Before and After Anxiety

Anxiety is more than just feeling stressed or worried. It is normal for all of us to feel anxious from time to time. But when anxious feelings don’t go away, or if they happen for no apparent reason, or if they are severe enough to make it hard for us to cope with daily life, then we may have an anxiety condition.

Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Australia (and probably the rest of the world). In any one year, over 2 million of us will have anxiety. On average, one in four people – one in three women and one in five men – will experience anxiety at some stage in their life.^[1]

That is a lot of people, walking around, every day, with a serious condition that makes it hard for them to cope with daily life – including at times, many of us.

What are the symptoms of anxiety?

The symptoms of anxiety can develop gradually over time. Given that we all experience some anxiety, it can be hard to know how much is too much. In order to be diagnosed with anxiety, the condition must have a disabling impact on the person’s life.
There are many types of anxiety. While the symptoms for each type are different, some general signs and symptoms include:

feeling very worried or anxious most of the time
finding it difficult to calm down
feeling overwhelmed or frightened by sudden feelings of intense panic/anxiety
experiencing recurring thoughts that cause anxiety, but may seem silly to others
avoiding situations or things which cause anxiety (e.g. social events or crowded places)
experiencing ongoing difficulties (e.g. nightmares/flashbacks) after a traumatic event.^[1]

Can you treat anxiety?

There are many ways to manage anxiety and the sooner people with anxiety get support, the more likely they are to recover. But there is no one-size-fits-all treatment or guaranteed cure.
The beyondblue website has A Guide to what works for Anxiety, which lists:

25 types of psychological intervention
17 types of medical intervention (drugs and surgery)
16 types of complementary medicine
71 interventions that were reviewed but no evidence was found.^[2]

This suggests that while there are many treatments that may help relieve or manage anxiety, we don’t have all the answers when it comes to managing this common but serious health condition.

Is there another way?

What if there were another way to look at anxiety? What if it is the underlying dis-ease that we all experience when we live separated from the truth of who we are? What if we all feel anxious when we are not being true to ourselves, not expressing the truth of what we know, not living connected with our essence, in constant communication with our Soul, and with the Universe we live in?

These articles offer real life stories of people who used to suffer from sometimes crippling anxiety and have found a way to not only manage it, but to live with a feeling of joy, vitality and ease in their bodies and beings, each and every day. May you be inspired to return to the truth of your living way and enjoy your birthright, which is to live at ease in your body in this world, in connection with your Soul.

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