10 Myths About Anxiety
There are always a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to mental health. Here are a few of the most common misconceptions about anxiety– everything from causes to cures.
1. It means you’re going crazy. This is a common fear if you’ve ever experienced a panic attack or at times when the anxiety becomes so overwhelming that you find it hard to function. The term “going crazy” implies that you’re going there and you’re not coming back. Anxiety is not a destination, it is a state of mind. By learning about yourself, the way your mind works, and learning the right coping tools, you can rest assured you’re not insane, rather that anxiety is both shockingly common and manageable.
2. It will go away on its own. Anxiety is unfortunately something that doesn’t typically resolve itself on its own. Actually, for most people anxiety either becomes a list of things to avoid in life (i.e. parties, flying on airplanes, new jobs, germs, the list goes on and on) or it becomes a constant expectation of the worst case scenario combined with endless efforts to prevent that worst case scenario. Anxiety is a state of mind with accompanying stong physical reactions that are often hard to ignore, but can be diminished with treatment.
3. Anxious people should just stop worrying so much. First of all, anxiety is more accurately described as fear than worry really. Learning to cope with anxiety and diminish it is about much more than just “stop worrying.” It is about changing the way you look at situations, the way you talk yourself through things, and above all learning not to reinforce the anxiety by avoiding those things which make you anxious.
4. A few drinks here and there will help an anxious person relax. While this may be true in the short-term, ultimately this only reinforces your anxiety response. If you never learn to work through the anxiety, you will go on believing you are unable to cope. Over the long-term this can lead to becoming dependent on substances to get you through all types of situations that bring on feelings of anxiety and ultimately cause substance abuse problems on top of the anxiety.
5. Only people with a difficult childhood or a history of trauma can develop anxiety. A difficult childhood or a traumatic experience certainly increase the risk of developing anxiety but these are by no means requirements for the diagnosis nor are they a guarantee of a mental health concern. Anxiety typically develops slowly and as a result of a multitude of factors including genetic predisposition, upbringing, quality of relationships and support systems, significant life events, and substance use just to name a few.
6. Only women have anxiety. Anxiety is more commonly diagnosed in women than men, but this doesn’t mean that men are exempt from anxiety. In fact, the preconception that only women struggle with anxiety only serves to make it more difficult for men with anxiety to seek out help. Men are more likely to deny experiencing anxiety and are often more likely to experience anxiety related to performance, particularly in situations that call into question your masculinity.
7. It’s best to just avoid whatever makes you anxious. The paradox of anxiety is that if you avoid it, it will only continue to make you anxious. Avoidance only serve to reinforce anxiety and often times, left unchecked, will spread to other areas of life. Anxiety is based on FEAR—False Expectations Assumed Real.
8. Everybody gets anxious sometimes, you should just suck it up and get over it. If people could just magically snap their fingers and make anxiety vanish, I think they would have been doing it for years and it certainly wouldn’t have become the most common mental health concern in the US. By telling someone to just “suck it up” you likely aren’t helping to decrease their anxiety, but rather to convince them that they just can’t talk to you about it.
9. You can pass out or have a heart attack as a result of a panic attack. A panic attack is a physiological result of extreme anxiety. It is a whole body experience and often involves your heart pounding and feeling as if you’re going to die or go crazy. Panic attacks can be terrifying. They cannot, however, cause you to pass out or have a heart attack. Fainting is caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure, which is the opposite of the rise in blood pressure that occurs during a panic attack. It is the fear of these major health concerns that often send people to the Emergency Room when experiencing a panic attack.
10. It took years to get this bad, it will probably take years of therapy to help. If you decide to make the jump and give therapy a try, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been shown to be extremely effective in treating anxiety. Most people engaging in cognitive behavioral therapy report feeling some relief from symptoms in only a matter of a few weeks.
We can help.
If you or someone you love is struggling with anxiety, please reach out. We offer anxiety treatment with CBT Therapists in Orlando and online throughout the state of Florida. Call today or send us your info and we’ll reach out for a free consultation to see if one of our therapists would be a good fit.
