Why do we feel anxiety and how does it become disabling?

We have all felt anxiety at some point in our lives; At the physiological level, it appears as an acceleration of the heart rate, sweating, agitation, nausea, sleep problems, among other symptoms.

But... what is it there for? What is the role it plays in our lives?

The reason for anxiety

It is easier to understand how anxiety works if we understand emotions as sensors that help us understand the environment, react appropriately and function successfully. In this way, unpleasant emotions will invite us to change paths, move away from what causes them or look for the error to carry out a new learning.

On the other hand, pleasant emotions show us which way to go and what things cause us pleasure/joy, so that we can repeat them in the future; They help us learn the behaviors, thoughts and ways of life that do work for us. As we can see from this brief description of emotions, all of them are important for our optimal development , including anxiety.

Anxiety is an emotion as valid and useful as any of the other emotions, it acts as a defensive mechanism. It warns us of a danger , putting our body on alert, mobilizing us to respond to a danger, allowing us to adapt to the situation thanks to the fact that we have all our senses focused on it and increasing our performance in those circumstances.

This anxiety is what we could call adaptive , since it makes it easier for us to adapt to the environment and bring out our full potential in certain situations of stress or danger.

The problem appears when that emotion appears without the danger itself being present, perceiving situations that are innocuous in principle as highly dangerous. This occurs when the mechanism by which it is activated is altered and begins to activate in a way that is disproportionate to the situation, on occasions that do not represent a real danger to the person and even paralyzes us, preventing us from being decisive and effective.

Possible causes

There are many factors that can predispose us to deregulate this mechanism. Among them are the following.

1. Biological factors

These are more related to the functioning of our nervous system and the production of certain neurotransmitters that interact in the activation of this alert system.

2. Factors resulting from learning

At birth we are a blank book and a large part of our behaviors, ways of reacting, understanding the world and our own emotions, and even thinking, have a lot to do with what we have learned in our environment. That is why it makes sense that, if in our family we tend to act anxiously in any situation, we can develop the same vision of life and way of reacting to different stimuli.

3. Environmental factors

If I am in an environment where any conversation, behavior or situation, that can lead me to a conflict, and it is normal that the system that regulates anxiety ends up altered.

In these cases, if we have remained for a long time in an environment that we perceive as dangerous , either at the level of physical integrity such as war or mental integrity such as a toxic relationship, it is common for our brain chemistry to be altered and, In addition, this saves a large number of anxious responses that we have learned as useful after these experiences, increasing the number of times that we will perceive a reality as dangerous and act from this vision.

To do?

There are several ways to reduce anxiety when it appears , some of them I invite you to practice if you need it from home. Here are some examples you can put into practice:

• Breathing techniques : these seek to reduce the rhythm of our breathing. For example, doing cycles where you take a breath in for a count of 5, hold that breath in for another 5 seconds, blow it out for a count of five again, and leave your lungs empty for another 5 seconds. This is just one of the many techniques you can do focused on the breath.
• Grounding method, focusing our attention on everything around us and removing the stimulus that causes anxiety from our focus of attention.
• Meditation .