Anxiety

September 30 2020

Anxiety is a word you hear a lot but do you really understand it? 

For me it is the feeling I get when someone is being confrontational and aggressive with me. I start to feel my heart race and my hands start shaking and get clammy. I didn't know when I was younger that it was called the flight the flight response. I would also get it when I had to speak in front of anyone or anytime I was performing, which I just attributed it to me being shy as I always have been. But I now realize the correct name for it is social anxiety. You normally experience the fight or flight response when in danger, like when you get in a car wreck, but with anxiety it is only a perceived threat that has not yet happened. 

Your anxiety can convince you of a lot of things that feel real. I have always been a "worry wort" like others in my family. I feel like I have spent most of my life worrying. What I have come to realize is that, no matter how much you worry you can only control yourself not anyone or anything. Life is going to continue on whether you like it or not and no matter how prepared you think you are. You can't control the future just like you cannot control what happened in the past. Learning to deal with anxiety I have been interested in mindfulness and how that helps. Mindfulness teaches you to stay present and be aware of the present moment, not what will possibly happen in the future or what should have been said in the past. 

When my anxiety got really bad I would tell myself to 'fact check those feelings' to come back. My mind likes to go through what if's and leads me through many rabbit holes- not always positive. So since fact checking has become a big thing with all these conspiracy theories, I thought the words fit really nice. So next time you start getting anxious, remember to fact check 'em.