Institute For Worry Causes : What Made Me So Worried and Anxious? Tell me quick.
Worry is a huge issue in our society. In excessive amounts it can subtract years from your life. It anticipates the worst, and suggests a need to be afraid of danger, trouble, or failure in the future. Constant worry becomes restlessness, fidgety behavior, and even agitation and hysteria. The real problem is worry does not solve problems. It only makes them worse.
Worry can cause stomach aches, headaches, ulcers, and even wrinkles because people who worry tend to frown more. Pressure makes our bodies tense and affects all body systems. You cannot relax your mind or your body when you feel overstressed and fearful. That is why worry problems cost so much, both financially and emotionally.
There are so many causes of anxiety and worry that even though we are going to talk about some of them, don’t you ever believe for a moment that you can exactly pinpoint why you are overcome with so much worry. It helps to understand a little about the causes but we will get to the point where we will be talking about what you are actually going to do about it.
I Was Scared Early On
Let’s face it, there are those of you who are exposed to situations and people early on that cause you to be more stressed than someone else who didn’t have that experience. Then later on in life when you are faced with even a reminder of that situation or that person or that thing, you again become tense and anxious. Children have fears such as fear of the dark, fear of storms, fear of animals, etc. They become anxious and seek reassurance from their parents. This reassurance and support must be given in order for the child to feel safe. Otherwise, a scared child becomes a scared adult. I can still remember when I was six years old and we lived on a farm. There was a rooster who decided to pick on me and whenever I would go outside, he would take a run at me. I was terrified. My brothers did not help by making a big deal out of this and trying to encourage the rooster. To this day I do not like roosters and would like to see all of them in a pot.
Here are a few of the fears which tend to bother children: dark, ghosts, clowns, dogs, rats, spiders, snakes, heights, doctors, loud noises, family arguments, dentists, elevators, escalators, germs, flying, holidays with characters such as Santa or the Easter Bunny. The list could go on the on. The most important thing to recognize is that children get frightened and they need to be told that it is OK to be fearful but nothing will be allowed to hurt them.
My Parents Made Me A Nervous Wreck
Anxiety and fears tend to run in families. When a child sees a parent pacing, agitated, and worried, it makes a huge impression. Anxiety is contagious and spreads easily in a family setting. We develop habits when we are young and they certainly are influenced by our early environment. Imaginary worries as a child can lead to obsessive worries as an adult. Yes, anxiety can be inherited as a trait passed on through generations. Negativity runs in families with a certainty that doom is just around the corner.
Life Events Did Me In
We would like to think that we can relax and be carefree but stressors enter all of our lives. There are things like divorce, death, job losses, moving, end of relationships, financial losses, changes in health, etc, which can definitely change our lives. If we do not have adequate time to adjust to life changes and take them in gradually, we may be overwhelmed and uncertain about our future. We saw with 911 that our lives can be changed in an instant by forces beyond our control. Same goes for fires, hurricanes, car crashes, physical injury and many more events which have a dramatic effect on how we will live our lives in the future. There are realistic things that do happen which bring on a large amount of worry and even panic, and rightly so. But no matter what happens to us during our lives-no matter how horrific- we simply must go on and live the life we have left. Life is precious so we have to learn to deal as best we can with very bad circumstances and find a way survive and thrive. If you do not think this is possible, read about people who survived concentration camps during WWII.
We cannot change our heredity or formative life experiences. We have to know these factors can cause us to have triggers which set off our tension and agitation. The real problem with worry is when we are worried and it causes us to live in a constant state of anxiety. And when that is due to unresolved problems in the past, we need to recognize what is really going on and stop ourselves from reacting as if the old stressor is happening right now.
If we can learn to use worry as a warning signal like a guage light on our car, we can formulate a plan on how to deal with it. Worry doesn’t help a whit. Working on a plan to work out of the worry does.
More to come.
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