Anxiety. Although these days this word is easily tossed around, anxiety disorders are not a blessing and are often misunderstood by those who are fortunate enough to not have to suffer from one. In simple terms, anxiety is when waves of uncertainty, worrying, and nervousness consume, and in some cases manipulate, your thoughts. These waves come at unpredictable times, and are sometimes so severe and overwhelming they can even lead to an anxiety attack. Rather you can relate to this article or learn from it, these are some habits that can result from anxiety that sufferers experience often, if not daily.
1. Obsessing over the little things.
Anxiety can cause you to feel as though your life is out of control, and as a result sometimes people strive to keep every little thing as close to perfection as they can in order to regain that power. For example, if something falls short of my incredibly high standards, I will continue to start over and refuse to move forward until I get it exceptionally right. Rather it be rewriting a hundred pages worth of notes because I wrote "ugly", redoing tasks over and over until the result is nothing less than perfect, or taking longer than necessary to do things because of the fear of failing, this strive for perfection becomes a consuming obsession that carries over into everything I do in my life.
2. Sleeping problems.
This habit is simple: if your mind can not sleep, you can not sleep. Some days you may find yourself wide awake until 4 a.m. because you're replaying situations that worry you in your head or maybe you're exhausted but wake up at the crack of dawn and begin overthinking the minute your body awakens. You either wake up feeling wired or you stay up with a racing mind that refuses to be silenced. Besides disrupting your sleep cycle, this habit also comes with negative side effects that can affect your mental and physical health.
3. Being Pessimistic.
Due to always fearing that something isn't right with ourselves or our life, sometimes sufferers tend to expect the worst outcome in most situations. Personally, even if something is completely fine, my mind will trick itself into believing it isn't and analyze every detail until I convince myself that something is worse than it really is. It causes me to be terrified to talk to the people I'm closest to and isolate myself to be alone with my illness. In my opinion, this habit is the hardest to cope with as it can send someone into depression at times and cause them to disconnect from their friends, their family, and the world around them.
4. Self-Consciousness.
This can be associated with social anxiety, where people avoid social interaction because of the fear of being negatively judged. This habit can cause emotional distress as feelings of inferiority and self-blame can become overwhelming. As a result, people who experience this habit will often constantly compare themselves to those around them, overthink everything the say/do around people, or avoid social encounters if at all possible. This habit is very stressful for the person as it can cause them to feel completely alone, even in a room full of their friends/family.
5. Anxiety Attacks.
Although not all people who experience anxiety suffer from anxiety attacks, they are still a very real and strong thing. This is when the overwhelming feelings associated with anxiety become so strong it begins to interfere with someone's everyday life and basically leads to unpredictable meltdowns. These result from feelings of panic that come from stress that is out of proportion to the impact of the event triggering it, and the inability to set aside worry.
Although there are many many more habits that come along with an anxiety disorder, these are the five I feel as though are essential for other's to be aware of and understand. The symptoms of anxiety depend on the person, as does the degree to which they experience them. Although it is a hard disorder to live with, it is possible to overcome.
