Nov 2009 - Signpost Magazine

Thoughts on Stress and
Anxiety By Dr. Suzanne Scott
A
healthy level of anxiety
enables us to survive.
It is appropriate to
be anxious about being run
over, so we check each way
before we cross the road. To
be anxious about our children
and their health and welfare,
prompts us to make sure they
are safe and cared for. Being
anxious because we are
told by the media or other
that we ‘should’ worry about
something, is not appropriate
unless we have judged for
ourselves that a risk exists.
Levels of anxiety are
idiosyncratic. That is, each of us
experiences anxiety in our own way
and at various levels according to
the threats we think we are facing.
Then we choose to act in ways that
decrease our specific anxieties. We
can choose to be anxious and do
nothing, or cope in ways we have
used before. More productively,
we can choose to find a new
behaviour.
Anxiety is a ‘learned’ behaviour.
An initial event which causes
26 Signpost Community Magazine - November 2009
emotional pain creates a memory,
and we become anxious or ‘worried’
about the possible re-occurence of
such (or similar) events, which will
cause further pain. It raises general
anxiety levels. Sometimes, long after
the trauma, levels of anxiety remain
very high. The individual may have
a problem with ‘generalised anxiety.’
They have become anxious and
can’t get rid of that feeling. If no
specific problem can be identified,
then it may also be called ‘freefloating’
anxiety simply because the
‘blame’ cannot be attributed to any
particular event. This is the most
common type of anxiety. If you ask
someone what they are concerned
about, they may cite lists of all the
things they feel they ‘must’ worry
about, but not anything specific.
Anxiety is a physically active
behaviour with increased vigilance
about possible threats from the
outside world. (This is in contrast
to depression, which is a slowing
down of mind and body in a grey
and hopeless world.) As anxiety
increases we go ‘on alert.’ Because
the physical body is affected,
the system is
geared to ‘fight
or flight’ and
normal body
processes
become less
functional. The
gut becomes
tense and tight,
and breathing becomes shallow
and rapid. Therefore our digestion
is impaired and oxygen take-up is
less. In extreme anxiety or fear,
such as a panic attack, breathing
can become quite difficult. The
ability to think through a problem
is also less sharp. It is quite normal
to ‘lose’ memories temporarily.
Individuals tend to maintain a
‘set-point’ of anxiety, or a familiar
level of anxiety according to their
self-image, somewhere between
‘a person who worries a lot’ or ‘a
person who is not very worried
about anything.’ That self-image,
reinforced by the opinions of
others around them, determines
how they expect themselves to
react when faced with a dilemma.
Someone with a history and a
reputation of being hysterical in
a given situation, will be hysterical
in that event, because they and
everyone else, expects that will be
their reaction. Someone ‘known’
to be level-headed, will strive to be
calm because it is what they and
others, expect. Take the time to
consider your attitude to past events
that upset you, then consider if you
made your own decisions about
acting, or were you influenced by
others?
A healthy (and skeptical?)
attitude to the choices in life is also
paramount. Everywhere you go,
you are faced with multiple choices
of every type of item that you
want. You have to stop and think
about every minor difference in
order to make a selection. Consider
the tension that this creates, then
consider the ‘clutter’ this causes in
your mind. These minor decisions
are often so numerous that major
considerations get sidelined,
and something that could be an
improvement in your life goes past
unremarked and forgotten.
We are bombarded every day
by negative, anxiety-provoking
messages from news services,
government agencies, scientific
organisations, community services,
and individuals who like to spread
doom and gloom. The water crisis,
global warming, famine, violence,
wars, and fire danger are only a
few of the unwelcome, nagging
messages that have appeared
in every form of media and
communication.
These messages do serve a
positive function in changing our
behaviours when we perceive that it
is in our best interests to re-organise
how we approach problems. When
we re-organise our behaviours we
reduce our anxiety because we are
actively addressing what we think
we can fix. We act in ways that calm
down feelings of powerlessness,
reduce negative thoughts, slow
heart rates, and generally help us
to focus on a problem while it is
necessary, then be able to shift
focus onto the next concern.
Unfortunately, when we are
plagued by continual negative
messages anxiety increases