(This article was written on October 25, 2021.)

Introduction –

As of writing this article, there are 40 million people in USA alone who suffer from some kind of anxiety, and only around 37% of those guys are receiving any treatment for it.

So, if you think you are going through anxiety after reading this or any other article, for fuck’s sake, go and tell this to a doctor!

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a completely natural and necessary feeling to feel. Before something big in your life, like that test which will determine whether you’ll be loved by your parents or not or that first date which will decide whether you are worthy to be loved or not, you start to get a bit nervous, a little panicky.

That is anxiety and that is cool to have, it means you are functioning normal, like everybody else in this god forsaken pigsty we call Earth.

So why are there articles about anxiety management if it is so normal, why aren’t there other articles like lust management, sadness management and ego management?

Nice question hypothetical you, let’s go to the next sub-head for that.

What is Anxiety Disorder?

Now we are talking. Theoretically, when you are worried, afraid or are just sensing some kind of unpleasantness but can’t figure out why AND you can’t shake off that slowly growing sense of dread – that same anxiousness becomes a disorder.

Why? Because now it is not under your control and it is clutching you away from living peacefully, which is what you want to do the most but can’t help it.

People with anxiety disorder feel really worried about some undistinguished danger, and even if that fear seems ridiculous or ‘way out there’ in your rational mind, still it is reaching towards you and your loved ones.

And no matter how crazy a fear is, all fears have some plausibility about them. Even cranky ones like aliens enslaving us or lizard people running this world.

So, no matter what others say, no matter how impossible or weird or stupid your fear is, first of all I personally advise you to not just shake it off but you know what? Who am I to tell you such non-sense?

First, let’s talk about what pros have to say and in the very last, I’ll add some of my own advice.

Types of Anxiety Disorders –

Yes, there are many kinds of anxiety disorders, because if we are feeling shitty about our lives, then why have less of that?

The fifth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V) has excluded Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) and also Acute Stress Disorder from anxiety shelf.

Why? They have listed those under new titles, given them their own section or something, make whatever you want to of that.

Well, anyway, here are the chosen ones –

1.      Generalized Anxiety Disorder

GAD is the most common of anxiety disorder, in which people experience long lasting and excessive anxiety and worry about nonspecific events of life, situations or objects.

Folks with this one are not always able to identify the cause of their anxiousness.

2.      Agoraphobia

When you are afraid of some place or situations or events where you feel it will be difficult to get away from or getting any help at, if you get trapped somehow.

3.      Selective Mutism

It happens mainly with kids or with some adults where they find unable to speak in some situation or events and just freeze or run away.

4.      Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder

People with this issue are afraid of getting negatively judged for something by others, or feel that they will be belittled if they went out or meet others. A real bad case of poor self-esteem with these folks.

5.      Separation Anxiety Disorder

Why are we even doing this, it is just worry and fear in one form or another. In this one people get really afraid when they get separated from those people who have been taking care of them. With whom they felt secure or comfortable with.

There are like 100s of these things, and all are fear which get triggered by one thing or another. It is important to distinguish what is making you triggered. That could be a BIG help in order to control your AD.

Common Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders –

Here are a few normally noted ones –

·        Thoughts that make you worry or seem to be probing you with a disfigured question that you want to expand upon.

·        Hard to control beliefs and ideas.

·        Interference with your daily activities.

·        Rapid or pounding heartbeat.

·        Unexplainable pain in chest, arms and shoulders (usually)

·        Dry throat

·        Shortness of breath

·        Shutting yourself down and away from everything you would have participated in otherwise

·        Sleep related problems

What causes Anxiety Disorder?

Hippity Hoppity, this problem is now magically your property.

What causes love? What causes laughter? No one the fuck knows how or why this disorder arises, what causes it to grow so untameable.

But there are a few guesses, which is the best we can do now.

·        Maybe some problems you are facing at your work, with your spouse or some family issues which do not seem that easy to just talk about, in your mind.

·        Hereditary causes

·        Stress build-up of some kind

·        Stress due to some serious illness

·        Other kind of mental disorders can play a part in bringing up anxiety disorders inside you

·        Medical reasons, like some counter effects of a medication, something risen from another underlying disease you might be having.

·        Stress that comes from intense surgery or from a prolonged recovery.

·        Withdrawal from some addictive substances

·        Something horrible happened to you in the past, some trauma, maybe when you were a child or when you were in ‘Nam.

Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder –

If you worry too much and can’t control it, so much so that it’s attacking your daily peace of mind and activities, go see a doctor and tell him/her what you are going through. There are no specific tests about tracking down anxiety.

But they can start to see if what you are experiencing is something related with anxiety or any other hidden disease. Once they are done with their physicals and lab tests, they will recommend you to a psychiatrist or a psychologist.

When to see a doctor though?

·        When you can’t control your fears/worries.

·        When you are depressed

·        When you are struggling with addiction

·        When you have other mental health issues along with anxiety

·        When you strongly feel that your anxiety is linked with some physical health issue

·        When you are feeling suicidal

It is better to get help, any help because it is going to get worse if you don’t get you anxiety issues checked. It could turn into full blown clinical depression, you could go crazy or just end your own life maybe.

So, please for the love of everything sane and logical, try to talk to some professionals about it.

Complications that can arise from Anxiety disorder –

The biggest complication that comes with any kind of anxiety disorder is the loss of peace of mind which results in the loss of a normal happy life.

