The prevalence of anxiety disorders across the world varies from 2.5 to 7 percent by country. Globally an estimated 284 million people experienced an anxiety disorder in 2017, making it the most prevalent mental health or neurodevelopmental disorder.
Anxiety is a topic that we often don’t talk about it even though probably many of us have these anxious moments. Well, it’s normal to have anxious moments in life, but I’m talking about those moments when our mind is blank or the opposite; filled with too many things that it blows our mind and causes anxiety for a certain period.
Many people know me as the ‘’ positive’’ Ozzin and many people might think that my life is ‘’flawless’’ because I just appear positive and motivated most of the time. The truth is that I deal a lot with anxiety issues. But I found ways on how to react on them and today, I would love to share my experiences with you.
Sleepless Nights
There were nights where I couldn’t fall asleep. There were moments where I just would cry for no specific reason. There were moments I would change my mood from absolutely happy to absolutely sad, but at the same time grateful. There were moments I was highly motivated but still doubted on some things. There were moments where I just overthink. I didn’t understand why I was feeling in this dynamic way. It left me with sleepless nights, sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night, I had panic attacks, I was sweating, I was crying, I was fine but yet overwhelmed with many mixed emotions at the same time, I was worried about many things in life.
The thing is, I never felt this during my days. I didn’t feel depressed or sad in a serious way. In fact, I was super excited for my day to get started and I just made the best out of it in positive ways. Of course, we all have good and bad days. Anxiety was not present during the days. I often felt this in the evenings before I go to sleep or when I stayed up late after midnight.
But the question I asked myself one day is: WHY?
Why do I have anxiety? Since when do I have it? What’s my problem? What can I do about it?
I was trying to think about it critically. Because anxiety doesn’t come just out of nowhere. There is always something that triggers us to feel in the way we feel. To prevent anxiety and deal with it, you need to go back to the source. To the main source of what triggered you long time back.
Past, Presence And Future Is A Package
We’ve been told to live in the present moment, right? But I believe, we can only live more peacefully in the present moment once we understood and embraced our past. We need to know ourselves well, love ourselves and understand why we are in this situation we are in now. This, takes patience and effort. We need to know where we’re going. Only if you embrace your dark past or any hard times you’ve gone through in life, you can master the presence and create a better future. The more dark times you’ve gone through in life, the stronger you will get and the more wisdom you will have once you overcame it.
What Caused My Anxiety
Once I reflected on it why I have anxiety issues, I wrote it down and visualize it for me. I began to realize that many things from past or recent events made me feel in this way. I found out that sometimes it was an influence of negative people that drained my energy, it came from toxic relationships, it came from family problems, financial problems, it came from personal problems related to my career, it came from drinking too much coffee and overworking myself sometimes too much, it came from poor sleep habits and unbalanced diet, it came from past traumas I had as a child, it came from too high standards I have to myself, it came from being too kind and caring to others, it came from ego, it came from the amount of things I wanted to accomplish, it came from the things I heard and surrounded with during my days, it came from so many different sources.
But the main trigger was caused from my traumas I’ve went through for months and years. I had to embrace these traumas and think of ways how to turn all those negative events into something more amazing that brings value to myself and others.
How I Deal With Anxiety
There are many ways on how to overcome anxiety or deal with it everytime it appears again. I will share the things I did and still do once it appears again:
Food and Vitamins
There are 6 science-backed foods and beverages that may provide anxiety relief:
- Salmon
- Chamomile
- Turmeric
- Dark Chocolate
- Yogurt
- Green Tea
There are also some vitamin supplements for anxiety. Here the top 9:
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B complex
- Magnesium
- L-theanine
- Multivitamins
- Omega-3
- Valerian root
It’s A Signal For A Better Life
We need to understand that anxiety is a signal. Because you deal with anxiety doesn’t mean you are sick. Of course it can get serious and it is categorized as a ‘’mental disease’’, but remember it’s simply a signal telling you that you need to change something in your life. Consider it as an opportunity to change your life to something better.
Sometimes it seems like our circumstances makes it impossible to change it and we are caught in a cycle. Same with bad habits. But it’s something that you can heal by yourself. You just need to understand your why, embrace your past and let it go with more great thoughts for the future you’re heading too. You must be more hungry than all your fears and fight it back with love.
Conclusion
Be patient with yourself. Like a scar, it’s not something that just fades away in a few days and also bad habits cannot be fixed in a few days. It’s an ongoing process that takes months, sometimes even years to implement it successfully as part of our life.
Anxiety doesn’t really vanish forever. It’s just like any other feeling you have — sadness, happiness, frustration, anger, love, and so on. Just like you can’t ever eliminate those emotions from your brain, you can’t rid anxiety from your brain once and for all. But what you can do it to constantly work on yourself including your mindset and absorbing the right energies around you.
Strive always to be the best version of yourself. Keep on believing in yourself and embrace it. I hope this has helped you. If you need someone to talk to, you can reach out to me anytime!
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Sources:
- Ritchie, H. (2018). Mental Health. Our World In Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health
- My personal experiences and advices
Ozzin Jun 