How to Overcome Anxiety

Anxiety and anxiety disorders are a hot topic today. In fact, it’s estimated about 19.1% of Americans 18 or older have an anxiety disorder. That’s about 40 million people battling consistent worry, panic attacks, nervous sweats and/or feeling like they can’t overcome their persistent fearful state.

The good news is that if this is how you feel, there’s hope – a lot of it actually. In terms of how to overcome anxiety, there are a lot of options. In fact, the first piece of good news is that you may not have a disorder at all. Often, people assume their anxiety is a disorder when it’s not, and all they need is gentle reassurance, says Dr. Sid Khurana, co-founder of Nevada Mental Health.

“Everyone should have a little anxiety, and just because you have anxiety does not mean it’s a disorder,” he says. “For some, it can actually be a good reaction to stress and a recipe for success. It keeps them on their toes and motivated to get work done.”

Of course, all anxiety is not created equal, and Khurana isn’t diminishing more extreme cases. Here, he offers a few more insights about the subject that may be helpful.

You can look at anxiety as a chart with an X and Y axis, the X being your output or production and the Y axis being the anxiety level. As the anxiety increases along the Y axis, the production (X axis) will often rise. But every person has a threshold, and at some point the increased anxiety will not increase production.

“At a certain point, performance actually decreases, and that’s where it becomes functional impairment and potentially an anxiety disorder,” Khurana notes.

So what might a functional impairment look like? It’s not just an inability to increase productivity, but an inability to take care of basic foundational parts of your personal or professional life. For children, they may refuse to go to school because they feel they can’t handle social or academic stresses. For adults, a job or daily life situation or a phobia may cause them to check out or not fulfill basic obligations. They may have trouble keeping a job or socializing, even with loved ones.

Anxiety and depression affect areas of the brain which are very close to one another, but they are still two distinct emotional states and disorders.

“Depression is a state of sadness or melancholy, with low energy, and wanting to be left alone. Whereas anxiety is a feeling of restlessness, nervousness, increased worry, the mind keeps racing and it can’t stop,” Khurana adds.

There are also many cases where anxiety and depression coexist for patients, especially in children. Both often start to manifest around the ages of eight or nine, and some children may even have physical symptoms like stomach pain and headaches with underlying anxiety, the physician emphasizes, and this may eventually contribute to depressive episodes as well.

Anxiety absolutely runs in families, and while there are genetic tests, they are unnecessary, Khurana asserts. A good family history is all that’s required to understand if your anxiety has a genetic link.

“Anxiety is not just the result of bad things happening in childhood either, some can be born with anxiety,” he adds.

In children, if they are predisposed to anxiety because of family history, conflicts between parenting style and childhood temperament may contribute to anxiety escalation. And with adults and children with a genetic history of anxiety, bullying may affect them more severely.

Severe anxiety can be a source of disability, Khurana adds. Treatment, however, has been found to be very effective for all levels of anxiety. Treatment also does not always involve medication, though there are quite a few that work well. Patients often respond best to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the physician says. CBT helps them recognize the specific thoughts that trigger anxiety and over time strategies are implemented to reduce the panicky feelings that come with those thoughts.

If you’re nervous, apprehensive, worried and feel as though you cannot manage these emotions, a consultation with a mental health professional, including blood work, can help.

Blood work is particularly important, as underlying health conditions may coexist with anxiety. The most common is hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Sometimes people with electrolyte imbalances may also experience anxiety, and autoimmune disorders sometimes present with anxiety as a symptom.

“That is one of the most important things, is to rule out if there is an underlying medical issue,” Khurana says.