Home » Personality and health » How to overcome fears and anxiety: the path to harmony
07 04 2020 Valentina No comments yet
Negative emotions, among which fear is considered especially strong, very quickly deplete the nervous system. If you are increasingly worried about groundless fears, and how to overcome fears and anxiety , try not to complicate the situation with speculation.
The first thing you have to do is to understand your feelings, find the origins of your experiences and understand the essence of the emotional states that take so much energy and mental strength from you.
If you don’t find ways to overcome fears and anxiety in time, you can lead your body to general nervousness, which will ultimately provoke not only depression, but also more serious psychological and physiological diseases.
Anxiety causes treatment
What is anxiety? Before we look at finding a psychologist to treat anxiety, let's talk about what anxiety is. Anxiety is an intense feeling of worry and stress. We all experience anxiety from time to time, with some people suffering more than others. When anxiety reaches levels where it begins to affect your life in a negative way, it is time to see a therapist. Some people literally cannot function normally due to constant feelings of worry and constant anxiety.
What fears are there?
It is believed that fears arise in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. To date, the mechanism of its function has not been sufficiently studied, but it is known that it is capable of retaining important current information and is needed by a person to focus attention, as well as to develop spatial memory.
The current idea emanating from some scientists that it is necessary to remove the hippocampus in order to get rid of fear forever is a grave mistake. Modern psychology presents the following classification of types of fear, what many people are afraid of:
- Worry about your health, fear of dying.
- There is a danger of being drawn into various conflicts or unpleasant relationships with other people.
- Fear of being at the bottom during sexual relations.
To get rid of fear, you need to know how this feeling differs from banal anxiety:
► Ordinary fear, as a rule, is associated with the current unfavorable situation or current circumstances.
►Anxiety, or neurotic fear, begins to disturb when there is an assumption about the impending unfavorable outcome of what has been done.
Symptoms of anxiety
Here's how anxiety can express itself physically:
- Sleep disturbance
- Changing eating habits
- High blood pressure
- Cardiopalmus
- Dyspnea
- Excessive sweating
- Rumination (mental chewing gum)
- Digestive problems
These are just some of the most common symptoms that come with anxiety. They can be completely eliminated, significantly reduced or completely eliminated with the help of treatment or consultation with a psychologist.
Diagnosis of anxiety
It is recommended to start working on anxiety by clearly defining it.
- For diagnosing adults, I would like to recommend the Spielberger questionnaire. The technique, in my opinion, allows us to understand the nature of anxiety as accurately as possible. You answer 40 judgments (“yes” or “no”, how true it is for you), and as a result you get a clearly measured level of personal and situational anxiety. At a high level, it is recommended to work on increasing confidence in one’s own success; at a low level, it is recommended to work on activity and motivation.
- School anxiety can be assessed using the Phillips Questionnaire. This is an extensive diagnosis that identifies factors (causes) of anxiety, which is very important for further work. The child responds to the statements of the method (how true they are in relation to him), then the results are interpreted according to the “key”. The technique allows us to determine general anxiety, the experience of social stress at the moment, worries about an unmet need for success, fear of self-expression, fear of knowledge testing situations, fear of not meeting the expectations of others, low level of physical ability to withstand stress, problems in relationships with the teacher.
How to get rid of anxiety and can a psychologist help?
Any psychologist is trained to work with anxiety and stress, but there are psychologists who may focus on working with anxiety and anxiety disorders more than others. If you are struggling with anxiety or have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, you may choose to receive advice and treatment like this. Below are things you should look for when choosing a psychologist.
Does your insurance cover therapy?
If you have health insurance, you should start your search for a psychologist with your insurance company. Be sure to check with your insurance company to find out what the requirements are. Many insurance companies only cover a certain number of sessions each year, so it is important that you know what the limits are.
While you don't necessarily have to choose your therapist based on your insurance, it may help offset some or all of your treatment costs.
Will you need medication?
Psychologists are not medical psychotherapists and they cannot write prescriptions. If they think you need medication support or treatment, they will give you appropriate advice and refer you to a doctor or psychiatrist for medication.
Specializations
While therapists can help with a variety of disorders, most will have multiple areas in which they specialize. Since you are dealing with anxiety, you may want to see a therapist who has experience treating people with it.
Authority
Many people offer advice and counseling services, but not all of them have the relevant education and experience necessary to treat and help with psychological disorders, including increased feelings of anxiety. Be sure to read the documents of your psychologist; at a minimum, he should have a diploma of higher psychological education. Does he have additional specialized training that will apply to your situation?
