Chapter Three:
Educate Yourself

   The first key to overcoming anxiety is to educate yourself. Learn what anxiety is, how it affects you, and the scientific reasons for your symptoms. Anxiety is a real, treatable illness. Anxiety disorders cheat approximately 40 million Americans out of a happy and productive life. An anxiety disorder is overwhelming anxiety and fear that disrupts their daily lives.

        So you see, you are not alone.  

  In order to understand what happens to your body when you feel anxious, we need to understand how the brain works.

The fight or flight response

       Your physical and emotional responses to stress are largely affected by the Fight or Flight response. The Fight or Flight Response is your body's automatic, inborn response that protects your survival. It prepares the body to "fight" or "flee" from any real or perceived threat to your survival.

       When the fight or flight response occurs, it stimulates an area of your brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus prepares your body for fighting or running. It does this by flooding your brain with chemicals such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. This process creates physical reactions. 

How accumulated stress affects the body

       It doesn’t take a wild animal chasing you to activate the fight or flight response as it did for our ancestors. If you lead a very stressful life, your sympathetic nervous system may be sending you “false alarms” much of the time. For example, your fight or flight response may be activated when your boss gives you a new project with a tight deadline, the electric bill is much higher than expected, or someone cuts in front of you on the freeway. Our bodies can interpret these events as modern-day “threats” to our survival.

       We’ve been talking about the fight or flight response. How does anxiety figure into all of this? It’s simple, really. When our flight or fight response is activated and there is no real emergency, and we call these physical reactions “anxiety symptoms”.  Notice the similarity between the fight or flight response and an anxious response? Here are just a few:

• rapid heartbeat
• dizziness
• muscle tension
• numbness
• sweating 
• shortness of breath
• nausea or abdominal distress
• trembling or shaking

            There is a psychological side to the fight or flight response too. When our fight or flight system is activated, our fear and our perception of dangers tend to be exaggerated. That’s because the fight or flight response bypasses our rational mind in an effort to protect us from possible harm. This results in the psychological side of anxiety: for example, apprehension and worry, fear, feeling detached from your body or that you are dying. Our rational minds are turned off and our falsely activated fight or flight response has its own “explanation” of what’s happening to you.

What is the Anxiety Cycle?

Anxiety usually follows a cycle that consists of five phases: Trigger, Fight or Flight, Internalizing, Assuming the Worst, and Increase or Intensification of Symptoms.

The first stage of the Anxiety Cycle involves a trigger. A trigger could be a lack of sleep OR a long day at work, OR a fight with a loved one, OR forgetting to eat a meal. Any number of situations could act as a trigger.

As a result of the trigger, your body moves into the second stage. It activates the fight or flight reaction. This produces physical reactions such as faster breathing, sweating, and so on.

Let me point out that everyone, even those that do not suffer from anxiety, experience triggers and fight or flight reactions. That’s because we all experience stress.

So what makes a fight or flight response become anxiety? Everyday stress becomes anxiety at the third step: when you internalize your physical reactions. You make the reaction “mean something” about you.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say a car pulls in front of you on the freeway. That’s the trigger. As a result, your muscles tense and you find it harder to breathe for a few moments. That’s the fight or flight reaction. At this point you have two options. You can note the reaction, effectively deal with it, and move on with your day; OR  You can turn it into anxiety. If you take the road leading to anxiety, then you might say to yourself, “What’s wrong with me? Why are my muscles so tense? I shouldn’t be feeling this tense.” That’s internalizing.

Guess what happens then? Your fight or flight mentality tries to think up a so-called logical response. It moves to the 4^th step. It assumes the worst. You may think to myself, “I must be having a heart attack! What am I going to do?”

What do you think happens then? You move to the 5^th step: There is an increase or intensification of symptoms. You likely find it even harder to breathe, plus you start to experience additional symptoms. That, my friend, is anxiety.

        There is a solution. After the trigger and the initial fight or flight reaction occurs, stop the cycle. Instead of internalizing what’s going on, use immediate anxiety reducing techniques (such as those taught in the Conquer Your Anxiety Success Program).