Ramesh Sharma
sharmaramesh.sr55@gmail.com
According to National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), more than 30 percent school going children have anxiety disorder. Out of many contributing factors, lack of awareness remains as key factor. So let’s decipher and decode it. Anxiety only means being anxious. So what’s wrong if we are little anxious? To be little bit anxious is an early warning system that prepares us to face challenges and pushes us to work little harder than our ususal behavior to prevent negative outcomes. And there are many many reasons to be anxious, not just now but at any given time in history. It is the human tendency, a condition. So it is human to be anxious! There are hundred and thousand reasons to be anxious. You might be anxious why somebody has not yet responded to your whatsapp messages, has not responded to your email and so on. You might be anxious to know as what people think about you? The fact is that many people have liked you and many people have disliked you. Many people still like you and many people still dislike you. It is a universal phenoimenon. You are not an isolated case. So just relax and chill! It is really difficult to live a happy and peaceful life if you feel anxious all the time. I think it helps if you accept that a little anxiety is a normal part of life.
It is just like feeling hungry. When we don’t eat for a longer period, our body starts giving us signals. ” Hey! I am hungry. Feed me now!! So we grab something to eat and our body stops signaling. That’s actually useful. And the beauty is that your mind works in the same way. When the mind identifies something it doesn’t like, it says.” Please do something about this thing, I don’t like.
Anxiety is always about future and fear of conditions that really don’t exist at all! That fear is irrational and absolutely FAKE! We see people anxious about a million of things. Anxious that the moving ceiling fan would fell on them! A small sensation in body is related to worst diseases.. a skin lesion becomes skin cancer .. a small headache becomes a neurysm.. minor disturbance near chest is heart attack .. a small altercation with anyone means police case and so on.
Then you start searching and researching on google to know the symptoms. For many hours and days, you continue reading different articles on google, just to assure yourself. Still, the story doesn’t stop here. You start paying visit to specialist doctor, explaining him symptoms (except your worry). All lab tests comes out normal and many people feel normal at this stage. But more anxious people would switch doctors!
Our mind is our slave in a way. It hears you! If you have read the symptoms of a disease somewhere, our mind will produce those psudosymptoms, Which are fake. They only mimic a disease.
I have seen some of my studnets asking me as why they are always under an impression that other children are better than them?
Although, it is a matter of low self-esteem, which can be corrected effectively by various techniques but a different type of anxiety is playing its role in their subconscious mind.
But, when being anxious goes out of proportion, that it has started interfering significantly in your daily life, then we say that a person has developed anxiety disorder. And, as said before, anxiety will send some subtle and classical signals to the body, saying please do something!! And those signals/ symptoms are….
* Bad stomach (sometimes diarrohea, if anxiety is severe.)
* Discomfort to the left side of chest, near heart.
* Disorientation. Your own bedroom, washroom, kitchen etc. seems unfamiliar.
* Sweating & trembling ( during severe anxiety)
* Always thinking that some doom is about to fall.
* Shortness of breath and feeling of suffocation.
* Withdrawal from friends.
* Loss of confidence, particularly inability to speak in certain situations despite having the ability to speak comfortably in other settings.
* Heart palpitations.
* Some troubling thought not leaving the mind.
So, if anyone is suffering from anxiety disorder, it is just okay. No stigmatization at all. It is very normal like common cold, temperature etc. It is mental disorder and it is highly treatable.
There are various methods available to tackle it. I will only mention two because they are finest among all.
Play some outdoor game
Anxiety disorders are closely related to and affected by physical health. Playing outdoor games release happy hormones called dopamine and endorphins. Both these happy hormones inhibits the production of stress hormone called cortisol. In people with anxiety- dopamine is almost blocked! Dopamine and Cortisol are inversely related, meaning that more the levels of dopamine are, very low levels of cortisol would be. So engage in some of your favourite play and see the beautiful changes.
Meditation
It is the ultimate panacea. Meditation is not sitting cross legged and trying controlling the thoughts. It is just watching your thoughts coming and going, without any judgement- that this thought is good, that thought is bad. It is to become just a watcher, a watcher who only watches and pays no attention to them. Slowly and gradually, thoughts have a learning that they are not being entertained here. So, eventually they stop coming and the moment they stop coming, you have arrived home! Bud has blossomed into a flower!
You feel a new space! You can sit by the side of tree, on your bed, anywhere and can start meditating. It leads you to deep silence and peace.
Can anxiety remain there in that blissful state? You will laugh at it! Anxiety will run away because it doesn’t like to be laughed at!
The author is Sr. Lecturer & Counselor Govt. Hr. Sec. School Smailpur (Samba)
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