I feel anxious

It’s good that you’re asking us this question. I will try to provide an answer with some advice! Stress is a normal part of our biology. Stress is actually the umbrella term for the feeling we have when we experience an exciting, challenging, or threatening situation. It can be accompanied by emotions like fear or anger, but it can also work as a positive and motivating force. Healthy nerves have been scientifically studied and certainly contribute positively to someone’s performance. When you look at the biology behind stress, you’ll see that hormones are produced that lead to various bodily effects. Just as alcohol produces a certain feeling, stress also triggers different physical responses such as an increased heart rate, muscle tension or sweating. 

Take a look at these resources on stress and anxiety:

• Physical response to stress: https://niceday.app/en/library/work/stress-at-work/physical-response-to-stress/ 
• Anxiety: https://niceday.app/en/library/anxiety/general-anxiety-information/the-emergence-and-normalization-of-anxiety/ 

Stress is designed to prompt action to reduce the unpleasant feeling. For example, it helps you to bring yourself to safety in a dangerous situation. However, your body doesn’t differentiate between a real fire and the thought of a fire, for instance. The ‘stress alarm’ always goes off. This demonstrates that thoughts can play a strong role. It might be valuable to pay attention to where your thoughts are going when you feel tension. Are you focusing on yourself? Are you focusing on something that might go wrong? Are you focused on maintaining control? Or are you deliberately distracting yourself to avoid thinking about anything? The content of your thoughts can often tell you a lot. 

• When exploring your thoughts, also see if you recognize any thinking patterns. These are ways of thinking that can influence us to some extent. Becoming aware of them can be helpful! https://niceday.app/en/library/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-en/thinking-styles/ 

I hope this can help you get started a bit! If you can’t resolve this on your own, it might be valuable to contact your general practitioner and ask for help. For example, you could consider engaging in digital therapy with our app through Sol Psychotherapie.