Signs of Anxiety
"What if I fail this exam? My career will be ruined before it starts. I feel so sick just thinking about it that I can't study. But I have to study or ...".
"Every time I leave the house 1 feel sick, I think I'm going to collapse and have to go back home. I can't go anywhere unless someone is with me".
"When I have to talk to strangers I start to sweat and panic I feel trapped and can't think of anything to say".
"It sometimes feels very tense and uncomfortable, worrying about things that I've got to do the next day, or even the next month. I can't seem to get rid of these worrying thoughts no matter how hard I try".
"Each time I feel a panic coming on I have to leave the situation, it seems the only thing that works."
"I get so anxious I start to sweat and breath really shallowly and rapidly, I then feel very faint."
Such are the thoughts, emotions, behaviours and physical feelings that sweep over those who suffer from anxiety and phobias. Since both anxiety and phobias are rooted in fear, they both indicate the dread of some danger or threat to ones well being. This sense of threat is manifested by a wide range of physical symptoms anxiety's body language which are distressing in themselves, rapid breathing, accelerating heart rate, dizziness, nausea, headache, sweating, dryness of mouth, tightening of the throat, pain in various sets of muscles, etc. When the state of anxiety is prolonged or chronic these frightening, uncontrollable symptoms may take the form of what seems to be a real disease or disability.
One of the most important facts for a severely anxious person to learn - and recall to mind at critical moments - is that the symptoms he/she is experiencing are not dangerous. The racing pulse or pounding heart, the dizziness or nausea, the desire to scream or cry or pound the table - none of these physical or emotional reactions indicate that the person is dangerously ill or going crazy. They are unpleasant. They are uncomfortable. But they can be tolerated until they go away. And they will go away.
