5 Reasons Why Ignoring Anxiety Can Make You Feel Worse by Robyn Tamanaha, LMFT
What is it?
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress or a perceived threat. In small amounts, anxiety can be helpful and keep an individual safe, but if the anxiety is severe or frequent, it can have a major impact on an individual's life.
Some common anxiety symptoms are (DSM, 2017):
Experiencing worried thoughts and trouble controlling the worries
Feelings of physical restlessness
Tired or fatigued
Trouble concentrating or focusing
Irritability
Physical discomfort, such as tension
Trouble falling or staying asleep
What happens?
It’s not uncommon to make attempts to ignore the anxiety, distract from it, or avoid addressing it. Interestingly, not addressing the anxiety can feed into it, lower the individual's tolerance for distress, and have serious impacts on the individual's life.
Reasons Why Ignoring Anxiety Can Make You Feel Worse
It doesn’t actually make it go away. Although you don’t want the anxiety to be present, it’s arrived and it might return again.
It can grow stronger. Sometimes, trying to push something away, leads it to try harder to make itself known. This can be the increased severity of the anxiety, increased frequency, or manifesting in other ways, such as physical discomfort.
It doesn’t lead to solutions. There are treatments, strategies, and steps that can be taken in order to address the source or underlying issue.
It’s defeating and can lead to feelings of failure. This is when an individual experiences any small percentage of anxiety, and then thinks, “It’s here again, I failed.”
It doesn’t allow for coping skills and strategies. There are effective and proven strategies to manage anxiety when it occurs.
You don’t have to do this alone. If you are interested in receiving therapy with me, let’s schedule a free 15-minute phone consult.
My office is located in Irvine, which is near Newport Beach, Orange, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Tustin, Seal Beach, and beyond. I work with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and Asian American & Pacific Islanders.
Disclaimer: This information is being provided to you for educational and informational purposes only. The topics being discussed are meant as a self-help tool for you own use. It is not psychotherapy or counseling. This information is to be used based on your own judgment. If you need to speak with a professional, you should find one local to you and contact them directly.