Anxiety
Feeling unable to breathe in a crowded place? Panicked by sudden changes? Having difficulty making new friends? These all point to one thing: Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of distress or worry. It may be about what is happening or might happen in the future. It is perfectly normal to feel a little anxiety at some point in your life. However, if allowed to grow out of control, then anxiety will make your mind feel paralysed leaving you trapped in your own thoughts. It may become physical through panic attacks or vomiting.
What causes Anxiety?
Anxiety is part of our human instincts that we have had since we were cavemen that protected us from threats such as wild animal attacks. Now we are more evolved, what threatens us has now changed. The threats that cause our anxiety today are: new changes in our lives, failure, interacting with others and sensory emotional overload. Before you can deal with these threats, you have to understand what your triggers are.
Understanding your Triggers
The key to managing Anxiety is understanding what triggers it. Triggers are negative reactions such anger, fear, frustration, sadness, tiredness or hunger which are how we react towards what is threatening us and this causes us to experience emotions that autistic people struggle to understand. If you can understand what is triggering you, you can work out what strategies will work to help you manage your anxiety.
How do you manage Anxiety?
Anxiety can be managed by first working out which threat is causing your anxiety and then trying the different strategies that are given to you below based on each cause of anxiety.