(Based on author’s site www.geocities.com/frnxty)
Fear, anxiety are controllable. Panic, worry, fright can be rid of. Knowing what are, how work, fear, anxiety, helps solve problems, control fear and anxiety.
Anxiety and fear causes crisis. One must understand fear and anxiety, how fear and anxiety work, to control anxiety, manage fear. Can be overcome anxiety and fear.
Managing fear, overcoming anxiety can be without expensive books, courses. Overcoming children’s fears, anxieties, controlling, managing adult fear and anxiety is possible. Here is, whether in child or adult, how to control, manage, overcome fear and anxiety.
Fear and anxiety, being afraid and anxious, begin when we are, or feel, vulnerable. We experience uneasiness and concern which frightens, makes fearful. This causes timidity, and timidity gives rise to a state of alarm which sometimes involves such hesitation that shrinks us from dealing with a matter or situation that needs to be resolved. The pain and emotion, the tension and stress of fear and anxiety is accompanied by a feeling of helplessness which is negative thought which so affects the functioning of the nervous system in dealing with fear and anxiety.
Fright, fear, anxiety, can cause crises, neurosis; the dread, terror, horror of phobia is fear. Worrying, most worries, are fear; but, often, we can’t cope with worry. Positive thinking helps but is not coping with fear, controlling fear, dealing with worry; to control fear, anxiety, we must know how fear and anxiety work.
Fear and anxiety effect automatically. Our autonomic nervous system regulates how body organs work. Chiefly a part of the autonomic nervous system, called ’sympathetic’, automatically interacts with our mind when we worry, experience anxiety, fear.
When fear is felt the mind signals a threat, danger, or emergency physically (e.g. a hand raised in anger) or psychologically (e.g. distrust); the sympathetic nervous system immediately comes into action to help protect or defend ourselves to our best possible advantage. Suddenly automatically we breath more oxygen which, with cyclic biochemical reactions, energises our ‘electron transport chain’ and synthesises with other substances in our body, upon that fear signal. This synthesising upon that fear signal urgently turns on electrical impulses which fire from cell to cell at very high speeds communicating that fear to the control centre in the brain.
In our fear and anxiety, the brain instantly issues commands to the organs to take action. Our organs immediately divert and concentrate energies from other organs to those relevant to our fear and anxiety. The pupils of our eyes grow bigger to see better, the blood vessels expand to more and faster supply, to enable our muscles to react. In aid of that the body produces adrenaline to enhance alertness and our actions for ‘flight’ or ‘fight’, as our values dictate, and as we feel directed by our fear, anxiety.
Anxiety and fear are not cured by medication. Drugs only help coping with worry; only help cope with fear or anxiety. It is generally agreed by expert that if we know how to, we can better control fear, manage anxiety. Panic confuses and causes worry; but, except for phobias (when one must consult a doctor), it isn’t complicated to manage fear, control anxiety.
Adult fear and anxiety is mostly due to problems; e.g., worry over debt, disapproval, separation, failure.
Children have no adult problems; child fear or anxiety is feeling inadequate about the frightening unknown.
Adults cope with both, whether it is fear or anxiety arising from adult problems or child fear and anxiety over inability to protect or defend as adults can.
In child fear control, managing child fear and anxiety it often suffices to ensure an “I am protected” feeling for the child. A child’s fear, e.g., of the dark is over anxiety that something may go wrong or be hurtful; e.g. a dim light helps ease that fear, anxiety, but the child needs assurance that you are nearby and can protect from or defend against what is causing the child’s fear and anxiety. If fear of the unknown is, e.g., anxiety over a new environment, accompany the child until it is realised that there is nothing to fear.
In adults fear and anxiety does not go away because of their being fear and anxiety with good reason. Adult fear and anxiety involve not unreasonable worry but possible significant consequences. But an adult can control worry, even overcome fear, anxiety.
Coping with, overcoming fear and anxiety begins with realising that problems are solvable, consequences avoidable. This enables to cope with fear and anxiety.
Adults suffer fear and anxiety for two reasons. They do not know how to solve the problem; and, it never occurs to most to find out because panic causes confusion. Panic prevents rational thinking, they can not think how to, e.g., reason arguments, acceptably put a hurt right; they, e.g., forget or never find out that an offer to pay by instalments may not be lawfully refused. The problem seems unsolvable, panic becomes fear, anxiety; worry makes fear worse.
Anxiety and fear often result from failure to clearly identify the problem. That is the cause of panic, a problem’s becoming worse, of the fear and anxiety.
Problem solving involves rational though, and that necessitates calmness. If angry, do ‘count to ten’.
Avoiding panic is avoiding fear and anxiety. If feeling panicky, take a deep breath: inhale, hold it to the count of three, exhale slowly; this is regarded as regulating oxygen intake and avoiding the above-mentioned body functions and chemical reactions which substitute to normal body and mind functions the limited, concentrated, emergency, urgent functioning. You will feel less urgency, less rushed, less panicky and less likely to suffer fear and anxiety.
Similarly easy it becomes then to replace the reduced likelihood of fear, anxiety with rational thought. One only needs to know how to do so.
One cannot apply rational thought to a problem if one is confused. The panic was due to not knowing what to do, confusion. One needs to clear one’s head in order to think and substitute to avoided panic, and reduced fear and anxiety, rational thought.
