Do I Have an Anxiety Disorder?

We all feel anxious from time to time, but lately we have all been feeling anxious a lot more. Of course, you could justify your anxiety by looking at the state of the world. The economy is slumping, the dollar is falling, oil prices are rising, food prices are rising, the weather is getting worse everywhere. There are millions of reasons to be anxious in today’s world, but could it be something worse? Do I have an anxiety disorder?

The word Disorder in itself is enough to make you anxious. Words have a lot of power and often the word disorder implies something terribly wrong. Disorder itself is defined as a condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning. It sounds very clinical but the definition itself gives us the answer to deal with Anxiety!

Our biggest anxiety is that the anxiety itself is abnormal, strange, or possibly even insane. When saddled with the label ‘disorder’ we suddenly start to think of ourselves differently, act differently, and even become more anxious about what was once very simple. Without even realizing it we create more anxiety about our anxiety. This is what I call the downward spiral and it is not fun. There is only one way out.

Choice. If you read the last paragraph carefully you will see that we are choosing to think differently about ourselves. As soon as we decide there are reasons to be anxious, we become anxious. As hard as it might be to believe, your anxiety attacks start hours before you have them. They start when you start becoming afraid of having an anxiety attack, when you become afraid of being anxious around others, and even when you tell yourself that its hard to get over your anxiety.

Remember that Anxiety is NOT a disturbance of normal function. Anxiety is quite normal. The beast your fighting gets bigger every time you decide its bigger. Stop taking it seriously, stop fearing your own fear, and the beast disappears forever.