estimated 14 per cent of Australians at any
one time according to SANE Australia. “They
are related. Generally you’re not going to feel
anxiety unless you’re in a stressful situation;
however, anxiety itself creates stress. It tends to
be a vicious circle and it can be hard to know
where it starts,” says psychologist Eric Lyleson.
“Usually there are stressors – pressures that are
frightening or challenging – and with self-
doubt and negative thinking, it’s quickly made
into more than it is.”
Anxiety is often an attempt to block out
hard-to-face fears. “It’s avoiding things by
distracting ourselves, or even thinking about
worst-case scenarios, rather than actually
tackling things,” says Lyleson.
According to psychologist and co-author
of The Mindful Way through Anxiety Dr
Susan Orsillo, fear and anxiety are the
ultimate drama queens. “Instead of issuing
sensible warnings about potential danger,
they scream alarms or nag incessantly. Rather
than bringing you peace of mind, they
commandeer your attention until everything
seems like a potential threat, making it hard to
pursue what matters most to you,” she says.
PANIC STATIONS
Despite its image as a mental state, anxiety
is physiological. “Typically you’re going to
have some adrenalin being dumped into the
system, which leads to a raised heart rate, a
change in the breathing; sometimes it gets
faster, some people hold their breath,” Lyleson
says. “You may get a tightness in the chest or
belly and butterflies in the stomach, you might
become flushed in the face and get sweaty
armpits,” he says.
Meanwhile, your brain’s panic centre, the
amygdala, is in overdrive.
“Now you’re going ‘Oh my god, I’m getting
an anxiety attack’ and you’re afraid now of
the fear and afraid of the anxiety attack and
you’re imagining yourself panicking and how
you’re going to screw everything up, which
escalates the anxiety, dumps more adrenalin
and cortisol and other stress hormones into
the system, trying to prepare you for the ‘fight
or flight’ response.”
According to psychologist and author
of The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management
Techniques Dr Margaret Wehrenberg, the
amygdala registers all emotions but prefers the
frightening ones. “The action of the amygdala
is something like a smoke detector for your
body and brain. A smoke detector does not
respond to the pleasant aroma of baking
bread, but if that bread starts to burn, it causes
quite an alarm.”
It releases energising neurotransmitter
norepinephrine before the rest of the brain
can appraise the situation while storing the
moment of terror as an instruction to activate
the same response to subsequent similar
triggers – which is why anxiety tends to be
self-perpetuating.BURIED TENSION
One challenge in identifying the causes of
stress is that it often emanates from a nebulous
cluster, which is why it can feel overwhelming
and unmanageable. Never mind the stressors
themselves. Once you make an effort to track
them down and identify them, however, you
can take action steps. Money stress, mess stress
and friend/relationship stress are common.
If your finances are out of control,
founder of msmoney.com.au Susan Jackson
recommends starting by streamlining your
money into three accounts – one for bills
and fixed costs, one for savings and one for
discretionary costs.
If your home environment’s cluttered or
messy, it will also contribute according to
professional organiser Claire McFee, from
Organize Your Life.“Conduct at least two big household culls
a year. Make sure you have heaps of garbage
bags at the ready to fill and remove from the
house. Make the op shop your best friend, and
be ruthless,” she says.
Once you’ve decluttered the house, do the
same with your paperwork. “Start a folder
full of lists you need in the short, medium
and long term, such as health records, library
items on loan, books to read, downloaded
TV shows to watch, household budget and
birthday reminders.”
Friendships and relationships are another
underrated source of stress according to
relationship counsellor Elly Taylor, author
of Becoming Us: The Essential Relationship
Guide for Parents. In an Australian study,
people with a large group of friends were 22
per cent less likely to die during the 10-year
study period than people with fewer friends.
Toxic relationships or those past their use-by
date can also cramp your head space – as can
feeling as though you’ve lost touch with your
network. If it’s the former, cutting them loose
will be a weight off your mind while there’s
no time like the present to correct the latter.
“Most people are very flattered when an old
friend gets in touch,” Taylor says. “Old friends
often connect us to a time when life wasn’t so
messy and complicated.”And breathe
Proper breathing is the new quinoa. Not
only can it calm you quicker than you
can say ‘meltdown’, it can safeguard your
body and mind from the effects of stress
according to Ros Ben-Moshe, director of
LaughLife Wellbeing Programs (laughlife.
com.au). “Breathing deeply and slowly will
relax you while instantly sending powerful
doses of oxygen to the brain and every
single cell of the body,” she says.
If you breathe on autopilot – and most
people do – you’re probably not getting
enough oxygen. Without paying attention,
most people take many short, shallow
breaths instead of long, deep ones. Over
time, this choppy breathing can lead to
muscle fatigue, exhaustion and heightened
stress, Ben-Moshe says.
A study at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison found that soldiers suffering
PTSD who practised controlled breathing
yoga reduced their anxiety, breathing ratesand PTSD symptoms within a week with
researchers crediting the mitigating effects
on the autonomic nervous system.
Think you’re doing your best breathing?
You might be surprised.STEP ONEBREATHE
THROUGH YOUR
NOSTRILS
Your nostrils are more useful than they look.
Breathing through them heats air, which
travels more easily around the body than
cold air.
Breathing through the mouth has been
blamed for various health issues. Research
published in journal General Dentistry in
2010 revealed that children’s mouth breathing
changed the shape of their faces, and led