Feeling Anxious

Anxiety

Anxiety can have a big impact on someone’s life, sometimes it can feel like fear.

There might be certain situations that trigger anxiety or sometimes, people can struggle with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, which for example often affects sleep and you worry about many different things.

The causes for anxiety are often rooted in past childhood traumas, where we might have felt powerless and not good enough.  There are many possible causes, too many to mention here.

Anxiety and negative thoughts

We learn about ourselves, primarily during childhood and may have internalised subtle or overt cues from caregivers that lead us to believe that we are not good enough. These childhood experiences, as with all life experiences, lead us to develop and internalise many negative thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and the world.  In turn, we might struggle to navigate our way in the world.

Anxiety, feelings and emotions

As children, painful feelings and emotions often need to be kept hidden for different reasons such as learning that when expressed, no one listens or being told to keep quiet or for the protection of others’ feelings or that to cope with life it serves children well to ignore them and pretend everything is ok. Whatever the reason, children learn to cover their feelings and emotions so no one notices, and the child can pretend that all is ok.  Therefore, when feelings and emotions are triggered, we feel waves of anxiety as we unconsciously continue to supress these feelings and emotions.