This text is based on a presentation entitled ‘Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders’. This is the second part of a six-part seminar series from OITE entitled ‘Mental Health & Wellbeing of Biomedical Researchers’ focused on mental health, which aims at providing strategies and tools to help participants support their own mental health and that of others.
Colloquially, we often speak about anxiety as a feeling, often referring to stress or worry. Anxiety is an expected emotion that arises situationally and does not significantly interfere with daily functioning over time. In fact, anxiety can bring to our attention the situations that are important to us. It can drive us and may help with performance, problem solving, and alerting us to threats. This type of anxiety can be helpful in carrying out the lives we want to live.
If anxiety becomes persistent and increases in severity, this can interfere with functioning. At times, this might look like avoiding the work that needs to get done. Other times, it might look like doing a lot of work, but not focused on the goals at hand. Both of these scenarios lead to a lack of balance and causes suffering. This type of anxiety is unhelpful because it outpaces the realistic threat level and gets in the way of what we need to do. Unhelpful anxiety can develop into anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, and panic disorder. There are a few factors that can affect severity in anxiety, including cognitive distortions and perfectionism.
Cognitive distortions are unhelpful thoughts we have around a specific situation that can drive unhelpful anxiety. These thoughts make it difficult to differentiate helpful and unhelpful anxiety. Because of this, it can be beneficial to find a trusted other to help you see how realistic the threat level is and recognize some cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions often keep us in cycles of emotion and behavior driven by shame and negative self-talk.
Perfectionism is another mechanism that can drive unhelpful anxiety, functioning as an unhelpful protector against pain. It centers the idea that if we do things perfectly, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame. Perfectionism can feel like the solution to many of our problems, especially in high-achieving environments; however, it creates great anxiety.
Now that we know these factors, how do we move away from it? Moving towards healthy striving can help us carry out our functions and reduce the amount of anxiety we experience. This looks like recognizing that mistakes are a part of learning and that our self-worth is not linked to our productivity. By managing cognitive distortions and reducing anticipatory anxiety, the process can be much more enjoyable.
Self-compassion is a tool that can help us achieve healthy striving as well. Self-compassion can replace the cognitive distortions and help you move away from the cycle of avoidance and overwork. This can be difficult to implement, but it can be helpful to think about how you would talk to a friend or a loved-one. How can you apply that same compassion towards yourself?
Oftentimes, we need the help of others to strive towards healthy practices. Communicating about your anxiety with others can be crucial in managing your anxiety. An important part of this is thinking about what you want from these conversations and deciding on a clear ask. It can also be helpful to clarify boundaries and practice the conversation.
Lastly, in order to do well, we also have to be well. Taking care of ourselves is a major part of managing anxiety, and it greatly aids in staying productive. We have to take care of our:
- Mind – staying present, self-compassion, healthy striving
- Body – proper sleep, nutrition, exercise, rest
- Heart – connection, community, nature
- Spirit – purpose, mindfulness
Oftentimes anxiety might feel daunting and an endless cycle; however, there are ways to move through the anxiety and achieve healthy striving. While this is a process, working through patterns of perfectionism and cognitive distortions with self-compassion allows us to stay present with our lives.
