3 ms·
Self-awareness about anxiety certainly seems to have an impact. After it was suggested to me that I might have some 'anxiety issues', my anxiety issues got way
by westoncb 9y ago
Self-awareness about anxiety certainly seems to have an impact. After it was suggested to me that I might have some 'anxiety issues', my anxiety issues got way worse, probably because of a positive feedback loop the self-awareness created: if I noticed I was exhibiting symptoms of anxiety, the symptoms would start increasing since anxiety symptoms were something I was anxious about.
Edit: I mean to also point out that as our society becomes more conscious of the effects/risks associated with anxiety, it increases the likelihood of creating issues like what I described above.
- wutbrodo 9y agoCounter-anecdotally, this worked the opposite way for me. I had a pretty shitty childhood and had panic attacks until I was about 24 and realized it by googling air hunger. Prior to that, I was so clueless that I thought that my regular inability to fill my lungs was due to my minor allergy issues or something, and had no idea why I would seemingly unpredictably start sweating and (separately) why my heart would beat rapidly sometimes. Being able to identify the problem made it way easier to handle, even before I started actively trying to fix it with things like mindfulness. These days whenever I notice air hunger, I stop and think what I might be anxious about and am usually able to reason my way out of subconsciously freaking out (even if it's as simple as "this isn't going to make it _more_ likely that the situation resolves well"). It seems just as likely to me that more awareness of anxiety will work in the opposite direction from what you're describing, mitigating anxiety off for people earlier since they're able to start recognizing and managing it earlier through greater awareness.