If anxiety can’t harm you, why do so many people believe it can?

 

Video Transcript

If anxiety can’t harm you, why do so many people believe it can?

There are many reasons why anxious people believe anxiety can harm them. Here are some of the most common:

1. Stress increases the perception of danger.

Stress increases the electrical activity in the brain’s fear center, which can make normal situations and circumstances seem more threatening.

Anxious behavior stresses the body. Consequently, anxiety can make things, including anxiety itself, seem more threatening and therefore, harmful.

2. Believing anxiety is dangerous because of the heightened sense of danger anxiety is supposed to create.

The stress response is supposed to raise our awareness and reactivity to danger. It does that so we can take appropriate action to either deal with the threat or run away from it. Hence, the name “The Fight or Flight response.”

The stress response is an integral part of our survival system.

Often people who struggle with anxiety issues make the mistake of believing anxiety itself is dangerous because of the heightened sense of danger the stress response is supposed to create.

Believing anxiety itself is dangerous can set up the vicious cycle of anxiety, triggering more anxiety. Panic disorder is often fueled by the fear of anxiety and its strong sensations and symptoms.

3. Believing anxiety is dangerous because of its powerful sensations and symptoms.

Anxiety sensations and symptoms can feel threatening because they can seem to come out of nowhere, feel extremely powerful, linger longer than expected, and seem uncontrollable.

This combination of factors can make it seem like anxiety itself is dangerous, especially due to feeling it’s uncontrollable since feeling out of control is the third condition that creates fear.

Recovery Support members can read about the three conditions that create fear in the “What Is Fear?” section in Chapter 6.

4. Believing anxiety is dangerous because it can place people out of control and possibly do what they don’t want to do.

Believing anxiety can make people do what they don’t want to do, such as harm themselves, harm loved ones, or commit an act they normally wouldn’t do, is a common fear among anxiety disorder sufferers.

Since most anxious people have a strong need to be in control to feel safe, they believe feeling out of control dramatically increases the risk of being harmed or harming someone else.

5. Many anxious people have health and medical fears.

So, when they experience an unusual feeling or symptom, they worry about it, thinking a serious medical or mental health problem is causing it. That worry can further increase stress, which can make things, including anxiety and its sensations and symptoms, seem even more dangerous and, therefore, harmful.

6. Anxious people are notorious worriers.

Anxious people are typically creative and have great imaginations.

So, when something out of the ordinary occurs, like anxiety and its symptoms, anxious people imagine the worst and then worry that the worst will come true.

Again, that worry increases stress, and that stress can increase the perception of danger. Increased perception of danger can increase the feelings of anxiety, creating yet another vicious cycle of anxiety feeding more anxiety.

7. Anxious people typically come from difficult backgrounds.

These difficult backgrounds often include physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and spiritual abuse. They also often include being abandoned, unloved, unappreciated, and made to feel they are worthless, “damaged” or inferior in some way.

Backgrounds like these teach people that bad things can happen if they aren’t EXTREMELY careful and that danger can come from anywhere, even from people they should trust. They also teach them to be highly sensitive to criticism and rejection.

This combination of factors can make it seem like anxiety can be harmful because of the potential for physical, psychological, and emotional harm from the anxiety itself and from the criticism and rejection from others because they struggle with anxiety and how it impacts their relationships and lives.

8. Many anxious people believe that anxiety is a life sentence of fear, despair, symptoms, and a significantly reduced quality of life.

So, they worry about anxiety and that potential outcome, which again increases stress, making everything seem more threatening.

As you can see, the combination of anxious behavior and stress can make anxiety and its symptoms seem like they can harm you. The higher the degree of anxiety and stress, the more harmful anxiety can seem.

Thankfully, we can remedy all this by:

1. Reducing stress

Reducing stress reduces the activity in the brain’s fear center, which reduces a heightened sense of danger. A reduction in danger perception can reduce a lot of anxiety.

2. Addressing your anxiety issues

As you deal with your anxiety issues, you’ll see that anxiety needn’t be a life sentence. Since we create anxiety through behavior, we can stop creating anxiety by learning and adopting healthy ways of behaving.

Replacing anxious behavior with healthy behavior eliminates problems with anxiety and its symptoms.

Yes, it takes work to overcome anxiety disorder. And often, that work is difficult.

But I believe all of us can do this work with the right information, help, and support. Therefore, no one needs to be stuck in long-term anxiety.

I struggled with severe anxiety disorder for 12 years, from 1974 to 1986. I often thought I was doomed to a miserable, fearful life.

But that was over 37 years ago.

So, if you are struggling with anxiety issues, I suggest connecting with one of our recommended therapists. Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to overcome problematic anxiety.

It’s our experience that a self-help approach alone is rarely successful, especially when anxiety disorder is in the moderate degree and above ranges. Those degrees of anxiety disorder almost always need professional help.

Nevertheless, doing the right work can eliminate problems with anxiety no matter the degree of severity or duration.

Many people have done this work and succeeded like we have.

The road to anxiety disorder recovery is well-known and well-travelled. We’d like everyone to become successful, too.

For more information about why anxiety isn’t medically harmful, watch our video “Can Anxiety Kill you?” The link is in the description.

When we say anxiety isn’t medically harmful, we are referring to the medical effects of anxiety. But that doesn’t mean anxiety can’t cause significant hardship and suffering. Because it can. Struggling with anxiety disorder can be a miserable experience.

For more information about how anxiety can impact our lives, watch the video “Can Anxiety Make You Sick?” The link is also in the description.