Anxiety is something that most everyone can relate to, whether they have a diagnosis or not. That’s because (as with all emotions) we are biologically wired to experience anxiety in certain situations. Anxiety serves a purpose, and its purpose is to keep us alive. We can think of anxiety as our internal alarm system, and it lets us know when we are in danger. Anxiety doesn’t require us to think because thinking takes precious time that may cost us our lives. Imagine a tiger coming at us – it would not be wise to start thinking about the pros and cons of running or hiding.  Anxiety motivates us to act quickly so that we can get ourselves to safety.

However, sometimes anxiety can become a problem as our internal alarm system may become over-sensitive and trigger more false alarms than actual signals of danger. Keep in mind our biology is already wired to be over-sensitive and trigger more danger cues than safety cues as this is what has kept our species alive. However, sometimes through life circumstances, early developmental experiences or traumatic events, our nervous system becomes even more biassed to interpreting situations as threats to our safety.

Anxiety doesn’t have to rule our lives. Therapy can be helpful in finding ways to understand and cope with anxiety. Because anxiety is a physiological response that happens in our body, I believe the first step in therapy is to look at the tangible ways of looking after our body (nutrition, exercise, lifestyle). Once we have provided our body with all it needs to feel safe, we can start the work of examining our thoughts and beliefs and explore how they may be feeding our anxiety. All change begins with awareness, and the goals of therapy are always couched in shedding light on areas of our lives or inner world that we may have been ignoring thus far. Armed with this awareness, we are then ready to make some changes.

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