Good and bad anxiety – the Republic
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What to do when the limit is exceeded
by CINZIA LUCCHELLI
Anxiety is part of us. And we need it. Without anxiety we would have become extinct: as predators and prey, without an element of alarm to activate flight and attack behavior, we would not have survived. In the right measure it pushes us to stay alert and achieve goals. An interrogation, a work deadline, a speech in public. But when it is excessive it can become pervasive and have debilitating consequences. The good news, for those who are more vulnerable, is that as the brain learns to be anxious, it can also learn not to be. Change isn’t easy, but it’s possible: the brain is adaptable.
The word anxiety comes from the Latin angere which means to squeeze, suffocate, oppress. Restlessness, anguish, worry, apprehension, breathlessness, trepidation. If the Inuit have many words for snow, we have many to express this condition. More or less scientifically appropriate, they tell us how much anxiety is meaningful to us.
To each his concern
There is always someone or something to be worried about, agitated, stressed about. At any time of the day, especially at night when our mind is freer and leaves room for worries.
But not all of us are anxious to the same extent, everyone is anxious in their own way. The general level of anxiety is a fairly stable personality trait: we may move from our center but we always come back.
Some people, hypersensitive, worry about everything. They feel bad about situations they have no control over and when faced with risky options in a situation of uncertainty; they ruminate on how different their present might be if they had made different choices in the past. They imagine worst-case scenarios and are consumed with implementing plans that previously prevented bad things from happening.
Other people, on the other hand, take everything with greater detachment.
When it’s too much
There is physiological, healthy anxiety, and there is excessive, pathological anxiety.
In the second case, cognitively distorted thoughts can arise: “I will never be able to get out of this situation”, “I will go crazy if the anxiety doesn’t pass”. This leads to a second level of malaise. The symptoms worsen: in addition to the anxiety there is the fear that the anxiety will no longer go away.
When it reaches an intensity, frequency or duration such as to affect everyday life, it is called an anxiety disorder.
There is generalized anxiety, that of those who worry excessively, uncontrollably and prolonged for no real reason. The constant restlessness can be accompanied by a series of physical ailments such as tachycardia, sweating, insomnia, difficulty in concentrating.
Then there are specific phobias such as those for animals; for the natural environment (heights) or situational (being trapped in an enclosed space). And there’s social phobia, overwhelming fears of certain social situations. Panic attacks are also an acute form of anxiety.
Strategies for body and mind
Memory is our sleep. It’s what we eat, the physical activity we do, the books we’ve studied and the ones we’ve continued to read. It is connected to our lifestyle and we have to start from here if we want to strengthen it. Eliminating risk factors and cultivating healthy habits. The secret is to start quickly, move young
A production
Scientific supervision of Vincenzo Di Lazzaro, director of Neurology and dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital of Rome
Editorial coordination Annalisa D’April, graphics Raphael Aloia
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