Let anxiety pass without making a fuss!
Almost everyone in Hong Kong today is busy and stressed out, all in pursuit of a happy, more comfortable life. People have their own specific purposes for busying themselves: simply to earn a living, to support his or her children, or to look toward a better quality of life. How about you? Have you thought about your own reasons for being busy?
Can anyone really live as a relaxed citizen of Hong Kong? The answer is a definite yes, for sure. But first we need to overcome the anxiety within ourselves.
Anxiety involves a kind of unfounded fear or uneasiness. A lack of control over future events easily arouses our anxieties, which makes us nervous, upset, worried or impatient. In addition, these feelings can often be manifested in a range of physical symptoms such as sweating, palpitation, trembling, breathing difficulties or restlessness. Delayed treatment may even lead to the development of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
The early symptoms of GAD are not immediately obvious. They usually appear as physiological symptoms like palpitations, excessive sweating, muscle tension and aches, dizziness, poor digestion, heavy breathing and diarrhoea. In fact, these are warning signals from our body that we need to properly take care of our mental state.
On the emotional side, people suffering from GAD usually develop a fear that is unsupported by reality, often expecting misfortune to happen at any moment. This kind of fear is normally out of proportion to the actual risk and may involve anything in daily life from trivial matters to big issues, including health, work, money, relationships, religion and personal safety. Family members and friends often find GAD patients annoying because of their frequent anxiety attacks, which are usually met with a simple - ‘Don’t worry’ from other people. But if these anxiety episodes are part of a larger illness, how can you expect them to stop without medical treatment?
Full recovery from GAD is usually achievable with proper treatment.
So now we come to the question: How can we prevent the development of excessive anxiety or GAD?
It’s not that hard. When you are agitated, try to reflect on why you are worried and whether you are blocking other alternatives or solutions to problems in your thoughts.
Here are some examples of destructive thinking or behaviour:
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Unrealistic fear: escalating things to a much more serious level
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Polarized thinking: seeing everything as black or white without considering other alternatives
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A negative attitude in life: prejudging things that will happen
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Being over-emotional: emotions override reason, which then hinders logical analyses
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Refusing to compromise: insisting on one solution to problems or one way of doing things without considering any flexibility
If the above types of thought processes or behaviours are prevalent in your life, you could try to actively develop a more optimistic outlook. The key lies in changing perspectives and attitudes.
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First, we need to be clear about what the problem actually is.
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Then, we should be aware of how we are comprehending or interpreting things at the moment – are we looking at a situation too negatively or are we being reasonable?
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Have a debate within yourself and identify the pessimism you are conveying.
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Finally, convince yourself to find a more optimistic resolution to a problem by reviewing the facts from a more logical and positive stand point.
Apart from feeding our optimism, we can also learn to ‘let go’. This does not necessarily imply looking only at the positive side of things, but you must be able to change from being inflexible or stubborn to having a more positive and optimistic mind set as well as a more temperate mood and mode of behaviour in order to let more ‘fresh air’ into what is bothering you at the moment.
The way we think affects how we carry on in life. Anxiety per se is not scary, but letting it grow and fester is. I do hope this article helps you live a more relaxed life. Although anxiety sometimes stops by for a visit, you can always choose to let it pass without making a fuss.
Dr Gary LEE Tin-Ho, Specialist in Psychiatry (Mental Health Photographic Society)
Suggestions given in this section are for reference only. The reader should seek medical or other professional advice before making any decision on the issue discussed.