Sunday, July 12, 2020

The Anxiety-Panic Sequence (Part 1 of 3)

Self-awareness is half the battle when normal feelings of anxiety start to get away from you. Here are some tips for understanding worry and how it leads to anxiety

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By Quentin Steen, Representative

In our last Monday Mental Health Moment, we outlined the two most significant mental health problems in Canada: anxiety and depression. We gave you some helpful resources to help assess whether or not you might benefit from seeking appropriate professional help.

This week, we will look at a specific sequence of events that connect to anxiety, which many of us are familiar with. You may find some solace in knowing that tools are available to all of us, including our children, that can help us effectively manage anxiety.

First, let’s look at what the connection between anxiety and the dreaded panic attack, sometimes referred to as the anxiety-panic sequence. The reason I’m outlining this sequence is not to scare you but to make you aware of how your brain works and why it does what it does.

It’s important to recognize the anxiety-panic sequence because half the battle is your self-awareness of when normal feelings of anxiety are getting away from you. The other half is catching yourself when you are triggered and utilizing available tools to better manage yourself within this sequence.

Once you understand this sequence, it makes it easier to know where to go with what you or others around you are experiencing. It’s essential to try to catch yourself in this sequence as quickly as you can because left unchecked, it will wreak havoc.

This first stage of the anxiety-panic sequence is embedded in worry. Worry is the thought process that creates the feelings and emotions experienced as anxiety. Worry is a feeling that’s more associated with the need to be prepared for what might be happening around the corner.

Now, this can be useful in helping us to find solutions to problems. But often, worrying centres on problems or issues that cannot currently be solved. The stress of situations and circumstances we can do little to nothing about feeds our worry, and our worry, in turn, feeds our stress.

TIP: I find it helpful to organize my worries into three cylinders.

Cylinder One – Stuff I have control over in the here and now (e.g., my finances). I can do something about it today. I can create a budget or revise my current one to reflect my reality or meet with a financial advisor for assistance.

Cylinder Two – Stuff I have control over when the time comes (e.g., my lease is up in six months, and I will need to find a new place to live). I create a plan with a timeline of things I need to do to be ready for when that day comes.

Cylinder Three – Stuff I have little or no control over that may or may not happen (e.g., weather, grid lock, being laid off, the past, the future, other people’s minds or happiness, etc.). Generally speaking, this is the cylinder where I’m learning to put most of my worries because this is where most of our worries should be rightfully placed. And, if you haven’t guessed already, it takes work to leave them there.

After worry, the second stage of the anxiety-panic sequence is anxiety. Anxiety is like putting our bodies on yellow alert. It’s our brain’s way of looking out for possible dangers in our environment and often centres on trying to find certainty in uncertain situations.

Our brain’s survival tactic is to ask the question, what if? Many people’s brains are entrenched in these questions as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. What if I get laid off? What if my child contracts the virus? What if these symptoms I’m experiencing are the start of the virus?

The list of what if’s can seem endless, and the toll it can take on our brains, bodies, and each other can be exhausting.

TIP: No matter what is feeding your anxiety, stay away from stimulants of any kind, especially caffeine, as it feeds the frenzied, anxious brain. If you need your coffee fix, get it in before 1 p.m. Remember, caffeine has a half-life that loves to revisit us in the evening and rob us of a good night of uninterrupted sleep.

In our next Monday Mental Health Moment, we’ll look more closely at the third stage of the anxiety-panic sequence: fear. In the meantime, here are two helpful resources to check out for more information about depression, anxiety, and stress.

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale – This 42-item self-report instrument is designed to measure the three related negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, and tension/stress.
Mindyourmind.ca – This is an award-winning, innovative resource for youth who are looking for relevant information on mental health and creative stress management.

Quentin Steen is a certified mental health first aid instructor for the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Get your BRAIN right and your MIND will follow!

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You During the Pandemic

Stronger Minds features videos and quick reads from mental health experts, activities to help you gain resilience, and ask-an-expert videos in response to questions.
WellCan offers free well-being resources to help Canadians develop coping strategies and build resilience to help deal with uncertainty, mental health, and substance abuse concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wellness Together Canada: Mental Health and Substance Use Support provides free online resources, tools, apps, and connections to trained volunteers and qualified mental health professionals.
CLAC is also continuing to make available to all members and their families our employment and family assistance program. If you or your loved ones are struggling, please do not hesitate to reach out for help today.

The Anxiety-Panic Sequence (Part 1 of 3)

4 Mental Health Resources to Help You During the Pandemic

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