Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a term used to describe uncomfortable feelings of nervousness, worry, and

tension, which we all feel from time to time. Anxiety can affect anyone, whatever
their age, gender etc. It affects our thoughts, physical reactions, moods and
behaviours. Anxiety can also cause us to feel panicky and frightened and prevent us
from doing things. Too much stress in our lives can result in higher levels of anxiety.

Anxiety is also a perfectly normal response to threat, and in some situations that are
really threatening it can be helpful in preparing us for action. Some degree of anxiety
can improve our performance in certain situations such as job interviews, taking
exams, sporting events, or even helping us to pay our bills on time. However, if
anxiety occurs too often and for no apparent reason, or if it begins to interfere with
our life, then it has become a problem.

We know from research that at any one time, there are many people experiencing
anxiety that is a problem to them. Anxiety can either be very general; affecting many
areas of our lives, or it may be more specific to certain situations such as crowded
places, talking to people or travelling on buses. It could even occur as a specific
phobia such as a fear of lifts or a fear of spiders.

How does anxiety affect us?

Anxiety affects us in four main ways:

1. Physical effects – when we are anxious we will feel many physical symptoms of
anxiety, such as a pounding heart, a churning stomach, or breathing difficulties.
Long-term stress also affects us physically.

2. Thoughts – when we are anxious we tend to worry and have negative thoughts
like “What if I make a fool of myself”, or “What if I suffocate / faint /have a
heart attack”. As well as thoughts, we may experience images or pictures in our
mind such as an image of a car crash or someone criticising us.

3. Mood – anxiety itself is a type of mood. Anxiety and prolonged stress can also
affect our moods in other ways. For example, if we experience anxiety that
restricts our lives over a long period of time, we may feel guilty, down and
depressed.

4. Behaviour - anxiety also affects our behaviour, changing the things we feel able
to do. This can result in avoidance of many things, such as going into a
supermarket or going to the dentist. When we can’t avoid things we may do
things to make us feel safe, such as always having someone with us, or carrying
tablets that we don’t really need.

We will look at how to deal with problems in these four areas in the following
sections. Although we look at these areas in separate sections, it is important to
realise that they affect one another. For example, our thoughts about something
affects our feelings and our feelings affect us physically. This is an important part of
understanding anxiety and we will say a lot more about this throughout the pack.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

The diagram below shows how these four areas (thoughts, mood, behaviour, physical)
all link together and affect each other. It shows how every aspect of a person’s life
influences all the others. For example, changes in our thoughts influence
our physical reactions which influences our mood and behaviour.
It also shows that the environment (stresses, stressful situations) can cause anxiety and
problems in these four areas.

The next section describes various ways in which anxiety can develop.

Thoughts - e.g. “I’m going to

have a heart attack”, “I’ll
make a fool of myself”

Physical effects Mood - e.g. anxiety,

- e.g. racing heart, depression, guilt
dizziness, breathless

Behaviour - e.g. avoidance,

escaping a situation

 
ENVIRONMENT

e.g. Stresses

Adapted from Greenberger, D., and Padesky, C.A., 1995. Mind Over Mood. London:
The Guilford Press.

How does anxiety develop into a problem?

There are many different reasons why anxiety develops into a problem, and these vary
from person to person. Examples of common reasons leading to increased anxiety are
included below – you may be able to think of additional ones.

Increased anxiety can develop:

• after a long or intense period of stress and worry.
• as a result of unpleasant or stressful life events. These may include, the death of a
loved one, serious illness (yours or someone close to you), the break up of a
relationship, or losing or changing jobs.
• the experiences we have had in our lives and how we have learned to cope with
them will influence which situations we find stressful and how we deal with them
now.
• following a sequence of unhelpful/negative thinking, such as “I can’t do this” “I’m
going to faint”.
• when you lack confidence and self esteem.
• after being involved in an incident that we experience as threatening. This may
result in us feeling anxious the next time we are in similar circumstances. For
example following a car accident, you may feel anxious driving.
• following a bout of depression where you lose confidence, though you can be
anxious and depressed at the same time.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Coping Styles

Some people may feel that they have never coped very well with stress and may
describe themselves as a ‘born worrier’. They may have experienced anxiety problems
for a long time and in a variety of situations, although some situations may cause
more anxiety than others.

For other people, there may seem to be no obvious event linked with their recent
increase in anxiety. These people may feel that their anxiety has come out of the blue.
On closer inspection however, anxiety may result from a gradual build up of pressure
related to minor events and life stresses.

Some people have always coped well, and anxiety may have only recently developed
into a problem. This may have followed a difficult and stressful time in their life. For
these people, anxiety can seem a very big problem because they had always seen
themselves as strong and able to cope with things. It may be the first time they have
really struggled to cope. All these coping styles are common and can be worked on.

