Anxiety is an everyday fact of life for most adults, teenagers, and preteens. No matter your age, its effects on you can vary widely. In certain circumstances, the anxious feelings you experience may help push you to achieve important goals. But in many other situations, they can impact you negatively. They can potentially lead to significant life disruptions. This fact helps explain why anxiety treatment is one of the nation’s most needed forms of mental health care.
Understanding What Anxiety Does to You
What happens to you when you experience anxiety? At its root, anxiousness centers on anticipation of events that have not yet occurred. You may expect these events to bring you things you want. You may also expect them to bring you things you don’t want. In both cases, the anxiety you experience can take the form of unpleasant emotional reactions such as:
- Dread
- Uneasiness
- Restlessness
- Fear
It can also take the form of a range of physical reactions. Common examples of these reactions include increases in your normal breathing and heart rates. They also include sweating and increased muscle tension.
How Anxiety Can Affect You in Positive Ways
As a rule, anxiety is unpleasant. However, in the right circumstances, its mental and physical effects can ultimately have a positive impact on you. Depending on the situation, this impact may include benefits such as:
- Greater motivation to achieve your goals or fulfill your dreams
- Increased energy levels
- An improved ability to focus on what’s important to you
Research shows that people who feel anxious before tests often perform better. The same holds true for many athletes about to participate in some kind of competition.
Anxiety can also help you in other ways. For example, as part of your natural fight-or-flight response, it can alert you to environmental dangers. In addition, it can help you react to those dangers in ways that keep you safe from actual harm. Studies also show that anxiety can help increase your empathy toward others during their times of need.
How Does Anxiety Affect You in Negative Ways?
Like people from all walks of life, you may be all too familiar with the adverse effects of anxiety. These effects typically begin to appear when your feelings of anxiousness linger for extended periods of time. The amount of time required to reach this point varies from person to person. That’s true because not everyone reacts to anxiety in exactly the same ways. A situation that makes you feel highly anxious may have less of an impact on someone else. You may also feel calm in situations that make other people anxious.
How does anxiety affect you when it reaches an excessive level? For many, the result is the onset of an anxiety disorder. That’s the name for a group of mental health conditions triggered by extreme anxiousness. Exactly what anxiety does to you depends on the nature of the condition affecting you. You may feel generally anxious, no matter the specifics of a given situation. In contrast, the symptoms of your disorder may only arise in certain kinds of circumstances.
Find Out More About How Anxiety Can Affect You at Northpoint Colorado
Have more questions about the potential effects of anxiety? Talk to the professionals at Northpoint Colorado. We’ll be happy to provide further details on how anxiety can affect you in both positive and negative ways.
Need treatment for an anxiety disorder? Northpoint specializes in advanced outpatient care for mental health issues. With our help, you can begin to overcome the negative impacts of excessive anxiety. For more information, call us today at 888.231.1281 or complete our brief online contact form.