One’s bodily functions and mental functions interact. Adrenaline enhances what the brain signals. If it signals an emergency, it enhances urgency; if it signals calm though, then it enhances that. This is the basis of ‘positive thinking’. Such automatic biological, electrochemical, functioning of the nervous system enhances mental functions, confusion is rid of. Then can be clearly seen the problem and properly explored the ways of solving it without panic worsening it, causing fear and anxiety.
Then you can identify your fear. What is it that you fear, why? What part or parts of the problem is it that is causing you the worry, the anxiety, the fear? Think of what exactly it is you fear, are afraid of. ‘Know your enemy’ to easier mange anxiety, overcome fear.
One can learn to control one’s fear and, in the verses of Orhan Seyfi Ari in his Mystic Man (translated), one can enjoy the feeling that…
“Neither anxiety has he, nor fear,
The World’s like a rubber ball under his feet rather,
The Sun in one hand, and the Moon in the other.”
Calmness helps solution, managing fear and anxiety.
The author has a website at: http://www.geocities.com/eoa_uk
By: Eren
About the Author:
The author’s favourite site is: Teacher of Teachers
If you knew the leading causes of stress in your life, would you take action to eradicate them? Can you eradicate stress – or is it an inoperable condition that will be with you all of your life, possibly causing your eventual death?
Which Is Your Leading Cause of Stress?
1. Finances
Most studies agree that finances are a leading cause of stress. In an online poll conducted in 2005 by LifeCare, Inc., 23 percent of respondents named finances as the leading cause of stress in their lives. Financial stress has led the list in many modern polls.
Some who name finances as the leading cause of stress cite major purchases they have to make, such as a home or car. Others are stressed by a loss of income, or mounting credit card debt. For some, financial stress will eventuate in bankruptcy. While college students stress over paying for an education, Baby Boomers and older senior citizens find that retirement income can be a major cause of stress.
2. Work
Closely tied to finances as a cause of stress is work. Our jobs or careers seem to cause constant stress. In the LifeCare poll, 21 percent of those responding listed this as the leading cause of stress in life.
How is the workplace a cause of stress? We worry about getting and keeping adequate employment. We worry about new types of work or new responsibilities. We struggle to climb a career ladder, overwhelmed by the demands. Work conditions may change, or we may have interpersonal trouble at work. Students, especially teenagers and college age students, cite school work as a cause of stress. Sometimes, work stress is brought on by others. Sometimes, we bring it on ourselves.
3. Family
Family, wonderful though each member may be, is also a leading cause of stress. Arguments erupt with a spouse or other family member. Parents divorce. Children marry. The ebb and flow of family life is filled with stress. A child moves out – an aging parent moves in.
Family health is also a leading cause of stress. A sick family member, a serious injury, pregnancy, miscarriage, or abortion all cause stress. Family changes of other kinds bring stress, too. Adoption, relocation, and job changes for just one family member can cause stress for all.
4. Personal Concerns
Personal concerns that are only indirectly created by others are another top cause of stress. Lack of control tops the list of personal concerns. Every human has a deep-seated desire for control over his or her own life. When control is weak or missing in a given area, we experience stress. To many people, a lack of control over their own time is a leading cause of stress. We want to determine when we do tasks around the home, or at work. Holding a job, participating in the children’s carpool to school, driving family to soccer practices, shopping, and scout meetings while trying to keep the household running can create major stress. You would like to control your time, rather than let others’ demands control it, but that is not always possible.
We may be involved in legal proceedings that cause stress. We may be wrestling with a bad habit. We may be going through changes. Personal change of any kind can be a cause of stress.
5. Personal Health and Safety
Most people find that personal health is a leading cause of stress. For some, the stress is linked to obesity, and a desire to lose weight. For others, the stress is a personal bas habit that affects health and must be changed. For example, smoking, abuse of alcohol or other drugs. Illness or injury, whether less or more serious, can be a leading cause of stress for many people. Incontinence can be an ongoing concern. Personal health is more or less stressful according to the degree of seriousness and our personal outlook on health.
Personal safety is also a leading cause of stress. Women, more than men, tend to stress about their own and others’ safety. Adults tend to stress more than young people, who may act invincible. Crime is a factor, as is
6. Personal Relationships
Whether it is a friendship, dating, separation, marriage, divorce, or re-marriage, a relationship can be a leading cause of stress for many. We all want love, and that is potentially available in relationships, but getting from A to B can be very stressful. Some resort to online relationships that are easier to handle. Others withdraw and become recluses. Either way, the demands on time, finances, and emotions can cause ongoing stress.
7. Death
Probably the most wrenching cause of stress is the death of a loved one or close friend. Even the death of a pet can be stressful. Children are always a source of stress for parents, but when a child dies, the stress is overwhelming. The same is true when a lifetime spouse passes on.
Win or Lose
Causes of stress change as we age. The stressed child who threw tantrums becomes a young student, stressed by the school bully. The young student becomes a teenager, stressed by acne, hormones, and dating. The teenager becomes a young adult trying to handle the stresses of leaving home, adjusting to college life, and managing finances. Life progresses to first jobs, marriage, children, and so on. Even if you move to a secluded cabin in the woods, stress will follow you.
Gaining knowledge of the leading causes of stress is important. Using that knowledge to win over unhealthy stress is vital.
By: Anna Hart
About the Author:
