Anxiety

Anxiety can manifest itself in many forms and affects people in different ways and at any time. Some common symptoms of anxiety are;
Overthinking, mental exhaustion, rumination, constantly comparing yourself to others, mentally exhausted, insomnia, overwhelmed, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, restless, wound up, on edge, unsatisfying sleep.
These external signs of anxiety are often from deep internal self-beliefs and personality traits. High functioning anxiety is a common form of anxiety that has both positive and negative characteristics. Whilst someone may be able to perform well at work and accomplish many tasks, that's not to say they aren't struggling internally. As a result, that person may endure the anxiety in silence. The positive effects mask the negative ones and here lies the difficulty.

This can manifest externally as; people pleasing, anger, irritability, perfectionism, restlessness, difficulty staying present.

Who Does Anxiety Affect?

The nature of anxiety is that it can affect anyone, at any time. Research suggests that you are more susceptible with these additional genetic and environmental factors;

Family history of anxiety
Experiencing negative or stressful life events
Medical conditions such as thyroid problems
Alcohol or substance abuse
Shyness or nervousness traits from Childhood

Dealing with Anxiety

Typically anxiety can be treated with therapy, prescription medications or both.

For instance, Psychotherapy or talking to a therapist can be an effective way to help relieve some of the symptoms of anxiety and enable you to better understand your anxiety, where it comes from, and how to deal with it.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is a form of psychological treatment used to re wire negative thinking patterns and ultimately understand your behaviours and recognise these patterns once they manifest again.

Prescription medications that treat anxiety are available as anti-depressants, selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI's) or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) Other medications like benzodiazepines, buspirone and beta-blockers can also be used.
With the understanding of the above treatments, it is important to be able to acknowledge some of the symptoms and find someone to talk to about them, this will be a good starting point to begin the treatment of anxiety effectively.

During the Pandemic alone there was a marked increase in anxiety at the beginning of lockdown. Between 20 and 30 March 2020 almost half (49.6%) of people reported high anxiety and average anxiety scores were 5.2 out of 10, a marked increase from 3.0 in the last quarter of 2019. Source; Office Of National Statistics

As a result, both work life and home life has been tested as people adapt to new and unknown environments increasing the intensity of those already suffering from anxiety or in some instances kick-starting some anxiety symptoms for some people. It could be adapting to working at home, whilst looking after children who would otherwise be at school to losing your job and having to re skill or losing a loved one, this coincides with the data that 39% of people who are married or in a civil partnership, reported high levels of anxiety. This compares with 19% pre-pandemic Source; Office Of National Statistics

If you are experiencing anxiety reach out to someone, whether it be a family member, friend, or therapist.