Like some kind of sick ‘buy one get many’ offer you will also see a steady decline in the quality of your professional work, married life and joyful existence with anxiety problems.

You could also catch bad stuffs like –

·        Depression

·        Insomnia

·        Substance Misuse

·        Headaches/Body Aches

·        Bowel Problems

·        Isolation

·        Poor quality of self-conduct

·        Overall miserable functioning at workplace

And the worst complication could be suicide. Many brilliant minds have succumbed into this hell-hole, just imagine what they could have given us had they allowed themselves some help.

Asking for help is an honest thing to do, face yourself and fight your demons to be honest to yourself.

Is there any prevention method for anxiety disorder?

Can you foresee an 8.00 PM fart at 6.30 PM? No, you can’t, no one can. And also, no one can know what is going to make you unlock anxiety disorder in your life’s journey.

But there are a few things that you can do to make things simpler –

·        Get some medical help ASAP (as soon as possible)!

·        Keep your distance from alcohol and drugs!

·        Stay active in social activities like being a part of some club, any kind of social interaction, group support, basically have friends.

·        Don’t be alone!!

Don’t loose your shit over these things, try your best to be a part of something and you will be eventually.

If you are an anime lover get into anime forums, anime conventions, there are like literally thousands of forums online dedicated to the most mundane, peculiar, weird and mainstream things. Join those.

Also, they have a convention for furries (people who literally want to be animals by wearing animal costumes and living that way or something idk), if that could be a thing now.

Why can’t your fetish be a club/convention?

Again, don’t be alone.

Treatment for Anxiety Disorders –

There are mainly two ways professionals treat your anxiety problems, either by psychotherapy or by medicine or both.

Medicines –

You will be given anti-anxiety meds like benzodiazepines, or anti-depressants or beta blockers or all of them but in a certain quantity based upon your reaction to them.

Psychotherapy –

This is a normal way of approach towards distinguishing and solving your anxiety issues, some of the therapies used are CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which makes you recognise troublesome thoughts which lead to anxious feelings.

Exposure Therapy makes you face those objects or places which you were avoiding due to fear so you can develop natural resiliency to that trigger.

And that is it. The biggest thing you can do to eliminate anxiety problems is to gain knowledge about it.

The more you will know about it, the more you will recognise it and that will help you break the illusion more aptly.

A few techniques to keep Anxiety Issues away from disturbing your daily activities –

There are many techniques professionals advise you to perform every time an episode gets triggered –

1.      Slow Breathing, try to bring your fast breathing back to normal during an attack and concentrate on those inhales and exhales, just ‘see’ them going in and coming out for a while.

2.      Stay in the present, anxiety will show you something that hasn’t occurred yet, it will be powerful and painful, but you bring yourself back to your present and stay there for a while before doing anything.

3.      Stay active, do workouts for a few minutes whenever an attack occurs, go cycle outside or jog, get into some club or join some activity group.

4.      Try to bring in rationality, every time you see some worst-case scenarios inside your head, calm yourself down first and see whether it’s practically possible.

5.      Note down your anxiety, note down the patterns your anxiety makes, does something trigger it? What does it say? When does it usually happen? Know the ins and outs of your attacks.

6.      Be kind, to yourself, do not just see yourself as a pathetic loser but as someone who helps others and who is also strong enough to fight for others.

7.      Meditation, yes, meditation is a great way to counter anxiety problems, even medical science confirms that.

And now, a few things that I’d like to add –

Folks, fear is nothing but an extension of anger. Anger is your subconscious will to react about something. When you can ‘defeat’ something in your mind, your rage throbs.

But there are a few things people have no idea about what to do to solve them, there, the rage cannot ‘flow’ so freely and becomes a burden. A burden to solve and that rage energy turns into fear or anxiousness to find a solution.

All the techniques people throw at you like doing exercises when getting anxious or joining a group or writing the triggers down or leaving alcohol alone is not going to help if your mind can’t find an answer.

And no matter what answer you throw at it, the mind will not accept it. There is only one way you can handle your anxiousness and that is to forget about the problem itself.

But there is a method to it, personally, I think you will have to face your limitations in order to forget all about it.

For example, if you are afraid about burglars getting inside your house and murdering your whole family and you have no idea what you can do about this scenario.

Because no matter what solutions you throw at it, the mind vetoes it and makes the problem capable to digest your solutions.

Then at that point you will have to talk yourself down and tell your mind that there are only a couple of logical ways you can do something about this issue, like calling cops and hiding with your family somewhere safe till they arrive.

And even if that is not enough, then accept your demise.

Yeah, I know it sucks and feels like shit at first but unless you accept your limitations, your mind will have a hold of you. The longer you fight, the longer you want to do something about it, the longer your mind has a hold of you.

Accept your final fate no matter what it is, believe in your logical solutions and from that moment on, every time you get an anxiety attack, you stare at your wall. Yeah, crazy, I know, but just do it. Stare at whatever inanimate object is before you and look at it like you never saw that thing before.

Don’t think, don’t feel, focus all your mind and will at that wall before you.

By the passing days, your memory about that problem will start to fade away as well as you will start to be free from the burden to “do something”. Keep doing it and it will make some dent in your problems. I assure you.

This should take care of most anxiety issues.

Conclusion –

Anxiety disorder is a serious issue, professionals have a tough time handling it, so before listening to some guy over the internet. Consult your doctor first. Anyway, hope we helped you in some way.

And as always, good luck.