine with you.
If you learn to read yourself, you will notice the slightest deviations, immediately isolate disturbing thoughts, talk about them yourself or with someone, decide and let them go.
