Meeting Your Needs: The Best Way To Overcome Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common and prevalent psychological problems in our population. Specifically, they are the second most common disorder, behind the use of substances such as smoking and alcoholism. This indicates that we should not ignore its importance. It is necessary to apply the best strategies and resources to overcome anxiety when it arises.
Given its incidence and importance in the population, we will try in this article to identify how anxiety is linked to one of its main risk factors: neglecting personal needs or relegating them to the bottom floors of our priority scale.
Anxiety is a destination with several accesses
We are currently in a period where anxiety is far too pathological. We forget that more than a disorder it is an alarm system: one of the ways our body and mind use to warn us that something is wrong.
To make it excessively pathological, we have imagined an infinity of treatments to overcome anxiety. But most of them have one big flaw: they only treat the symptoms, leaving aside the cause and what keeps it going. This type of symptomatic treatment fails because it does not attack the causes of the anxiety, but focuses on the manifestations of it.
This emotional state does not result from a single cause. Among the most common is stress over time or the feeling that there is a significant difference between our “ideal self” and our “real self “. In other words, if the difference between the type of life I have and the type of life I want is seen as too big or overwhelming, anxiety can arise.
Simply put, one of the most common causes of anxiety is not meeting our personal needs. If for an extended period of time we live our life on autopilot without creating the present we want, a red flag will arise in our psychological system: anxiety.
When a person does not take care of their needs – more time for themselves, more free time, less contact with people around them or less work or household load – they expose themselves daily to a hostile, uncomfortable and unsatisfactory environment. These negative feelings sustained over time cause anxiety.
It’s okay to make sacrifices and indulge in obligations we don’t want. But if it becomes the normal way of life, we have a problem. When this way of working is adopted over and over, when the needs of everyone as an individual are not being met, our mind has a way of telling us that we are not doing well. Our mind can tell us that this is the wrong path, that our life is not fulfilling, and that we need to make changes. To solicit our attention, it arouses anxiety.
Anxiety is activated when your “inner compass” cannot find north
When a person begins to have symptoms of anxiety – tachycardia, dizziness, sweating or feeling out of touch with reality, etc. – what is done in therapy is to reduce these symptoms. This approach is correct, but insufficient in the long run. If this emotional state is maintained over time, it is because something is nourishing it. This something can be what generated it or something else. Either way, as long as we don’t intervene at this level, it will continue to cause damage.
Anxiety is an alarm system that alerts us to make changes. These changes depend on the person in question. In some cases they may be related to work, in others to life as a couple, family relationships, children, etc. In this sense, each case is unique and specific, but the great majority of cases have in common the sacrifice of personal needs or values.
How to overcome anxiety
To overcome anxiety, you need to do personal work to improve your emotional knowledge, cultivating your own values and needs. In the short term, it is good for anxiety treatment to focus on its symptoms, but it is not enough. At the root of most anxiety disorders is a lack of life satisfaction. For this reason, if anxiety therapy does not focus on creating a new life plan, the anxiety will be temporarily blocked but the underlying problem will continue to exist.
The first step is to go to therapy. It sounds very easy or obvious, but it is the most common mistake people make: trying to solve a problem that requires specialized professional attention, on their own and on their own. Effective treatment begins with addressing the symptoms of anxiety, so that later on the person is able to set goals and make changes in their life that allow them to satisfy deeper desires.
Once the most debilitating symptoms of anxiety are under control, for the overcoming to be total, you have to work on your personal development. In this job, it is very important to learn to devote time and space. It is a difficult path, perhaps, because the person is asked to answer questions that they have never asked themselves. For example: what do I want, what do I need? What do I want?
Asking yourself these questions and having the help of a psychologist paves the way for overcoming anxiety. If you are suffering from such a disorder, take the step, seek help, and start listening to your deepest wants and needs. It is the most effective way to start a new life, free, without anxiety.
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