Anxiety – is it an addiction?

Take a moment and listen to people in your environment or to the voices that are constantly talking in your head. Do you notice how prevalent anxiety, fear, and chronic stress have become? Our society is increasingly characterized by these feelings. Can you relate? If this sounds relevant to you, continue reading – if you live a peaceful and blissful life, perhaps also continue reading, as this may be of interest to others in your life who could benefit from this information. 💚 And if you perceive that anxiety is not a relevant theme at all, stop reading and continue happily with your life 😁🙏🏼

When anxiety strikes, many people experience noticeable physical changes like altered breathing, an increased heart rate, or excessive sweating. And, there are other non visible signs: it often becomes challenging to focus on anything other than the source of anxiety, long nights battling obsessive thoughts make sleep elusive, which in turn leads to even more anxiety as the ongoing lack of energy affects the ability to perform daily activities.

So… What is Anxiety?

According to the dictionary, anxiety is defined as a mental state marked by great restlessness, intense excitement, and extreme insecurity.

Anxiety is essentially a response to perceived threats. It’s our body’s way of preparing us to deal with danger. However, in modern society, these perceived threats are often not life-threatening but rather stressors related to daily life. Our brain’s inability to distinguish between real and perceived threats can lead to chronic anxiety.

But, what fuels Anxiety? What leads us to feel anxious? 

Anxiety is a complex emotional response with various causes rooted in both our biology and our environment. Here are some key reasons why people feel anxious:

• Negative thinking patterns, such as excessive worrying or catastrophizing, can contribute to anxiety. How we perceive and interpret events can significantly impact our anxiety levels.
• Traumatic events or negative experiences, especially during childhood, can make individuals more susceptible to anxiety. These experiences can shape how we respond to stress and perceive threats.
• Chronic stress from work, relationships, financial issues, or health concerns can trigger anxiety. The more stressors we face, the higher the likelihood of experiencing anxiety.
• Poor habits such as  sleep disorders, lack of physical activity, and an unhealthy diet can exacerbate anxiety. Substance abuse and excessive caffeine or alcohol intake can also contribute to anxiety symptoms.
• Social pressures, such as the need to fit in or meet certain expectations, can increase anxiety. The rise of social media and constant connectivity has amplified these pressures.

There are indeed a wide array of reasons why we might experience anxiety. Yet, there are three key perception patterns which lead us to feel everything happening in life as a constant, ongoing threat: the need to control everything because we want to ensure things go as we need them to, the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty about the future, and the helplessness that comes from not being able to ensure everything happens the way we want, when we want. Does this sound familiar to you? 🤔 (it does to me, as I am indeed a control freak in recovery! 🙋‍♀️)

This powerful triad generates a pressing need to manipulate life events, and we become obsessed with wanting to know when, where, with whom or how a certain result will occur. Life constantly presents us with challenges in which, although we might try with all our might to manipulate the circumstances, uncertainty consumes us, and the consequent anxiety amplifies the insecurities with which we were programmed since childhood: the fear of not being enough, the fear of being rejected by family, friends or work collaborators, the anguish of not having the necessary skills to face challenges in a controlled, effective and satisfactory manner.

Our culture has “normalized” this way of living – anxiety is the new “stress” – The apparent psychological rewards lead to a kind of emotional addiction in which we need the daily dose of worry and stress that life’s challenges cause. And that addiction leads us to create a constant circle of difficulties to feed the anxiety, which in turn, we “transmit” to others as a virus by constantly sharing messages associated with anxiety and fear – verbally and/or via social media.

For years, this was my reality. I was emotionally addicted to creating a series of situations that generated the necessary dose to feed the state of fear, anxiety and deep stress! Until I found the antidote and the way to quit the addiction. An easy, simple and effective way to recognize that this addiction to anxiety was based on self-limiting programs imprinted in the subconscious mind which were the foundation of my need to control everything.

This antidote is a process called PSYCH-K® with which we can access the subconscious mind in a simple, practical and effective way to give it updated information with self-enhancing subconscious beliefs and perceptions, in order to experience life with more peace, more joy and more serenity.

If you are ready to be a more authentic version of yourself, find information at psych-k.com about upcoming workshops to become a PSYCH-K® Facilitator or to begin your process with a Facilitator through individual sessions.