The 3 Biggest Questions That I Get About Anxiety

Let's discuss the three biggest questions I get about anxiety. These questions come up all the time, and I’m sure some or all of these questions are on your mind. So let’s unpack them and give you the answers you need to move forward in your recovery. Let’s begin.

 OK, the first question that I get asked all the time is: Can anxiety really create all these strange and intense symptoms? I mean, can anxiety really make your heart race, make you feel dizzy, create derealization, give you stomach issues, and all sorts of other things? The short answer is, yes, it absolutely can. But let me explain why.

Alright, the reason you're experiencing anxiety right now is because you have an overactive and sensitized nervous system. What that means is that your body is engaging its built-in alarm system - also called your fight or flight response - unnecessarily. I want you to think of this as our survival response. Think back to our ancient ancestors, who lived vastly different lives than us. For them, they were likely to to encounter physical, external dangers like lions or tigers. So our bodies adapted to have this survival response. In other words, your brain will see a threat and hit the panic button, flooding your system with adrenaline and other stress hormones. This prepares you to either confront the danger head-on or make a quick escape. So, unsurprisingly, your heart races, your breathing rate picks up, and your senses sharpen, and these are all biological responses designed to help you react swiftly. It’s a fantastic system when there’s a real threat. But with anxiety, this response gets triggered when you’re not in any actual danger, then your just left with all these intense physical symptoms. You have the panic, racing heart, dizziness, and stomach issues - but no actual threat to deal with.

So, to answer the question - it is your fight or flight response that is creating all these strange and intense sensations that you’re experiencing. I want you to see that as great news - because what it means is that we only have one problem to deal with. You don’t need to worry about getting rid of the 10 to 20 different symptoms you have; instead, your entire focus can shift to desensitizing your nervous system so that all these symptoms go away. 

Now, on to the second big question: Why did I develop anxiety? What I’m getting asked here is, why did anxiety begin to significantly impact my life? Alright, fortunately, the answer to this question is straightforward. The reason you developed a problem with anxiety is consistent with everyone else suffering from anxiety. Here’s the first thing I want you to stop doing - stop worrying about how your anxiety started. I don’t care whether it started with a stressful event or period in your life, if it began after consuming too much alcohol or marijuana, or if it seemed to start out of nowhere. It doesn’t matter. That no longer has any bearing on why you have anxiety today. The reason you are suffering from anxiety right now is because you fell into what I call the “anxiety trap.” Here’s how it works.

The anxiety trap is a vicious cycle where you become fearful of your anxiety sensations. This fear signals to your brain that you are in danger, which causes your body to release of more adrenaline and stress hormones in an effort to keep you safe. What does that do? That increases the intensity of your anxiety. So your anxiety or panic gets worse, your heart palpitations get even more intense, and your derealization has you feeling even more out of it than before. When that happens, you become even more fearful and afraid of these sensations.

This is a vicious, never-ending cycle that keeps you trapped with anxiety. If we break it down into its simplest form, it is “Fear → Adrenaline → Sensations → Fear. It’s a never-ending cycle that keeps you trapped in a state of high alert and constant anxiety. But the key element is fear and I want you to notice how fear is at both the start and the end of the anxiety trap. This cycle is easy to fall into but can be challenging to break out of. Why is that? Because anxiety can feel dangerous, threatening, and even harmful. It’s scary, and that’s your fearful of it. Recovery from anxiety happens when you lose your fear of anxiety - and hence that’s why the name of this channel is Fearless Anxiety. If you want to learn more about how to lose your fear and fully recover, I’ve put the 5-Step Cure to Anxiety and Panic Attacks in the link below. It’s free and it’ll going to break down how your going to recover and get back to normal.  

Alright, let’s talk about the third question: When will I recover? This is the big one, right? Well, here’s the good news: you’re going to feel a heck of a lot better as soon as you lose your fear of anxiety, which will happen very soon. Losing your fear of anxiety means you’ve exited the anxiety trap, so you are no longer fueling your anxiety with fear. What this also means is that you’ve stopped caring about how anxiety makes you feel. So, if anxiety creates that nervous energy in the pit of your stomach, you don’t care. If anxiety makes your heart feel like it’s beating out of your chest, it doesn’t bother you. And if anxiety creates derealization, you find it amusing. 

In other words, the sensations will still be there but you won’t be bothered by them. This is when everything changes and it’s a huge milestone in recovery. Now, a full recovery, which is the complete absence of all sensations, will take a bit more time. But that’s where you’re heading. What’s going to happen is your nervous system will gradually calm down and desensitize. As it does, the intensity of your sensations becomes less often and with less intensity. Then, one day, you’re no longer going to have any sensations at all.