Here is an example of the type of anxiety problem that has followed a stressful time in
their life:

Bob, aged 53, no previous history of anxiety problems. Happily married with a
teenage daughter. He has recently been promoted to a management position in the
car industry, which has put him under a lot of stress due to his long hours. He had
always felt he was good at coping with work and was a hard worker. Two months ago
Bob noticed he was having palpitations and dizziness as he rushed from one meeting
to another. He began worrying he had a serious physical problem which put more
stress on him. Despite the fact that his GP confirmed that Bob was physically fit, he
still suffered from the following symptoms:

Physical: palpitations, sweating,

dizziness, and chest pains.
Thinking: “I’m going to have a heart
attack” “I can’t cope with this,
I’ve got to take it easy.”
Behaviour: avoiding strenuous activity,
making excuses at work not to
attend meetings he feels may
cause him stress, moving
slowly, taking regular rests and
sitting or lying down, ensuring
he always has his mobile and
his car nearby (so he can get
help easily).
Mood: anxiety, low, and frustrated.
Begins to feel guilty that he is
not doing his job well enough.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

The diagram below shows how Bob’s thinking, behaviours, moods and physical
reactions all affect each other.

Thoughts - “I’m going to

have a heart attack”, “can’t
cope with this, I’ve got to
take it easy

Physical effects Mood - Anxiety, low,

Palpitations, Sweating, frustrated, guilty
dizziness,chest pain

Behaviour -
Avoidance, moving slowly
taking regular rests, sitting
or lying at every opportunity

 
ENVIRONMENT

e.g. Being promoted to a management position, working
long hours

How do I get an even balance between pressure and activities that reduce
pressure?

Anxiety levels can increase when our perceived ability to cope is outweighed by the
pressures placed upon us. It is important to maintain a healthy balance between
pressure and activities that reduce pressure.The build up of pressure can be due to any
number of things. The impact of events will vary from person to person.

Some things you may have identified as pressures in your life could be more difficult to
change, for example, low income, poor housing. However, working through this
exercise may help you come up with activities that might ease some of these pressures
and thereby reducing some of your anxieties. We all have our own methods of coping
with life’s pressures, some more healthy than others.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Use the space below to write down the things that may increase the pressure in your
life and the things that you do to reduce the pressure.

Things that you do to

Things that increase the
reduce the pressure
pressure in your life Eg.
• Exercise
• Going for an interview
• Reading
• Moving house
• Talking through problems
• Money worries
with friends / family /
partner

Take a closer look at your responses in the above boxes and ask yourself the questions
below.

1. Do you have an even balance of pressures and activities that reduce pressure?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. If not, what could you do to even out the balance?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

If possible, try to make any changes necessary to even out the balance between
pressures and activities that reduce pressure.

Why does anxiety persist?

Although anxiety itself is a normal response to threat, there are a number of ways in
which it can become a long-term problem. Again, these differ from person to person.
Below are some examples of how anxiety is fuelled and can leak into other areas of
our lives.

1. Fear of Fear
Anxiety can develop into a cycle involving physical symptoms, unhelpful thoughts,
moods and behaviours, that is hard to break. When in an anxiety provoking situation
you become more aware of the physical symptoms of anxiety that you experience.
You then have unhelpful thoughts about these symptoms that change your mood
resulting in increased worrying. For example, if your heart is racing, you may fear that
you are about to have a heart attack. This worrying will actually make the physical
symptoms worse, which is likely to make you have more unhelpful thoughts making
you worry more, and so the cycle continues. Sometimes this cycle can even lead to a
panic attack (see page 2.4).

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

The fear of fear diagram below gives an example of how symptoms, thoughts, moods
and behaviours interact in a cycle of increasing anxiety. Your own anxiety may involve
different physical symptoms, thoughts, moods and behaviours. By working through
this pack you will increase your understanding of what these are for you and how you
can break this cycle.

Fear of fear diagram

Symptom Unhelpful thoughts Mood/Behaviours

Increase in heart rate “Here it goes again” Worry

Increase & difficulty “I’m getting worse” Anxious

in breathing

Hot flushes & sweating “I’m losing it”, “I’m out of control” More anxious, holds
onto something

Dizziness “I’m going to faint” Terrified, sit down

This pattern can happen very quickly. It may be difficult to pinpoint anxious thoughts,
which as we become more anxious tend to become more unhelpful. By recognising
our anxious thoughts, we can then work on challenging them. This will help to break
the cycle (sections 3 and 4 look at this in more detail).

