Is it just stress and worry or have I got an anxiety disorder?

We all get stressed from time to time. Suddenly realising that you’re late for work, complaining about poor service or arguing with the person who took your place in the queue – things like this would be stressful for anyone. In this sort of situation your pulse rate rises, your breathing becomes faster, your body starts pumping adrenaline – this gives you the energy to deal with the situation. After an experience like this you may well feel drained, a bit shaky and generally unsettled, but you’ll soon return to normal

Worry can have a similar effect – worrying because a teenager is late home or your boss has asked to see you will produce physical changes, and the same recovery process afterwards.

Both stress and worry can be long term as well as short term. So you can be constantly stressed due to money worries, or relationship difficulties, or have a long-term worry about your health. Again you will experience physical changes that will feel uncomfortable, and that will wear off when the stress or worry is over.

All of these experiences are perfectly normal, if unpleasant, and most of the time most people can cope with them.

Sometimes however things go wrong. Instead of recovering from the episode of stress or worry, you can get stuck there, and that’s when you can develop an anxiety disorder.

It’s impossible to predict when, or even if, stress and worry will turn into anxiety because we are all different. Some people can cope with high levels of stress and worry, others simply can’t. The important thing is to learn to understand yourself, and what it is that you need to cope with life’s difficulties.

Basically it comes down to taking good care of yourself, especially if the stress and worry are long term and ongoing. It’s easiest to form good habits at times when life is going well, then you can make sure you maintain them when times are tough. These are the things you need to do:

EAT WELL Good nutrition will help you feel able to face life’s difficulties. Be sure to eat breakfast. For most of us there is a long overnight period without food, and you need to literally break your fast to give you energy for the day’s activities. Don’t go too long without eating something, and try to avoid sweets, biscuits and cake – the sugar content gives you a quick lift but that soon wears off.

SLEEP WELL Make your bedroom an oasis of calm – best with no TV or computer – and wind down gradually at the end of the day. Try to let go of all your worries – you can always write them down, and tell yourself you’ll pick up on them in the morning.

EXERCISE WELL The fitter you are, the better equipped you’ll be to deal with stress and worry, although you don’t have to be an Olympic athlete. If you build some vigorous exercise into your weekly schedule you’ll also burn off many of the physical side effects of stress.

BREATHE WELL Physical and mental tension often cause shallow rapid breathing. Make a conscious effort to slow your breathing down, and be sure to breathe out fully before you breathe in.

RELAX WELL In the West we don’t pay much attention to this side of life, and yet it is vitally important. Meditation is a good way of relaxing, but you could also do a simple muscle relaxation exercise once or twice a day. If you lie down, close your eyes and think about each part of your body in turn, deliberately relaxing it, then you will find that you are much calmer and more energised for the rest of the day. If you find this difficult, use a Relaxation cd to guide you through.

All of these things will help you keep your stress at a manageable level. What about if you already have an anxiety disorder? You may be having panic attacks, be suffering from a phobia, or be struggling to cope with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Generalised Anxiety Disorder (where you have constant anxious feelings but no specific focus for them). Be sure to talk to your doctor about this, as well as looking at the things you can do to help yourself.

Start by looking at your lifestyle, and make changes to your eating, sleeping, exercising, breathing and relaxing. After that, you’ll need to follow a carefully designed recovery programme to help you move forward to a better life. You can find an explanation of how to do this in FREE YOURSELF FROM ANXIETY by Emma Fletcher and Martha Langley (published by How To Books, ISBN 978-1- 84528-311-7). And if you want to talk to someone about it, there is a free Anxiety helpline in the UK which you can call on 0845 120 2916, or visit http://www.first-steps.org/.