Is anxiety normal?

Anxiety is a normal human emotion.

It can affect anyone at any stage of their life. Including me!

Anxiety is designed to keep our body safe from harm. Feeling anxious occurs in response to realistically anticipating danger and is therefore a survival instinct.

In the photo below you can see I feel anxious holding a pet snake (be careful trying this).

Behavioural, physical, cognitive and emotional reactions occur in response to me holding the snake.

This is called the fight or flight response. I felt anxious holding the snake and wanted to get out of there!

Anxiety is very similar to fear, except with anxiety there is no real danger necessarily. Someone may think they are in danger, but in reality they are not. For example, feeling anxious about meeting new people.

Anxiety is an important emotion that is designed to keep us safe. However, for some people, their fight or flight response is activated even when there is no real danger.

Clinical anxiety is sometimes diagnosed when someone struggles to function appropriately in their daily life due to the frequency and severity of their anxiety symptoms.

A recent meta-analysis found that cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a moderately efficacious treatment for anxiety disorders when compared to placebo (Carpenter et al., 2018).

Psychologist Jen employs CBT when working with individuals with anxiety.

Book an appointment online today via the 'Book Online' page above.

References:

Carpenter, J. K., Andrews, L. A., Witcraft, S. M., Powers, M. B., Smits, J. A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018). Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders: A meta‐analysis of randomized placebo‐controlled trials. Depression and anxiety, 35(6), 502-514.

Centre for Clinical Interventions, 2020. Retieved from: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/For-Clinicians Retrieval date: 30.12.2020.