Anxiety

Anxiety is a lot like a toddler, it never stops talking, tells you you are wrong about everything and wakes you up at 3AM – unknown

Your alarm goes off at 4:30AM. You are tempted to push the snooze button because you have not been sleeping well, but you remember that you still have to finish your daughter's school project, go to the gym, make breakfast and then try to turn into a human being before everyone else wakes up. On Instagram and Facebook all your friends from varsity are on boat cruises or overseas posing with their perfect happy families. As you try to wash the Marmite off the couch, the TV flashes with the latest in diet pills that you will need because you still have not gone to the gym. On the news another celebrity admits that they have a mental illness and are taking some time off and suddenly you are jealous of the mentally ill.

We are living at a pace high enough to make a F1 driver dizzy and we wonder why anti-depressants have become as ordinary as vitamins. But when does stress become something that needs treatment?

Anxiety is the body’s normal response to stressful situations and environments. It can be beneficial in certain situations by warning you about dangers and helping you pay better attention to your surroundings. When these anxious feelings become excessive and out of place we call them anxiety disorders. According to Our World in data, 30% of adults will experience some form of anxiety disorder in their lives.

How to recognize the symptoms:

Stress and anxiety is caused by the same processes in the body so they can appear and feel very similar. Stress is usually for a shorter duration, related to a specific situation and does not required medical treatment.

The following are some examples of what a person with an anxiety disorder might be experiencing.

• Anxiety that is out of proportion to the situation causing the anxiety. For instance; somebody avoiding going to the store because they have anxiety over finding a parking space.

• Anxiety that is interfering with you everyday activities

• Excessive tiredness that does not get relieved with sleep.

• Unstable emotions and increased irritability; snapping at family members or friends for no good reason.

• Decreased productivity; what used to take 1 hour now takes 2 hours.

• Physical symptoms with no physical cause eg. abdominal pain, headaches, heart palpitations, feeling short of breath

• Decreased concentration and struggling to make simple decisions eg. deciding what to wear in the morning or what to eat feels like a difficult and draining task.

• Decreased drive/no desire to do things you used to like doing.

How did I get here:

In many cases mental illness and also anxiety disorders is caused by trauma, but the human body is so complex that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Your personality, DNA, family history, personal history and many other factors play a role in how you respond to the world around you.

Possible causes of anxiety disorders include:

• traumatic events – post traumatic stress disorder

• social and environmental changes – adjustment disorder

• specific triggers eg spiders – phobias

Other anxiety disorders have no obvious recognizable cause but are triggered by specific situations eg.

• social anxiety disorder – socializing with people in different types of settings

• agoraphobia – a fear of going out in public

• separation anxiety – fear of being separated from a place or person you feel safe with.

Generalized anxiety disorder is the term used for anxiety with no common factor or trigger.

What can I do:

We as South-Africans are conditioned to adapt, overcome and then make jokes about it, because if we do not laugh about it, we wíll cry about it. We need to acknowledge that normalizing our feelings will not improve our struggles.

The first step in dealing with any difficult situation is to recognize the signs and accept the fact that you might need help. If you are experiencing the symptoms above, please ask for help from your local healthcare providers. There are many ways to treat anxiety and different people will need different treatments so you will need a professional to guide you in the best therapy for you.

If you have any concerns about yourself or a family member feel free to contact us for a consultation so our dedicated team of doctors can assist you in living a happier and healthier life.

~ Dr SL du Plessis