Eps 121: you are terribly worried, aren't you
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Louis Miles
Podcast Content
The anxiety they experience before tests can be so intense it can hinder some peoples focus or performance. As their nervousness increases, their symptoms begin to worsen physically from anxiety. Experiencing symptoms like this is terrifying, so rather than realizing anxiety might be to blame, some peoples minds misinterpret those feelings and assume that something is wrong with them.
A person suffering from health anxiety might have experienced serious illnesses, and fears their worst experiences could happen again. Or, they may already suffer from a mental health disorder, and their hypochondria might be part of that. A person who has a health anxiety disorder may have experienced significant life stresses, or had a major medical illness in their childhood.
Health anxiety may actually have symptoms of its own, as the person might experience a tummyache, dizziness, or aches and pains from the crushing anxiety. Sometimes, health problems may disguise as anxiety or mimic its symptoms.
It can make us focus on the wrong things, twist facts, or jump to conclusions. Anxiety can come from unhelpful worries about many things that are ultimately unimportant. Sometimes, your anxiety can feel overwhelming and it is hard to shake. If you are feeling anxious enough that you cannot focus on studying, the anxiety is not helpful anymore.
If you alter how you think about social situations that cause you anxiety, you will feel and function better. One of the most useful things you can do for social anxiety is to confront the social situations that you are afraid of, instead of avoid them. While it might feel like you cannot do anything about the symptoms of social anxiety disorder or social phobia, in fact, there are a lot of things you can do that will help.
Depending on how bad the health anxiety is, trying strategies on your own may help, too. The next time you are feeling anxious, use one of your coping skills to reduce the level of worry you are feeling, and then review your list to see if anything you can do is listed. Make a list of all the things you can do to get ready for whatever you are worrying about. Focus on helping, then tackle the bigger questions when you are feeling calmer, or when you can take advice from a trusted colleague.
Do not treat your thoughts as reliable sources of information, particularly on things that are making you anxious. Remember, when you treat your mind that way, that does not mean that your mind is necessarily going to stop saying things like this. Even though you cannot prevent your mind from continuing to send you negative thoughts, it is ok, because thoughts are just thoughts.
When you name the feeling--by saying to yourself, I am anxious--you can start addressing it. When you get the idea that your anxiety is never going to improve, that is just the sound of it rattling around in your head. The feeling that you have when you are constantly worrying is called anxiety.
Like other situations where someone may experience performance anxiety, anxiety about tests may cause butterflies, a tummyache, or headaches. When feeling anxious, a direct task can easily feel overwhelming.
When you are feeling anxious, notice how your body reacts--what Rebecca Harley calls the early warning system for anxiety potentially taking hold. When we are in social situations that cause anxiety, many of us are inclined to become caught up in anxious thoughts and feelings. Although you might feel that you are the only person who has this problem, social anxiety is actually pretty common.
While test anxiety is not going to disappear overnight, facing and dealing with your test anxiety will help you learn stress management, which may turn out to be a valuable skill for a variety of situations beyond just taking tests. You may be able to understand how anxiety influences your behaviors and decisions, as well as what causes a spike, giving you the tools to handle it. It can be incredibly frightening to consider why you feel and think the way you do, but understanding why you experience anxiety will help lessen its negative effects in your life.
If you take everything your mind says seriously, pay too much attention to it, and trust your mind too much, it is a recipe for an anxiety disorder. Perhaps worst of all, when you try to tell it why you might not have to fear everything it says is going to happen, it calls you crazy, or stupid, or any number of other nasty names. The next time your mind starts spinning with reasons you need to feel anxiety about something, try reacting differently. Anxiety is like a red flag, telling you that something needs your attention.
Validating that the stress and anxiety are real, and those emotions may exacerbate symptoms--so pausing to check in later, if symptoms continue, may help to put off compulsive behaviors.