HOW TO DEAL WITH ANXIETY - What is anxiety? (Also known as ‘anxiety disorder’)

Anxiety can be the fear of losing something you want, or the fear of encountering something you don’t want (like having to speak to someone you dislike). We might experience fear of loss - losing everything we’re looking for, but we might feel worried or afraid of encountering events we want to avoid too. These strong reactions actually form two opposite poles. We can experience fear in any area of our lives, and during unsettling encounters our ‘fight or flight’ response kicks in as a form of survival.

If we have an unrealistic expectation that people are always good (never bad), and always kind (never rude), they will inevitably let us down. We create a fantasy where the fear of ‘losing’ or feeling disappointed grows.

In daily life, we might encounter new events that lead to physical or mental strain, caused by the feeling of fear created by the amygdala, impulsively. Feelings of worry, anxiety and stress are perfectly normal. It’s when we give meaning to these emotions, and view them as worse than they are, that the imbalance occurs in our unconsciousness. As this one-sided point of view intensifies, it creates anxiety disorder, and symptoms of anxiety appear in our conscious.

What are the symptoms of anxiety?
Symptoms of anxiety are seen in people who react more intensely to events, experiencing intense fear and worry. Stressful life experiences can also increase your risk of anxiety disorder, with symptoms beginning immediately after an event, or sometimes years later. If you have a serious medical condition or substance abuse issues, you’re also more likely to experience anxiety. As time passes, it has a greater effect on the occurrence of psychological and physiological disorders.

According to studies, it’s been found that 13 different types of anxiety disorder are experienced by 20% of society. Anxiety disorder, which affects the central nervous system, can cause long-term anxiety and panic attacks, as your brain regularly releases stress hormones. This can increase the likelihood of symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and depression.

When you feel anxious and stressed, your brain floods your nervous system with the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, designed to help you respond to a threat. While beneficial for the occasional high-stress event, prolonged exposure to stress hormones can be harmful to your physical health (for example, prolonged exposure to cortisol can contribute to weight gain).

Untreated disintegration of anxiety, panic, and sense of self over many years can lead to schizophrenia, which is difficult to treat. In schizophrenia, excessive dopamine activity is observed in the subcortical structures of the brain, while decreased dopamine activity is observed in the prefrontal cortical structures.

Anxiety disorder can manifest in many different forms. It can cause all sorts of ailments, from shortness of breath and heart rate changes, to panic attacks, headaches and insomnia. It can also cause mental distortions and thought disorders, which are very serious.

Can you cope with anxiety using alternative methods?
Once you understand how the anxiety response is connected to the mind, body, and spirit, you’ll find that it’s open to change. The first principle is to know that the soul offers the deepest level of control over anxiety and stress. There’s a level of the mind that transcends the ups and downs of daily life. This is where you need to reach, through meditation, for uninterrupted peace and serenity. Once you become accustomed to finding your spiritual core, you’ll find that the effects of anxiety-filled moments are greatly diminished. Fear is overcome by the part of the mind that has learned to face it. Anxiety is multidimensional, but so are you. Our many dimensions give us the ability to build emotional resilience, develop new responses, learn from others, and find the core in ourselves that fear can’t disturb.

Anxiety disorder creates an imbalance in our nervous system. We need to activate the vagus nerve, which stimulates our parasympathetic system, to bring ourselves back to a balanced and decision-making structure.

There are alternative methods that support clinical treatment and activate the relaxation mechanism in the body by stimulating the vagus nerve. Here are some of the different things you can try:

• Meditation: People with anxiety disorders are generally detached from themselves, unable to maintain a balance in their minds, and have poor concentration. Taking a break from the hustle and bustle of our lives and meditating for 20 minutes each morning and evening stabilises our minds by allowing us to return to ourselves. Close your eyes to relax your mind and begin meditation. Take a few deep breaths, starting in the abdomen and working your way up to the chest. Bring your awareness to the calm of your heart area until the anxiety begins to subside. The most effective thing about practicing meditation is that it becomes much easier to breathe, to centre yourself, and to let stress and anxiety go away.

• Acupuncture: Acupuncture treatment, which is applied by placing needles on certain pressure points in the body, has been shown to be effective against anxiety. By affecting the nervous system, it activates the body's natural self-healing system and makes us feel more balanced. It also slows down the production of stress hormones. When the condition of patients who received acupuncture treatment alongside other treatments was assessed, it showed their anxiety disorder had decreased more than patients who had not received acupuncture.

• Hypnotherapy: In addition to psychotherapy methods applied in the treatment of anxiety and to increase the effect of drug treatment, hypnotherapy with hypnosis can be used. During hypnosis, we go through several processes that relax our brain and increase the focus of our mind. As we go through these processes, it becomes easier to focus on our subconscious and explore deeper problems. Hypnotherapy treatment can usually be used as a complementary treatment to prevent anxiety attacks such as shortness of breath, change in heartbeat and muscle contraction caused by anxiety and fear.

• Yoga: Research shows that yoga, which connects the mind and body, can be used to counteract the effects of anxiety disorders such as stress and sadness, and to alleviate low moods. This is due to the asanas, breathing exercises, and pranayama practices involved. As a result of the research, it was noted that the stress and anxiety levels of those who practiced yoga for three hours a week (in addition to clinical anxiety treatment) were reduced.

• Relaxation Techniques: In addition to yoga and meditation, breathing exercises, consciousness transformation and awareness exercises help shape our thoughts and enable us to reach a balanced mind. By watching our breath during breathing exercises, scanning the tense points in our body, and directing our breath there, we can discover awareness in our mind-body connection. When we gain the ability to look at the dreams we’ve designed in our minds, instead of looking at them from one side, we’ll have a realistic perspective instead of worrying about our future. All these practices, which help both our mental development and physical relaxation, increase the efficiency of anxiety disorder treatments.

How to cope with anxiety using correct breathing techniques:
There’s no single technique that we can call ‘correct’ breathing. Everyone has a breathing habit. The important thing is to acknowledge this breathing habit and to apply breathing techniques that will eliminate it.

If you have functional breathing that can take any type of breath, and your breathing habits are flexible in your body, it’s healthy breathing.

Regular breathing exercises increase the amount of oxygen going to our brain, allowing the brain to work better, learn more easily and concentrate better. They also help us move forward in our social or professional lives, as they support the strengthening of our memory and the development of our mind.

It’s medically known that dysfunctional breathing habits trigger anxiety disorder symptoms, increase anxiety attacks and make them permanent. By balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems with regular breathing exercises, you can be completely free from anxiety. At the same time, breathing exercises eliminate stress, so you can increase your quality of life while providing your emotional balance.

Download the Breath hub app to explore hundreds of breathing practices that will change your life and help you cope with anxiety. Take the Breath Analysis test to discover what’s right for you and start practicing right away.