"Having
been diagnosed with a very severe form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
at the age of 12, I had grown up thinking that anxiety was only present in my
life to hurt me. But once fully recovering from OCD, anxiety, and clinical
depression I started to study the mind, brain, and the real role of anxiety. In
studying what anxiety was I quickly realized that there are three main
myths associated with it."
Here are the 3 top myths associated with anxiety:
Myth #1 – Anxiety is bad
Anxiety is actually not bad at all. I am not suggesting that
when you are going through an anxiety attack that it feels good. It does not.
But anxiety is actually a defence mechanism created by the brain to tell you
that you have to take action in some way. Anxiety is like physical pain. No one
enjoys experiencing physical pain but it is created as a defence mechanism to
protect us.
Imagine if you broke your leg but did not have the ability to
feel the pain associated with the broken leg. You would continue to walk on
your leg until you permanently damaged it. Pain is a warning signal sent at
lighting fast speed from your brain to the troubled area as an alert to tell
you that something is wrong and that you have to take action. Anxiety is
identical. Anxiety is the brain’s way of sending your body a signal that you
have to take action. Anxiety will not make your leg hurt because it’s not
broken. So it has to find other ways to tell you that something is wrong. It
makes your heart beat faster, makes your hands sweat, makes you tremble, etc.
In other words, it gives you the “fight” or “flight” response.
What is actually happening is that the hypothalamus (a part of
your brain) is triggering the release of the “stress hormone” cortisol from
your adrenal glands in your kidneys. Cortisol is then distributed throughout
your body via the bloodstream and causes you to experience the above effects.
Imagine
that you were going for a walk and a huge alligator starts to slowly creep
towards you but you did not have the ability to feel anxiety. You would just
stay there until you became alligator food. Anxiety gives you that “fight” or
“flight” response by giving you an extra burst of energy (adrenaline rush),
elevates your heart beat, provides you with extra strength, and an overall
urgency that you have to take action (get the heck out of the way!). It’s a
good thing. It’s a defence mechanism that was created to keep us alive. But you
may be saying, “but Jeremy, I take anxiety attacks when I am completely safe”.
Yes, and that’s the second kind of anxiety. Many people believe that the
anxiety attack that occurs when they are completely safe is “needless” and that
it’s only there to hurt them and that they are cursed with anxiety.
But this is simply not the case.
It is
still present as a warning sign to tell you that you are doing things day by
day, month by month, year by year that is actually abusing your mind and body.
This is the way that it tells you that you have to take action which leads me
into Myth #2.
Myth #2 – Situations cause
anxiety
Situations
cannot cause anxiety. You may be surprised to hear me say that your kids, job,
spouse, or finances cannot stress you out. But it’s true. It’s never the
situation. It’s actually your psychological reaction to the situation. What is
your psychological reaction? I am referring to your thoughts.
Researchers
are telling us that we have on average approximately 60 000 thoughts a day. And
not only are the vast majority the same thoughts we had yesterday but they are
thoughts either dwelling on something negative in the past or fearing something
that could happen in the future. And because the brain cannot tell the
difference between something that is actually happening and when you think of
something, the brain reacts as if it is happening by triggering the “stress
hormone” (cortisol) to give you that “fight” or “flight” (anxiety) response.
If
situations caused anxiety, everyone would react to the same situation in the
same way. But we know that’s not the case. How can one person love to ride
roller coasters and one person fear it? Thoughts about situations cause
anxiety, not the situations themselves.
Until
we take full responsibility for what we cause ourselves we cannot equip
ourselves to overcome it.
Myth #3 – The one, big
traumatic experience in our past is causing your anxiety today
It’s
actually not the one big, traumatic experience in your past that is causing you
to experience anxiety today. It’s the dozens and dozens of little things you
are doing every single day that is actually causing you to experience stress
and anxiety. I am not suggesting that nothing traumatic happened in your past.
I am saying that it is not what happened in your past that is causing
your stress and anxiety. It’s your thoughts about what happened that is causing
you to experience stress and anxiety.
There
are so many things that we do on a regular basis that actually contributes to
anxiety. Every time that you complain, gossip, judge, ridicule, or hold
vengeful thoughts you hold negative thoughts in your mind and your brain
interprets those thoughts as a reality happening right now and triggers the
release of cortisol (the stress hormone) from the adrenal gland in your
kidneys. This elevates your heart beat, makes your hands sweat, increases blood
pressure, and makes you experience stress and anxiety. These are only a few
things that we do that contributes to stress and anxiety.
We need
to realize that we are the creators of what we feel, attract, and experience.
Because we create the stress and anxiety that we experience we can also take it
away. We have the amazing ability to create exactly the life that we want to
live. We have the ability to experience bliss, happiness, and a life full of
joy. We have the ability to attract the people, situations, and experiences
that we only thought was possible in our dreams. But first we have to realize
that we are the creators of our everything because of the thoughts we hold in
our minds.
You are
exactly what you attract. Choose your thoughts wisely.
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