2. Anxiety can become a habit.

Once we become anxious over a long period of time, the feelings of anxiety often
remain, even though there may seem to be no present cause for it. This is because it
can become a habit to feel tense and to worry and to expect difficulties. It can also
become a habit to avoid the things we think will make us anxious. The more we avoid
things, the harder it becomes to face them (avoidance will be discussed in more detail
on page 5.1). Our bodies can get into the habit of being tense and to reacting
anxiously to all kinds of situations. An example of this is when we have a habit of
clenching our teeth or breathing in a tense, shallow way.

3. Anticipation
Once you have felt anxious in a situation, you begin to feel anxious before going into
similar situations. For example, we may begin to feel anxious before we are about to
enter a crowded place. Gradually this increased expectation of anxiety can make you
feel anxious before more and more situations, potentially affecting many areas of your
life. Our thoughts about entering an anxious situation can lead to feelings of anxiety.

4. Association
Once you have experienced anxiety in a particular situation you associate this feeling
with other similar settings. For example, if you have felt anxious on a crowded bus,
you then begin to feel anxious on all buses or even all forms of transport. Similarly, if
you feel anxious whilst away from home, you begin to feel anxious every time you
leave the house.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

5. Preoccupation and Hypersensitivity

Once you have suffered from the uncomfortable feelings of panic and worry, you
become more aware of the physical symptoms of anxiety. You become preoccupied
and hypersensitive to changes such as breathing and heart rate. As a result of the
discomfort you feel when anxious, any slight change can be exaggerated causing you
to over-react and worry. This in turn makes the symptoms worse. This can be a
problem especially for people who are self-conscious about their anxiety and those
who worry that their symptoms mean they have a serious physical problem.

Experiencing anxiety over a long period of time, can also lead to changes in mood and
behaviour such as tiredness, increased irritability, avoidance, and over and under
activity (see section 5).
An introduction to panic attacks

Panic is a feeling of intense anxiety or fear over a short period of time. A panic attack
is characterised by physical symptoms, such as rapid heartbeat, dizziness, increased
body temperature, breathing difficulties or nausea. People who experience panic
attacks misinterpret their bodily sensations. Misinterpreting means thinking about
their physical sensations in a threatening way. Common examples are misinterpreting
rapid heartbeat as a heart attack or disorientation may be misrepresented as going
crazy.

The vicious cycle of physical symptoms, thoughts and mood/behaviour interact and
escalate very rapidly. You will find more information about panic attacks and how to
cope with them in the next section of this pack.

How do I relax?

Lots of people find it very difficult to relax. Sometimes we get into bad habits of
feeling tense such as stiffness and tension in the neck and shoulder area or grinding of
teeth. Like any other skill, relaxation can be learned, but it does take time and effort
each day to practice it.

Incorporated into this pack is a relaxation CD (or tape if requested). The CD contains a
visualisation method and has vocals at the beginning and music all the way through.
Try it out to see if it suits you.

We suggest that you use it daily, or even two or three times a day, when you feel the
need. The visualisation task lasts approximately 13 minutes. The whole CD contains 9
tracks and lasts for a duration of 80 minutes. Although we recommend that you try
out the visualisation task, it is entirely up to you whether you choose to listen to the
whole CD or not.

To use it, find a quiet room, away from interruptions such as telephones, and explain
to those around you that you need some quiet time to do the relaxation. Make
yourself comfortable on a supportive chair, or lie on a bed, or on a mat or rug on the
floor.

We ask you to monitor your own progress by completing a daily relaxation diary
located in section 1 worksheets. Further copies can be found in section 6 worksheets.

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Time management

Effective time management can help to reduce anxiety by helping us to be more

realistic in what we plan to achieve. It helps to organise our time to suit our own
individual needs. Everyone’s week is made up of different activities, occupying various
amounts of time.

The following exercises might help you to organise your weeks to find the most
suitable times for you to work on this pack.

Use the space below to list all the activities that make up an average week for you. It
could include activities such as watching television, working, travelling, sleeping,
visiting friends/family, shopping etc. You might find it useful to write down how much
time you spend on each of these activities.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________-

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

For a lot of people completing this pack will seem like a very daunting task. Effective
time management will help you to allocate certain times that you could spend on this
pack. Breaking the pack down into more manageable chunks like this can help to
make it less daunting.

Now, write down times during a typical week that you could spend working on this
self help pack.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Use this in conjunction with the ‘Task and time diary’ in section 1 worksheets if you
find it useful. If you already have an effective way of arranging suitable times to work
on this pack, please feel free to continue using that method.

