What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a common life experience for so many people, but what exactly is anxiety? When referred to in a counseling setting, anxiety means a variety of symptoms centered around someone feeling intense worry, dread, or fear, and having these feelings interfere in significant ways with their ability to function in daily life.

There are several different classifications of anxiety that affect people in Flower Mound. Anxiety usually involves a combination of mental and emotional symptoms such as rumination, worry, hypervigilance, and irritability. It also causes physical symptoms like racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, headaches, insomnia, and fatigue. The anxiety can be a generalized worry and fear about everything, which is commonly referred to as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), or it might be confined to more specific scenarios.

Some individuals struggle specifically with social anxiety, where they have an exaggerated fear of rejection, ridicule or interacting with other people. This can have drastic consequences for one’s ability to live a normal life, leading to social isolation, difficulty with work or school and relationship issues. Still others might deal with excessive fear or worry, commonly called a phobia, that centers around a specific topic.

Common phobias that can be disruptive to daily life include fearing open spaces (agoraphobia), fearing driving, or experiencing health anxiety. Often an individual who struggles with one type of anxiety can see it escalate into panic attacks, a physical experience of complete overwhelm that seems “out of the blue.” This experience often leads to the individual feeling anxious and fearful about the possibility of experiencing another panic attack, which can, ironically, perpetuate the problem.

Anxiety is a complex interplay of genetics and response to life experiences. In the last decade or so, the research about certain genetic factors has exploded, leading to a better understanding of how certain neurotransmitters can be influenced by genetic tendencies. These can make it more difficult for some people to process neurotransmitters like adrenaline, norepinephrine and epinephrine.

Those with a family history of anxiety are more likely to struggle with anxiety themselves. This knowledge, rather than being a sentence to suffering, can offer relief to those in Flower Mound who might see anxiety as a personal failing or lack of faith. Anxiety is not a moral issue. For many people it is simply their brain’s response to stimuli that then creates symptoms. It is treatable and does not have to ruin your life.

Almost 20 percent of the Flower Mound population deals with an anxiety disorder of some sort, making it the most common mental health concern. It’s most common for symptoms of anxiety to develop before age 21, but children and teens suffer from anxiety at a lower rate of about seven percent of the population.

Those who have a genetic predisposition to anxiety and also experience some type of developmental trauma are more likely to deal with severe anxiety symptoms as adults. This interplay of genetics and environment, called epigenetics, is a developing science, but the encouraging part of this work is that genetic predisposition is not a life sentence to suffering.

Neuroplasticity, or the knowledge that neural pathways and structures can be changed with concentrated work, provides hope for those that suffer from anxiety disorders. Research estimates that GAD has a heritability risk of about thirty percent, meaning that if you have a parent that deals with anxiety, your risk of also experiencing anxiety is about thirty percent higher than the average person.

Anxiety can develop while you are a child, but it’s also common for anxiety to develop after a traumatic experience or big life change. Anxiety can often be a part of other issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or postpartum anxiety (PPA). The same genetic factors that predispose people to anxiety can also make it more likely that they will deal with depressive disorder as adults. The reality is that anyone can deal with anxiety, there is no shame in this, and there is treatment regardless of your age or experience.

There is a wide variety of treatment available for anxiety. Talk therapy often utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as one of its core components. Treatment for anxiety can also focus heavily on learning tools like breathing and nervous system regulation to form a physical approach to anxiety.

Anxiety medications can be helpful as an adjunct to therapy. Talk to your doctor if this is something you think could be helpful. A licensed counselor at Flower Mound Christian Counseling can support you regardless of if you choose to pursue medication or not.

In addition to therapy and medication, alternative forms of treatment are becoming increasingly popular. These include things like yoga, exercise, and self-management strategies (for example, planning time to worry, managing media intake, etc.). For those who deal with anxiety as part of a more complex response to trauma, treatment like EMDR or brain-spotting can be exceptionally helpful for reducing distress.

For some Christians, experiencing anxiety can feel like a failure of faith. When they can’t stop worrying, the passage that exhorts, “do not be anxious about anything…” (Phillipians 4:6 NIV) can be used as proof that their anxiety is a lack of faith.

The truth is, that although Christians are called to continually cast all their anxieties on God because he cares for them (see 1 Peter 5:7), it doesn’t mean all their anxiety will miraculously disappear. For many people, anxiety is the “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:1-10) of which Paul speaks, a weakness that keeps them running back to God for help, rather than relying on their own strength.

Part of the Christian life is admitting our weaknesses to each other, seeking care, support and encouragement so that we can be strengthened. Seeking counseling or treatment for anxiety is not a spiritual failure, it is an admission of your humanity and a compassionate response to the part of you that is struggling.

The anxiety counselors at Flower Mound Christian Counseling are trained to give you tools to help you cope. Since a huge portion of anxiety is experienced as body sensations, focusing on creating safety signals for your nervous system to downgrade these sensations provides the framework to examine the beliefs underlying anxiety. If someone is panicking, the part of their brain that is capable of logical and coherent thought simply isn’t going to be functioning well.

Establishing safety through breathing, grounding exercises or other modalities is a huge part of managing anxiety and panic disorders and counseling provides a safe, contained space to practice these strategies. Once bodily safety is established then tools like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (usually used in the case of anxiety) can be used.

In the case of dealing with anxiety related to PTSD, a skilled counselor is even more important. They are trained to guide you through traumatic material without causing any more distress than necessary, while also facilitating healthy processing and allowing closure.

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(469) 333-6163

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Next steps

If you are suffering from anxiety we want you to know that you are not alone. Life does not have to be consumed by fear, worry, dread or panic. At Flower Mound Christian Counseling, we understand how hard it can be to admit that you need help, but we firmly believe that honesty about struggles leads to greater freedom. We are here, ready to walk with you so please reach out to schedule an appointment today.

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” (Proverbs 12:25 ESV)

Sources:

Anxiety disorders. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Anxiety-Disorders

Anxiety symptoms: Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. Anxiety Symptoms | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/generalized-anxiety-disorder-gad/symptoms

Gottschalk, M. G., & Domschke, K. (2017, June). Genetics of generalized anxiety disorder and related traits. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573560/

Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(469) 333-6163

Schedule an Appointment