We have been told over and over again that chronic anxiety is a mental disorder, and while there is a certain about of "disorder" in the mind that causes anxiety, this sort of label misses the underlying cause of anxiety and does nothing but put a sufferer down.
In reality, anxiety is caused by certain thinking habits. And when people get so entrenched in emotionally-charged thinking that the symptoms cause an "unbearable" amount of suffering, we (medically) put them on medication and put them through talk-therapy (which isn't totally a bad thing, but I find talk-therapy to not properly get at the heart of anxiety). Anxiety is caused by thinking patterns that occur because of a perceived environmental threat, and if the symptoms get bad enough, the anxiety attaches itself to these sensations, causing the person to worry about their own heath (causing a further perpetuation of anxiety). Anxiety is a bad perceptual habit. What do I mean by this? Well, we can view the symptoms of anxiety (such as sweating, heart racing, tense feeling in chest and throat, sweaty hands, etc) differently, and while doing so, disarming the viewing of these things as being a threat. One of the best ways of doing this is to stop viewing anxiety as a problem. In fact, stop viewing everything as a problem, nothing is a problem, and just become aware of the cause of the symptoms.
Becoming aware of the thought process allows us to view it objectively, and while viewing a thought objectively, it is viewed with a more rational lens. In the same way that if we know we are dreaming during a nightmare, it becomes much less scary, if we become aware that a thought is just a thought, it loses its emotional punch. I've brought this basic idea up in a few other blog posts, but it is very important to overcoming anxiety. Mindfulness in general is what is important in overcoming behavioral problems (which is what anxiety is). To put it simply, our brains functions in two modes: "objective/logical and emotional/reflex". Anxiety exists in the reflexive emotional part of the brain. You see, the point of emotion is largely to allow people to make quick decisions without having to think everything out (such as when people get a "gut feeling"). If you are in your head a lot, and everything seems fuzzy and worry thoughts constantly stream through your head, your brain is engaged in a way that will cause perpetual anxiety and stress in general.
My anxiety used to be horrible (I had bad generalized anxiety and social anxiety, which led to some nasty depression), but I started to realize these two-modes of operation in the brain. To show you what I mean, try this little experiment.
1) Find a particular point around you to stare at (like a dot, or a fixed point that is easy to concentrate
on).
2) Keep concentrating on the dot, whenever your attention drifts (as it will) just bring it back to concentrating
3) Do this for at least 10 minutes (it's best to use an alarm, try not to worry about the amount of time that has passed, because this is distracting)
4) After 10 minutes or so, begin to scan all the objects around you. Look at them with purpose, don't just label them an look through them.
If you do this, you should notice some interesting effects. This is how the brain is suppose to function, this mode is the mode the brain is engaged in when it is relaxed. Chronic worrying causes the brain to have a shift to utilize parts of the brain associated with worrying. This leads to a reduced awareness of the senses, leading to depersonalization and derealization (which is why mindfulness is so damn important for overcoming anxiety).
