Anxiety is such a huge term for a lot of specific symptoms and can help you if you think or want to confirm that what you are going through isn’t ‘normal’ and something should be done about it.
Note that because I focus primarily on the psychological symptoms of any malady, physical symptoms are for the main part left out but will go when the psychological part is taken care of.
Anxiety Symptoms
The main symptom of anxiety is worry. You may find yourself worrying about what is about to happen, or what could happen, or ruminate on what did happen seeing it in a very negative light.
So for instance you may be up for appraisal at work, but worry about your performance despite reassurance from others that you are performing within the norms. This can lead to tension, a feeling of dread about getting the sack and that can cascade into thinking about your spouse leaving you because of it and you becoming homeless.
The thoughts come in on each other and seem to escalate out of control and when this happens you could give yourself a panic attack.
Implications for work/business
Lower performance
Sense of dread before decision making which can lead to cautious decision making or looking for others to make the decisions for you.
You may worry so much that you become perfectionist which can lead to more stress
You may try and control those around you to stop from worrying so much about an outcome which can further add to your stress levels
You may be off sick more than is standard and or take prescribed drugs to calm you down
Implications for personal life
You may develop habits of worry that you transfer to your children
You may become a helicopter parent and fuss over your children worrying that they might hurt themselves, get ill or otherwise do something that you cannot control
You may question what your partner does in a bid to make sure things run okay
You may lose intimacy because of your preoccupation with what if’s
If you feel very anxious you may develop or experience depression
Social Anxiety
You may withdraw and isolate yourself
When you are in a group of people you may be so preoccupied with what they think of you that you become defensive and easily angered.
When you get home you may overanalyse all of the things people said and did and your part in the exchange that you beat yourself up for.
Social anxiety plays havoc with work based activities, especially if you fear what people think of you.
OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
The obsessive aspect of this disorder is where you experience unwelcomed thoughts, images, urges, doubts, worries that are repeated in your mind that you cannot do anything to stop.
Obsessive thoughts can make you believe that you are in danger, that you are putting others in danger that something bad is or will happen to you, that you are experiencing that danger now or that you know what others are thinking of you and you react accordingly.
Implications for work/business
OCD is very difficult to manage outside of the home and you may find that your tendencies seem to manifest more as stress than the outward checking aspect of this disorder.
Implications for personal life
OCD can be easier to manage when you are in control and even things seen as habits can hide some of the OCD tendencies. You may for instance ‘have a thing about the lights’ and obsessively turn them off or you might need to check the cooker 5 times to make sure it’s not on (my personal tendency). So as long as you can control your environment you may seem a little tense or lovingly referred to as OCD but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t anxious on the inside.
My particular brand of OCD was about being contaminated.
I had the belief that if I touched certain things, like the bin, the gate, toilet seats and the like that I would be contaminated. And the images of what that contamination meant was very graphic in my mind and felt real to me.
Obsessive thoughts vary and it’s the obsessive part that if of concern more than the actual thoughts themselves. (except for clinically diagnosed)
Compulsions
Compulsions are the repetitive activities that you feel you have to do or you’ll show other external behaviours such as panic attacks, get angry or sullen and withdraw.
When you have compulsions like OCD you have to do that behaviour, so you have to check the cooker, you have to turn the lights off, you have to wear the gloves, there is no negotiation with this, and it’s very hard to control consciously.
Stress of some sort, or a conditioned trigger can make the compulsion flare and you do the compulsion to try and control, or calm down an anxious response to something.
Compulsions can be anything and to the extent that you can or can’t do it, is the extent to how you will feel. So if you can’t check the cooker 5 times because you are running late, then you will not be able to calm yourself until you do.
Implications for work/business
If your compulsions are home based then you will be able to get through your day relatively okay For instance I had the compulsion to check the cooker, the doors, and the windows which didn’t manifest at work.
However, my compulsion to think certain thoughts, and not talk about certain things I could not control and the urge to correct someone, to tell them not to say certain things was a bit more challenging.
Implications for your personal life
You may find that your partner has to live within your rules about how things are in the home, so that you can feel more in control. Obviously this extends to all whom you live with and can make others take on habits that are born out of your compulsions.
You’ve checked and can agree this is happening to you now what?
We all have intrusive thoughts, habits, control issues over some things but not others, because we’re human, it’s when these tendencies limit the quality of your life that is of concern.
Let’s say that you have the habit of having to check all the doors and windows before you can leave the house, but it doesn’t affect anyone else, and it is only at home, then though still distressing, it’s not as limiting if it makes you late for work, stops you working, means you have to schedule things or you’ll feel out of control. These instances affect your life and this is when you should seek help.
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