I’m not anxious, am I? Take our quiz to find out
Anxiety is now becoming one of the commonest problems people suffer from. Stress at work, money worries, relationship break-downs all contribute to keep us anxious all day long and often into the night.
Many of us work long hours, almost one third of workers stay at their desk for more than 50 hours per week. And if you add in other roles such as child care that can put a whole lot of extra stress on our system.
What, me worry?
Now it’s normal to feel a bit uptight occasionally, the car won’t start, a bad day at work, a bit of a domestic when you get home. But when anxiety takes over and fills your waking hours with fear and worry, then you need to do something about it before it turns into a real mental illness.
The first step is to recognise that you are anxious or stressed. Surprisingly some people feel they are just operating on adrenaline and they are high achievers. But you can’t keep the frenetic activity up forever and many bomb out with adrenal fatigue.
Here are 7 warning signs that you are anxious or stressed
1) you feel uptight all the time and ‘wired.’
2) you find it difficult to relax without the aid of a few drinks or medication
3) you are always rushing even when there’s no need to
4) every problem seems like a big drama
5) you feel one more thing will drive you over the edge
6) you’re always irritable and snap at the kids or partner
7) you wake up in the middle of the night and spend the rest of it fretting about your worries
If you answer Yes to 3 or more questions, then you’re anxious.
Fright night, every night
What’s happening to your body is that your sympathetic nervous system is turned on all the time. Your sympathetic runs on adrenaline and you’re your body will keep making it until it’s told to switch off.
Normally your sympathetic should be balanced by your parasympathetic nervous system – that’s the one that counteracts adrenaline and calms you down. But most of us don’t do anything to activate it and nourish it. Meditation, aromatherapy, yoga – all of these kinds of activities stimulate the parasympathetic and balance the nervous system.
Start today to put these activities back on your schedule. No need for a chill pill, a sample and really easy way to calm down is to do candle meditation and you can do this anywhere, anytime with an online candle meditation video on youtube.
Bookmark this site on your phone or tablet, so you can relax anywhere, on the train, as your desk, make it a daily 10 minute habit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuSDmsoK4wc
Talk soon
Dr Shirley