Availability
While you may think it's good that the psychologist is so busy that he can't see you soon, in fact it may not be good for you. Yes, this may mean that this is a good psychologist with a lot of experience and a lot of clients, but it also means that you will have to wait longer for an appointment. When you struggle with worry and anxiety, this can be a problem. Ideally, your therapist will only see a certain number of clients so that everyone can receive help and treatment when they need it.
Can you talk to a therapist outside of appointments?
As a rule, psychologists do not communicate with clients outside of a therapeutic appointment. Although there are those who do not mind being contacted by phone or email between meetings, if necessary. If you like the idea of being able to talk to a psychologist when you need to, rather than having to wait for another appointment, you can take advantage of online psychological help services through video consultation or online chat. This is very important to consider when choosing a psychologist.
Where does your psychologist meet?
Chances are you don't want to have a long commute to your therapist's office. For people with high anxiety, this can be one of the difficult challenges. And this is another advantage of online therapy - the absence of inconvenience associated with traveling to the therapist.
What type of therapy does he practice?
Many different types of therapy can be used to treat anxiety. Before you start going to sessions, you should find out what type of therapy the therapist practices. The best therapist will use a combination of different techniques. Some of the most commonly used forms of therapy to treat anxiety include:
Cognitive-behavioral
is a very effective, generally accepted method of treating anxiety. In this approach, you change your thoughts and behavior. Patients learn strategies to help them manage their anxiety in healthy ways.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- This type of consultation is growing in popularity, it is not as widespread as other forms. It works as follows: the psychologist teaches clients certain eye movement patterns while simultaneously presenting non-stressful situations that will help them get rid of feelings of anxiety and worry.
Medication
— Some medications can help people with anxiety disorders gain control over their emotions while they work to learn new skills to cope with anxiety and stress.
Biofeedback
- This type of counseling works by showing people how their body reacts to anxiety, stress and worry. As they sit for the sessions, they are hooked up to machines that show them what their blood pressure, heart rate and other physical body responses are. They can see what happens when they become more stressed and then how their body reacts when they use certain techniques to reduce stress and anxiety. This helps them learn what they feel physically when their anxiety gets out of control, and how they might feel if they keep it under control. It also helps them identify feelings when their efforts bear fruit.
These are just a few of many options for treating anxiety. Therefore, you may want to talk to your therapist first to find out what treatment approach they use.
Is your therapist someone you feel comfortable with?
You must be comfortable with your therapist for therapy to work. If you don't feel good with your therapist, you won't trust him. It is important that you are able to open up to your therapist. If you don't feel like you can trust him, you won't open up fully and then you'll make little or no progress. If you start sessions with someone, but after a few sessions you cannot overcome the feeling of discomfort, you need to find a new therapist.
If they want to scare you
Skilled manipulators or so-called energy vampires very often deliberately evoke a feeling of fear in us, since it is much easier to control the consciousness of a frightened person - their unexpected attacks can cause a state of confusion, which entails a weakening of defense mechanisms.
There are three main types of reactions to such actions - if we are deliberately insulted, we respond either with counter-aggression, or get lost and respond hesitantly, or manage to pull ourselves together and repel the offender’s blow with confidence.
An aggressive style will cause new attacks from the enemy - perhaps this is exactly the kind of behavior the manipulator expects from you, and under no circumstances should you succumb to his provocations.
Your timidity and indecisiveness can also lead to even more blatant attacks from the offender, who will immediately feel superior to you, and your fear will only give him strength.
In such circumstances, you cannot afford to get confused - even if you are scared, and your opponent has noticed this, you should not assume that control over the situation has been completely lost, because the offender knows very well that unexpected aggression can unsettle anyone.
Try to slow down at least a little at this moment, and then move away slightly from your opponent - such a break will help you recover. Then take a deep breath and assume a confident posture—your posture should radiate determination.
Firmness in your voice (but not shouting) and an even tempo of speech will also help you morally overcome your opponent. Look the manipulator straight in the eye - don’t be afraid of such people, they are trying to scare you, since they themselves are filled with fear and anxiety.
There are no ways to completely stop being afraid, but the human body does not need them - fears can be very good motivators, they activate brain activity and help cope with many psychological problems.
Experiencing all your fears will not be so scary if you stop focusing on yourself and try to achieve harmony with the world. Develop, improve, improve the quality of your life - anxious thoughts will disappear, you will stop being afraid, there will be room for creativity, because the heaviest shackles will be removed from your consciousness.
Don’t forget to share our article on social networks - humor and support from friends will help you overcome anxiety much more effectively.
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