Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most frequent disorders in clinics?
It is estimated that more than 40% of the population suffers or has suffered from anxiety at some point in their lives. Currently, many people visit their family doctors because of anxiety, however, these doctors have little training in mental health, and the number of psychologists in the public health system is very small, so they cannot cover people’s needs.
But... what is anxiety exactly?
Why are there so many cases? Can it be controlled?
Anxiety appears in different ways: on the one hand, with regard to the body, we can see that our heart rate is accelerating, we can even feel that our heart is going to come out. Some people sweat, they may feel their hands are sweaty. It is also common not to be able to contain the urge to urinate every little time.
On the other hand, mentally, we may think that the world is about to fall apart, that something bad is going to happen, we anticipate bad things that have not yet happened but that could happen, in short, it is a catastrophic thought.
Emotionally, we feel overwhelmed, in the most serious cases we can feel that we are going to die, which is known as a panic attack.
Anxiety can take different forms: general anxiety (when we are constantly in that state of anxiety with no apparent cause), social anxiety (when we avoid going out of the house or having contact with people), panic attacks (when we feel that we are going to die), agoraphobia (distress in situations where we feel unprotected or unable to do anything), obsessive compulsive disorder (when we do something concrete repeatedly, like washing our hands or checking things) or specific phobias (when we are afraid or rejected by something concrete: spiders, sharks, dogs…).
Why are there so many cases?
What really happens with anxiety is that it is the tip of the iceberg, which means that anxiety is the first thing we see.
Usually, when we explore our lives, we discover that things are much more related than we think. It is not at all usual to feel anxiety spontaneously, without any apparent reason, generally there is a cause, which may be close (I am anxious because I feel bad at work) but we may also have been suffering for a long time without asking for help, pulling ourselves forward and convincing ourselves that we can handle everything. This is a short term solution, since the human being is able to get out of very difficult situations leaving aside the pain, but that does not mean that the wound is healed.
Anxiety is our body’s way of warning us that something is not right. There are very different problems that we detect through anxiety.That’s why, in NEURON psychologists, we don’t apply general techniques, which are the same for all people, but instead we apply an individualized treatment, we explore the history of each person to understand where the anxiety comes from.
Can it be controlled?
Yes, treatments for anxiety have a lot of scientific support and have been found to be effective on numerous occasions.
It should be noted that this anxiety can be treated on a superficial level (focus on not feeling anxiety in this moment), for which there are also many strategies and tools (drugs, breathing techniques, yoga…), or on a deeper level (going to the origin of the anxiety so that we don’t feel this way again).
We recommend an in-depth approach, as this provides us a greater knowledge of ourselves. In practice, working like that requires more time compared to learning some relaxation exercises. For this reason, there are people who prefer to follow a short and generic treatment, instead of a personalized and more lasting one. That decision is up to you, if you are interested in reducing anxiety, click here to request your first free session without any commitment.