Most people suffer from anxiety at some points in their lives. Even the most confident of people may get jittery onstage or when public speaking, and most of us get a little nervous when we meet new people for the first time. But for those with severe anxiety or nervous disorders, anxiety can be crushing. It can harm your life in every aspect: spiritual, emotional, and mental. Even physical!
People with severe anxiety may develop stomach problems or ulcers, headaches, and have panic attacks. A panic attack may feel like you can’t get enough air, having an irrational fear that you are going to die, or even having heart palpitations. Anxiety may make people avoid all sorts of situations where they know their anxiety may be triggered. Parties, public places, crowded places, or loud places are the most common types of locations to avoid for the severely anxious. If you suffer from severe anxiety, it can be embarrassing and difficult to seek help. But it’s absolutely necessary to seek the help of a professional!
A trained psychiatrist can talk to you and develop a strategy and a plan for overcoming your anxiety. The steps they come up with will be perfectly tailored to you. The plan to overcome anxiety will probably go something like this.
First, you must identify the factors that trigger the anxiety. What situations or people do you fear or avoid the most? Second, you must identify the negative thoughts you are having when you encounter that situation. Third, you need to step outside yourself and think rationally about whether those fears or negative thoughts are justified. For instance, let’s say that you avoid parties.
Your anxiety stems from the fact that you feel like when you walk in, everyone is staring at you and thinks you look stupid. Examine that emotion and decide if it is really rational. Does everyone really stop and look at you? Does anyone have a reason to judge you so harshly? Just realizing that your thoughts aren’t fully rational is the first step. Next, you need to confront your fear in small doses. Don’t start with a large party. Just practice walking up to a group of two or three people and joining the conversation.
You may not always succeed, but keep trying. Once you feel comfortable doing that, you can try larger groups of people. You may always feel a little nervous about the situation, but you can make it bearable.