What situations might cause a sufferer to experience Anxiety?
Anxiety symptoms can be constant or minimal most of the time, with peaks at times of stress or high anxiety. Generalized Anxiety Disorder causes most sufferers to experience constant anxiety symptoms.
Anxiety sufferers with panic disorder experience huge peaks in anxiety which causes a panic attack to ensue.
Most sufferers develop an anxiety condition which sits somewhere in the middle of the 'anxiety spectrum.' They experience regular panic attacks, obsessive thoughts and constant feelings of high anxiety. Insomnia, strange thoughts and obsessions are all features of high anxiety.
There seems to be no set pattern to the experiences of the 'average' sufferer - everyone reacts differently. Some sufferers do however find that their anxiety is worst when geographically removed from a location or person who would normally offer safety or comfort. Agoraphobia then develops as a result of finding a 'comfort zone.'
For some people, the company of a trusted person is required, sometimes constantly. Others find it impossible to leave the house or even a room in which they feel safe. Some Anxiety sufferers with acute agoraphobia won't leave these places for years, sometimes even decades.
Why do sufferers feel anxious all the time?
High anxiety is created by a small organ in the subconscious part of the brain. This organ, called the Amygdala, acts like an anxiety 'thermostat', regulating the bodies anxiety levels.
Under normal circumstances, the Amygdala effectively controls the anxiety levels in order to protect us from danger, however, because the brain is an 'information sponge', constantly learning and updating our mental 'software', the Amygdala becomes susceptible to being re-programmed to function abnormally.
Anxiety reactions are complex; they set off a string of chemical events in the body which produce all of the symptoms of anxiety which we associate with our anxiety disorders.
As we modify our behaviour as a result of experiencing the unpleasant and apparently detrimental effects of an anxiety reaction, the Amygdala 'learns' that our anxiety response has become adjusted and each and every time we experience high anxiety. This new anxiety level becomes instinctual - the subconscious mind adopts it as the new 'normal operating level.'
The new anxiety level has been learned by you. This process is called Operant Conditioning and is responsible for everything we learn to do.
Because we consciously fear the anxiety we experience, our anxiety levels rise, as they rise we produce more anxiety symptoms. As we produce more symptoms, we become more fearful, the cycle persists and it becomes very hard to break - unless, you know how to break the anxiety cycle, eliminate the anxiety and return the Amygdala to normal function.
It can be done!