How to Know It’s Chronic Anxiety and What to Do Now

Navigating anxiety can be a daunting and isolating experience, fraught with uncertainty, distress, and overwhelming fear. Anxiety can manifest as a persistent and all-encompassing force that disrupts our daily lives and shrouds our thoughts in a veil of unease. Distinguishing between occasional bouts of anxiety and chronic anxiety can be challenging.

Today, we discuss how to recognize the signs of chronic anxiety, unravel the underlying causes, and empower ourselves with practical tools and strategies to navigate the labyrinth of anxiety with resilience and grace.

How to Know It’s Chronic Anxiety

We all worry now and then. Sometimes we get nervous as we anticipate a major event (either good or bad). Even just having a change in our daily routine or commute can cause us stress and anxiety. Travel, sickness, or relationship challenges can make us tense. Sometimes even just mounting household and work nuisances lead us to feel a little overwhelmed. But some of us experience anxiety almost constantly, and in a much more intense way. Chronic anxiety can cause issues beyond the discomfort of the anxiety itself.

For example, having too many stress hormones in our bodies can damage our hearts. Chronic anxiety can also compromise our immune systems and make us more vulnerable to illness. If our anxiety is out of control, it’s important for us to realize it. And to do all we can to manage it.

How to Know You Have Chronic Anxiety

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between typical stress and chronic anxiety. But it’s important to try. Because chronic anxiety warrants focused care. Here are a few “red flags” that may mean you are experiencing chronic anxiety:

• Being so anxious everyday tasks become difficult.
• Having trouble concentrating or making decisions.
• Thinking repetitive thoughts.
• Worrying about our own anxiousness.
• Feeling fatigue, headache, depression, nausea, irritability, exhaustion, or grief.
• Experiencing shortness of breath, chronic heartburn or indigestion. (In fact, sometimes irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be diagnosed as a result of symptoms associated with chronic anxiety.)
• Regularly experiencing anxiousness that results in suffering or pain as opposed to excitement.

Chronic Anxiety and Other Anxiety Disorders

If someone is chronically anxious, they may have an anxiety disorder. Some anxiety disorders are triggered by events or circumstances. For example, social anxiety disorder is often associated with engaging with other people.

Those who suffer from it often believe they are being judged and can become very self-conscious in everyday interactions. Some people feel intense fear as a reaction to a certain stimulus. For example, some experience fear of flying, heights, snakes, insects or a certain type of animal. This type of anxiety is known as a phobia.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is another mental health disorder that effects many who suffer from anxiety.

OCD usually focuses on a particular obsession, such as cleanliness, or timeliness, or order. The anxiety associated with the condition only relieved by performing a certain act (compulsion), such as hand washing, checking and re-checking the stove, etc.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a condition that often has no clear cause. People with GAD feel unexplained, intense feelings of fear, worry or tension. These feelings may overwhelm and debilitate them.

The feelings can be so intense that they result in physical effects and illness. Sufferers may begin to doubt themselves and their feelings. And this compounds their stress even more. This reinforces and facilitates the damaging cycle of chronic anxiety.

What To Do If You Are Experiencing an Anxiety Disorder

If you think you’re experiencing an anxiety disorder, seek professional help. Reach out to a physician, therapist, or other qualified person to determine the best treatment plan for you. In addition, keep in mind these lifestyle choices and attitude considerations we can make to help manage our chronic anxiety:

• Spend more time in natural light and sunlight.
• Exercise regularly.
• Reduce exposure to screens and social media.
• Drink chamomile tea and lots of water.
• Drink fewer caffeinated and alcoholic drinks.
• Reduce intake of sweets.
• Above all, be kind to yourself. You are going through a difficult time but never doubt your self-worth and value.

There’s also something we can do to cope in the moment, when bad feelings are peaking and we crave instant relief.

In these situations, one of the most powerful things we can do is to concentrate on changing our thinking. Some suggestions for thoughts to focus on are:

• I’ve done this before. I can do this again
• In this moment, nothing is threatening me.
• I feel anxious. It’s a feeling. Feelings come and go. This will pass.
• Right now, I’m safe.
• I can learn from this experience.
• I can take things as slowly as I need to.
• Any feelings are okay to have.
• Thoughts are only thoughts.
• I can stop and take a deep breath whenever I need to.

Are there other coping statements you use based on your own prior experiences? Add them to this list. Keep the list handy when and if you feel anxiety beginning to cloud your mind. This blog post is not medical advice. If you think you may suffer from chronic anxiety, seek help from a medical professional.

For more suggestions, visit 7 Anxiety Self-Care Tips: How to Recover Now.

Thank you as always for reading.

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KindCompassCoach

Joan Senio is the founder of Kindness-Compassion-and-Coaching.com.  Joan’s career includes clinical healthcare plus 20+ years as an executive in a nationwide health care system and 15 years as a consultant. The common threads throughout Joan’s personal and professional life are a commitment to non-profit organizations, mental health, compassionate coaching, professional development and servant leadership. She is a certified Neuroscience Coach, member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is also a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me. You can read more about Joan here: Joan Senio.