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Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Key Points

• Anxiety is a perfectly normal response to threat

• Excessive anxiety affects us in four main ways - it affects us

physically and affects our thoughts, mood and behaviour

• There are many possible causes of anxiety, and these may vary
from person to person

• Anxiety levels can increase when our perceived ability to cope is

outweighed by the pressures placed upon us

• Anxiety can become a problem through unhelpful patterns of

thinking and behaviour such as, fear of fear, anticipation,
association, preoccupation and hypersensitivity, and avoidance

• Panic is a feeling of intense anxiety or fear

• Achieving a better balance between pressure and activities that

reduce your pressure will reduce your stress and anxiety

• Relaxation is an important skill to learn through practice

• This material will help you to break the cycle and manage your
anxiety more appropriately

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 Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Please tick when you have completed the following tasks

(Most tasks can be found in Section 1 worksheets)

• Complete the quiz on page 1.11 [ ]

• Use the ‘Task and time diary’ if you find it useful [ ]

• Practice relaxation using the relaxation CD/Tape provided [ ]

• Monitor your relaxation progress using the ‘Relaxation diary [ ]

• Complete the ‘Physical symptoms of anxiety diagram’ [ ]

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 Section 1: Worksheets

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 WORKSHEET
Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Quiz – Introduction to anxiety

The following questions are for you to check your
own understanding of the ‘introduction to anxiety’
section. Remember that this pack is for you to keep,
so you can re-read and look back over sections as
often as you wish.

1. Anxiety is a perfectly normal response to

_________ and can even be helpful because
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

2. What are the main ways in which anxiety affects

us?
• Physical
• T___________________________________________
• M__________________________________________
• B___________________________________________

3. Give two examples of how anxiety can develop

into a problem
1)______________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

2)______________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

4. It is important to maintain a healthy balance

between p_____________ and a________________

5. What are some of the reasons anxiety remains?

• Fear of fear
• H___________________________________________
• A___________________________________________
• A___________________________________________
• P______________ and H_______________________

6. What physical symptoms is a panic attack

characterised by?
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

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Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Task and time diary

Instructions
This diary is provided to help you to manage your It may be useful to plan each week with the help
time more effectively. You can use it to write of others, for example your partner, parents, or
down the tasks that you need to do, and when and friends. They may be able to help you set yourself
where you intend to complete them. You can also realistic aims, and they may also be able to help
use it to consider any difficulties or problems that you to overcome any difficulties you could face, for
may prevent you from completing the tasks, and example, by agreeing to be quiet while you do
ways in which you may be able to overcome them. relaxation.

One aim of this diary is to help you to be more Remember that this diary can be used in the way
realistic in what you plan to achieve. Sometimes that you find most helpful. If you already have an
we can feel overwhelmed by the number of things effective way of arranging when or where to
we need to do. This diary can help you to break complete the tasks in this pack, please feel free to
down the tasks and allocate times to work on carry on using that method.
them. Planning in this way can help you to space
tasks more evenly into your available time and can Use the example at the top of the time
make you feel more in control. Organising tasks management diary to help you to complete it. If
into manageable and achievable chunks can also you need more space to write there are some full
help you to feel a sense of completion. Likewise, it page versions of the diary in section 6 worksheets.
can ensure that you schedule time for yourself:
time for relaxation, and time for reflection.

What task(s) do I When should I do Where should I do What (if any) How can I overcome
need to do? the task(s)? the task(s)? difficulties might arise? these difficulties?

Example: Relaxation 7.30 - 8.00pm Bedroom Kids might disturb me Ask partner to look
after them
Mon

Tue

Wed

Thur

Fri

Sat

Sun

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 WORKSHEET
Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Relaxation diary
Instructions
This exercise is designed to help you evaluate how useful relaxation is for you. Before practising
relaxation using the CD provided, record today’s date and circle the number that best reflects how you
feel before relaxation. Then jot down anything that may explain your feelings. After that, practice
relaxation using the CD provided. Then, circle the number that best reflects how you feel after relaxation.
EXAMPLE: Relaxation diary

Day Date Anxiety level before relaxation Anxiety level after relaxation

Calm Tense Calm Tense

1
01.01.02 O
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
O
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

Busy day at work, woke up late, rushed around

Day Date Anxiety level before relaxation Anxiety level after relaxation

Calm Tense Calm Tense

1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Things that explain my feelings:-

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Working to Overcome Anxiety - Self Help Pack Section 1 - Introduction to Anxiety

Physical symptoms of anxiety diagram

Instructions
Use the diagram below to think about and write down the physical symptoms that YOU experience when
in situations that you feel anxious in. There are a few symptoms of anxiety listed below to help to start
you off. Please tick any of those listed that apply to you and add as many of your own physical symptoms
as you can think of.

This exercise should help you to think about and identify the physical symptoms of anxiety that you
personally experience.

Headaches [ ]
Dizziness [ ]
Flushed [ ] Feeling faint [ ]
Blurred [ ] Feeling of unreality [ ]
Dry mouth [ ]

Tightness in throat [ ]
Difficulty in swallowing [ ]

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