What are the most common symptoms?

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Some of the most common symptoms are:

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• Difficulty breathing; (physical symptom)

• Feeling of suffocation; (physical symptom)

• Fear that the worst will happen; (psychological symptom)

• Fast heartbeat (tachycardia); (physical symptom)

• Tremors; (physical symptom)

• Feeling light-headed or dizzy; (physical symptom)

• Numbness or tingling sensations; (physical symptom)

• Fear of losing control; (psychological symptom)

• Nervousness; (psychological symptom)

• Inability to relax; (psychological symptom)

• Excessive sweating on the face, underarms, body or hands; (physical symptom)

 

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What is an anxiety attack?

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Contrary to what many believe, anxiety is a necessary factor for our development. It's what makes us leave our comfort zone to seek personal improvement and success in achieving our goals.

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An anxiety attack can be characterized by a state of fear, apprehension, expectation, malaise, discomfort, insecurity or strangeness of the environment or oneself. There is also that feeling that something unpleasant is about to happen, accompanied by pessimistic and catastrophic thoughts of the worst possible things.

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What does anxiety do to the body?

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Anxiety activates the mental system associated with defensive aggression and retraction, rather than using a mental system associated with approaching challenges. This causes our body to spend a lot of resources trying to resolve a situation that often has no imediate solution. When we insist on trying we'll wear ourselves out trying to solve a problem much bigger than ourselves. Think of a car that is accelerating at full throttle, with its foot on the brake. It's wasting resources that will be needed later, at a time when those resources are not being needed.

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Our body activates as if the stressor were in front of us and anxiety becomes virtually unavoidable. When this happens our body prepares for three things.To fight, to escape or Freeze. And it is exactly this preparation that makes us feel the most common symptoms of anxiety, as mentioned at the beginning of this article.

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How to control anxiety

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Today's trend is to search the internet for the quickest solution. Nothing replaces good psychological treatment. There are several tools to understand and modify our thoughts that a qualified practitioner can teach you. If we understand what's happening, we will be able to anticipate moments and thoughts that can result in anxiety, improving our ability to deal with these difficulties. But first, it's essential to undergo a psychological assessment to gather further information, and see whether these losses are actually caused by anxiety or some other unnoticed factor.

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From the simplest techniques to the most advanced, in my consultations, I see that acceptance that anxiety can/will happen is fundamental to feeling in control. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy we learn how to aproach these maladjusted thought patterns.

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In the representations below you can see a little of how the Cognitive Model may help.

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