dark feelings

How do I know I have anxiety?

You may be showing the signs of anxiety if the feelings or behaviors below affect your everyday life:

• Worrying about everything

• Feeling negative

• Feeling restless or irritable

• Find it hard to do everyday activities like work and study

• Lack of concentration

• Difficulty sleeping and/or relaxing

• Avoidance behavior

• Physical symptoms like heart palpitations

• Irrational thinking

• Have muscle pain

If you experience more than a few of these then you should consult a medical practitioner to be assessed professionally. Don’t avoid seeking help if you do have these signs of anxiety. Don’t wait until you get worse . Avoidance is also a sign that you are not handling the anxiety.

But why do we fear speaking in front of others so very much? Psychologists believe that it is not really public speaking that make people experience so much STRESS but the fear of making a mistake in front of others. Public speaking anxiety can however be conquered with the right attitude and commitment.

Here are some points that can start you in your path towards a public speaking anxiety free life:

Speak about what you know
Talking about something that you have a passion for and know will not only lessen the anxiety that you may experience and will also make you appear fervent and enthusiastic about the project.

Use Humor
What’s the best way to impress an audience? To make them feel connected to you. And how do you exactly do that? Use humor. Open your speech with a joke or funny obervation. Everyone loves to laugh. This can also help you relax. It’s also a good strategy for covering up errors when they happen as well.

Practice
When you practice, the chance for making a mistake decreases. The biggest benefit though will be that it will make you feel more self assured, knowing that you have prepared for the speech and that you have done your best to present it.

Involve The Audience
The best way to appear good before an audience is to actually acknowledge their existence. Also when you do this it makes the speech less formal and more comfortable for everyone. A less formal approach can excuse the speaker from some blunders.

My main coping technique in regard to public speaking anxiety is to think of everyone as children. Children are accepting and not critical.  Find what works for you as we all react differently to stress. Maybe all you need is to listen to some RELAXATION MUSIC beforehand and that is what I do as it brings my stress levels down quite dramatically.

So what do you do to make your problems and fears go away? Well, since you cant run away from them, then the best solution is to face your fears head on no matter how powerful they may be. The key is to be courageous in how you try to manage these fears.

Do not take on all of your fears at once. Manage with them one at a time. The best solution is to break your fears or problems into a series of smaller bits like taking baby steps. Finishing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your prospects of success. If you still have problems then seek the services of a professional.

Do not give up though as dealing with your fears takes practice.  Learn how to handle your negative thoughts that may be difficult to manage. When having a negative thought, read some positive statements and affirmations that will help lift your spirits and make you feel happier. A lot of our fears are based on our negative thoughts.

Take it one day at a time. Each day can provide us with different chances to learn new things and that includes learning how to deal with your problems. Focus on the present and stop trying to predict what may happen in the future. Next week will take care of itself.

Handling your fears and anxieties will take some challenging work. Trying to avoid you problems will do nothing in getting rid of your fears and anxieties. Sooner or later, you will have to confront your fears and anxieties. Patience, persistence, education, and being committed in trying to solve your problem will go along way in fixing your problems.

I have a  personal affirmation which is:  I will face my fears with courage. Did you know you can get positive affirmations via your subliminal mind?  Its quite an exciting concept isn’t it. You choose what positive message you want to create and Mindzoom can bring them to you at lightning speed.

Click on the link below for more in depth details on how you can be free from your anxieties forever. At the moment they have a bonus of 1250 affirmations and the program is selling at only 1/3 of what it will cost soon, but this is only for a limited time.

If you experience immobilizing fear, lack of concentration, depression or phobias then they could lead eventually to a panic attack.

If you have one or more of the panic attack symptoms below then you could be on the verge of a panic attack:

Lightheadedness
Tingling in hands, feet or scalp
Sweating
Chest pain or palpitations
Nausea
Chills or hot flushes
Shortness of breath
Intense fear
Diarrhea
Muscle spasm
Dry mouth

During a panic attack many people feel that they will lose control, have a heart attack, are suffering from a serious illness or are ‘going crazy’. Panic attacks usually only last for several minutes but they are frightening.

In my own experience the first panic attack symptom I get is tingling in my fingers and scalp and a dry mouth. I get six of the panic attack symptoms above before and during the attack as well as ‘the wave’ of panic which follows. I will talk about ‘the wave’ another time.

Recognizing the symptoms is a good thing as it alerts me to the fact that I am anxious and I then know to start my breathing techniques to lower my over-breathing which is causing the symptoms, so the panic attack doesnt come on.

Forewarned is forearmed, so they say, and in my case this warning has helped me many a time.

Like most anxieties we often avoid the problem rather than face it and this is the case with fear of failure.  It is easier not to take the risk so we go in avoidance mode.  We must understand what has made us fear failing in the first place.  Has outside influences had a part in our feelings?

An example of this might be that we are told in our youth that we can never do anything right and so be believe it.   Is this outside assessment an accurate one or just something we have accepted as truth?  Fear can immobilize us and we get so wrapped up in that fear that we really will fail or not try at all.

Think of ways to overcome this fear of failure.  What would be the outcome of taking the risk?  What is the worst case scenario?  How long would it take you to recover from the failure if you did take it?  Looking at these things will help you decide to face the fear and act or not.

When you plan things, especially in smaller steps, then it is easier to take a risk.  Have a back up plan also, and this especially will give you the confidence to act and face the fear.  Once you do it, it will become easier the next time eg joining a club, making a speech or having a first date.

The greatest obstacles to your success is avoidance and procrastination.  We tell ourselves we will do it tomorrow or not at all.  If we don’t take risks and face our fears then we will be in the same situation we are in today, tomorrow, next week and next year.

Fear can immobilize us but we can face our fears and our lives will be change hopefully for the better.  We don’t need to worry about the fear of failure, just take the chance.

I suffer from anxiety attacks!  I don’t want to make that sound like a final statement because most of the time I don’t suffer from anxiety attacks and panic.  It is only when I have let myself get too stressed that I may have them now.

Drinking too much coffee, not getting enough sleep or eating properly or a combination of these can also contribute to my having an anxiety attack. These are my triggers and I have learned to recognize what they are and also how to eliminate or reduce the affects they have on my mental health.

When I am really stressed my anxiety will lead me to a panic attack and I will explain to you briefly how that feels to me.   I first feel tingling in my fingers and scalp, I usually am surprised as  I don’t usually see it coming.  Sometimes I also feel nausea and always my throat is dry and my stomach is upset for a long while, even days.  If I don’t do anything about it then it will develop into a full blown panic attack where I feel waves of fear wash over me.

It is not a good experience and note though that I didn’t say it was a terrible experience as I now have learned to stop it in it’s tracks.  Also I feel that by saying to myself something is terrible then I am reinforcing that thought.

I have been told that anxiety attacks can be hereditary and was asked about family members but all I can find is that my Aunties were described as ‘sensitive’ or ‘highly strung’ so maybe that is where it came from. I suppose it doesn’t really matter where it came from but how I react to it now.

To me, it doesn’t really help to know that because of  my genes I am more predisposed to anxiety attacks, as the bottom line is really that if  I get them, I deal with them.

I have found that if I can stop myself from hyperventilating when I get nervous or stressed then I can prevent myself from panicking.  This is where Binaural Beat music has been a lifesaver for me.  I am lucky that I now have control over panic and it doesn’t rule my life anymore but I do make sure that my stress levels are kept to a minimum if possible.

I don’t know that I would say that I am cured but I sure feel like I have control over my life now. Taking back the power of your emotions is such an empowering feeling.  Try relaxation music on your iPod too and see the difference in your stress levels immediately.