Author: Janet Pun, Certified Psychological Health and Safety Advisor
Content: Dr. Andrew Miki, R. Psych

We all feel anxiety in different ways. Sometimes, it can feel like a deep sense of doom and dread. Sometimes, it can feel like jittery nerves. 

Everyone experiences anxiety; however, there are many misconceptions about the condition. It’s important to understand anxiety so we can better support ourselves and our loved ones.

What is anxiety? 

Anxiety is that feeling of fear, nervousness, or panic in response to uncertainty or potential threats. In our society, anxiety and worry often carry a negative connotation. However, they can be useful tools when we learn to better manage them. They operate much like a smoke alarm: they can save our lives by alerting us to danger when there’s smoke. However, if not properly managed, our minds can trigger this smoke alarm even when there is no smoke. This can lead to a constant state of anxiousness which can be distracting, annoying, and exhausting. 

People often get confused between stress and anxiety. While they are related in some ways, they are overall quite different. Stress is a normal and healthy reaction to an event that’s making you nervous, but goes away once the trigger disappears. However, anxiety can persist without any triggers. 
 

How does anxiety happen?

Anxiety refers to biological and physiological changes in our bodies that happen in response to danger that is either real, perceived, or anticipated. For the most part, this system acts automatically and can kick into gear even in the most worry-free environments. It’s our autonomic nervous system activating the parts of our body that we need to fight the dangerous threat or run away.

For example, when you experience anxiety, your heart rate accelerates to supply your body with extra energy. Your breathing rate increases to supply your muscles with more oxygen. Your muscles tense to provide you with extra speed and strength. These anxiety triggers act as our fight-or-flight responses to maximize our chances of survival.

While anxiety refers to physiological changes, worry refers to the thoughts we have about actual or potential problems. These thoughts often have a “What if….” quality to them, but they can serve the useful function of alerting us to issues that are important to us, such as our health, finances, job, family, and relationships.

However, worry can easily escalate, becoming major stress and continually draining on our energy. Many people do not realize that excessive and uncontrollable worry is known to interfere with the quality of our personal and professional lives.
 

Signs of Anxiety

Anxiety feels different depending on each person, ranging from feelings of butterflies in the stomach to a racing heartbeat. But it’s important to know what some of the most common mental and physical signs of anxiety are: 

Mental symptoms of anxiety

• anxious thoughts or beliefs that are difficult to control
• restlessness
• trouble concentrating
• difficulty falling asleep
• fatigue
• irritability
• unexplained aches and pains

Physical symptoms of anxiety

• dizziness
• tiredness
• heart palpitations 
• muscle aches and tensions
• shaking
• dry mouth
• excessive sweating
• stomachache
• headache
• insomnia

Stress and anxiety are not always bad. Both can provide you with the motivation you need to accomplish a task, but if these feelings become persistent, they can begin to interfere with your life. Therefore, it’s important to seek help if that happens. 
 

Causes of Anxiety

Mental health experts are still studying the root causes of anxiety, but believe they're often a combination of the following:  

• stress
• other medical issues such as depression or diabetes
• first-degree relatives with a generalized anxiety disorder (hereditary)
• environmental concerns, such as child abuse
• substance use
• situations such as surgery or occupational hazard

Some researchers believe that anxiety stems from the areas of the brain responsible for controlling fear and the storing and retrieval of emotional and fear-related memories. 

It’s important to try and consider the bigger picture and not just this moment in time. Your experiences with anxiety will vary throughout your life. To help manage your anxiety, you will need to increase your awareness of how anxiety has impacted your life and reflect on the factors that have caused it to increase, decrease or remain stable.

Want to learn more about anxiety? Sign in or register for Starling Minds Mental Fitness and try some of our simple box breathing exercises designed to still your mind, calm the nervous system, and decrease stress and anxiety in the body. All OTIP members, including RTIP, Home/Auto, and Life Insurance customers have complimentary access to Starling Minds at member.starlingminds.com/landing/.