4 strategies for dealing with anxiety: fear of the unknown

In fact, some degree of anxiety can be beneficial to your life. It can lead you to take better care of your health, motivate yourself to prepare better and perform better. Concern for the opinion of others can prevent you from behaving inappropriately, obeying social norms and conventions and motivate you to fit in and be accepted.

What are anxiety and fear?

What provokes fear are real and identifiable situations: faced with a threat, fear prepares you to face and defend yourself from imminent dangers. For François Lelord and Christophe André, psychiatrists and psychotherapists, the most frequent fears in adults are: animals (rats, snakes, insects – 22%), heights (20.4%), blood (13.9%) and enclosed spaces (11.4%). What creates anxiety is undefined and vague (feels a butterfly in the stomach or uneasiness whenever he is in expectation, uncertainty, or faced with the need to do something out of the ordinary). In anxiety there is an anticipation of a problem that may not occur, often accompanied by doomsday scenarios, fuelled by media reports of all manner of accidents, misfortune (banks going bankrupt, temporary, scarce and badly paid jobs) and a general climate of distrust in institutions and people. In this sense, anxiety is the fear of what is not known, it is a preparation for dealing with an indeterminate and all-encompassing threat. It often paralyses and leads to avoiding relationships with other people for fear of judgement and criticism; having high standards of perfection in performance to avoid any negative judgement; putting off what has to be done (procrastination) or being distracted by anything that does not make one think much – watching television series for several hours, not missing any sports matches, or even intensifying physical exercise daily or with high frequency.

What faces does anxiety have?

For the neuroscientist Giovanni Frazetto, the “anxiety is fear in search of a reason”. And in the search for that reason, one finds some manifestations:

• Fear of social situations or public spaces;
• Performance anxiety, very common with demanding and competitive standards;
• Panic attacks, obsessions-compulsions, which encourage one to persist, repetitively and endlessly, in certain thoughts, or to act in an inflexible way to get rid of the fear: compulsively tidying or cleaning the environment because one feels afraid of an attack of viruses or bacteria.

How to deal with the motiveless fear called anxiety?

Deb Dana, psychotherapist and complex trauma specialist, invites her clients to be aware of what precedes feeling numb, agitated and what they do to overcome these states or keep themselves safe. For some it can be overwhelming to find themselves facing constant demands that they cannot cope with (work, family, social, etc); feeling ignored, hearing dramatic news, having chronic pain, conflicts at work, to-do list, noise, deadlines, social media news (posts), etc.

4 ways to deal with anxiety

1. React

The more paralysed you feel, the more important it is to react, sometimes performing basic activities such as: sleeping, praying, crying, meditating, a hot bath, a massage, talking or just being accompanied, receiving a hug, writing, walking, etc.

2. Act

To calm the agitation you feel, it helps to run, de-clutter, tidy up, plan, run, sing, dance, have a cup of tea, etc. According to psychologist William James, what matters is acting differently. If whistling helps, then… whistle!

3. Find alternatives

Sleep hygiene is fundamental and clarity of thought is important to unravel the labyrinths of life. It is often important to resort to medication as a way of regulating anxiety. However, according to the information available, There is no medicine that eliminates the origin and what maintains anxiety. To do this, one must lose the fear, learning to deal with anxiety, not by avoiding situations, isolating oneself or withdrawing from life, but by resorting to other solutions. Psychotherapy heals the mind through a relationship nurtured by conversation – it goes beyond an intellectual and emotional exchange. Through the evocation of memories or themes, it discovers meanings, finds relief and allows us to direct our attention towards other possibilities, meanings, perspectives on action and relationships. For neuroscientist Giovanni Frazzeto, this process directly affects our brain. There are data that associate changes in the brain, through the production of new connections between nerve cells, during and after therapeutic processe

4. Relate and find security

It calms him down to go for a walk in nature, do some gardening, go to the beach, bathe in the sea, play with children or animals, feel useful by contributing to some social cause, participating in tertulias, have quality time with family, friends, partner, etc. The greatest security comes from loving, paying attention and listening to others, discovering what interests them and makes them happy. But to feel secure you need to have been loved or to feel loved. A child once said: when my father is driving I am not afraid, I know I am safe. It helps tremendously to have faith in life and love, in a higher power. Whether you have faith or not, discover the security to deal with this undefined and unknown monster called anxiety, by doing as St. Augustine said: