Anxiety is a normal emotion, yet something serious to take into consideration. When you are feeling anxious and jitters are rushing through your body and mind, what should you do? In conversation with Ms Namrata Pradhan, a psychiatrist from Star hospital.


 

  1. What is anxiety?
  • Anxiety is a normal emotion. Any normal person can be anxious in a certain given situation whether it be, during an exam, interviews, or any other event. However, the problem is when your anxiety does not let you speak in front of other people, if you cannot even attempt to go for an examination or you just go blank every time, then that is an issue. If you keep on pushing back your emotions, and fear and you never accept the challenges that come your way, that is serious. 

 

  1. What does serious anxiety feel like? Does everyone experience the same kind of anxiety or do such emotions as well vary from person to person? 
  • Anxiety is not limited to just an anxious feeling. It does have physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms. Commonly, we tend to believe it’s only physical, like a high heartbeat, red face, shivering, sweating, overthinking, physical pain, and insomnia. The interesting fact is, that you might have experienced and heard the story of how students feel an urge to use the restroom frequently during exams, that is also because of anxiety. Some experience behaviour symptoms like they tend to speak faster, stutter, zone out during a conversation, and blackout, which might not be severe but that is anxiety. 

 

  1. Life is not easy for anyone. However, someone tends to suffer from anxiety while some of them handle the situation well. What might be the causes of anxiety?
  • Yes, that is a good question. Everyone should know that there cannot be only one spectrum for anxiety. Mental illness altogether never has one particular cause. There are biological, spiritual, psychological, and social causes. 
  • Gene comes to action in the biological cause, by which I mean, if the mother or father has an anxiety issue, there is a high chance that their children inherit the anxiety problem. Girls get more anxious during the menstrual cycle or even during menopause, so you can tell hormone plays a role too. The imbalance in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B12, vitamin D, and vitamin C can also be the cause of anxiety. 
  • The next is the psychological cause of which many of us might be aware. Relationship issues, friendship issues, parenting style, stress related to education or work, cognition status, and behaviours might be the Psychological cause of anxiety. 
  • Social causes can be another factor of anxiety. How others behave with you, how you are interacting with the environment and situations, how you are interacting with the people around you, financial crisis, social crisis, and how everything in your life is making you feel matters and contributes a lot to your mental health.
  • The spiritual causes touch a wide range of your being, directly or indirectly affecting your mental health. It is more about spirit: your ideology, culture, the relationship between you and your family, if the thought process is indifferent to your close ones, and if the tolerance level is unmatched with them, you get spiritually challenged developing anxiety. 
     
  1. Many people are unaware of the reason for their anxiety issues. Why is it so?
  • When we ask or get asked, about the reason for anxiety, we just focus on the feeling and emotions. The other causes that we just talked about get neglected. Maybe it is because of biological reasons, which of course one can never tell. 

 

  1. People want to find a way out to a peaceful mind, peaceful night, and sound sleep. Google says to meditate and exercise breathing techniques. However, while one is anxious, it is quite not practical to do so at that moment. What can be the quick solution at home?
  • Let me tell you one theory. Suppose, you have a job interview and you go there without any practice. Will you be able to give the right answers and make a good impression? Probably not! You have to practice at home beforehand. Similar is the case for anxiety issues. In your normal state, if you are regular with breathing exercises, meditation, and mindfulness techniques, there are high chances for you to be able to practice them even in your mental crisis. Self-care should be daily and not only when you are super anxious, especially if you are someone who suffers from anxiety problems. 
  • Rule no. 1: Practice self-care when everything is okay.
  • Rule no. 2: When you are anxious, take a glass of water and go to an open place at home. It can also be a window. Take a deep breath (5-7 times), inhale from your nose and exhale from your mouth and sip water. That way, the physiological responses are downscale. 
     
  1. What do you suggest for everyone who is having such anxiety issues? Can visiting a psychiatrist be the first option?
  • If the anxiety is getting severe enough to hinder day-to-day activities, you must visit a doctor. I don’t suggest you wait until it gets severe. If the cause is social, counselling might help. But, if it is a biological cause, you must visit a psychiatrist and go for treatment. If you keep on waiting or procrastinating, the mild one might turn into a severe disorder.