What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is the act of worrying about something we perceive as a threat—something that hasn’t happened yet and, in most cases, won’t happen at all. This worry exists entirely in our imagination. It could stem from stress over an upcoming performance, a social event, or even the idea of stepping onto a plane.

When we feel anxious about the future, our minds tend to create a world of scenarios and stories, much like a film stuck on repeat. These stories are often catastrophic:

• “I will make a fool of myself.”
• “People will laugh at me.”
• “I will have an accident.”
• “I’ll get trapped in the toilet.”
• “The plane will crash.”

Some level of anxiety is absolutely normal. It’s natural to feel a bit nervous about significant events like a job interview, a music performance, or a driving test. However, the kind of anxiety I’m discussing here goes beyond fleeting nerves. This is the experience of constant, overwhelming worry—a relentless cycle of overthinking that takes over your life.

Imagine waking up with a persistent inner voice that never pauses, following you from the moment you open your eyes to the moment you close them. If this sounds familiar, you’re likely living in a state of chronic stress, and it’s exhausting.

The Fight-Flight-Freeze Response: An Ancient Mechanism

Anxiety about a perceived threat triggers your body’s fight-flight-freeze response—a survival instinct passed down from our ancient ancestors. This response was designed to protect us from real danger by preparing the body to fight or flee. It works by releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which give us a burst of energy and heightened alertness.

Your heart beats faster, your blood pressure rises, and your senses sharpen. This mechanism is incredibly effective when facing real danger. But here’s the problem: your body doesn’t know the difference between a real and an imagined threat.

The moment you perceive a threat—real or not—your body activates the fight-flight-freeze response. When this response is constantly switched on due to chronic stress, it can make daily life feel unmanageable.

The Toll of Chronic Anxiety

Living in a state of constant alertness, with elevated cortisol levels, is draining. It can lead to physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, headaches, migraines, and stomach aches. You might even start worrying that something is physically wrong with you, which only adds to your anxiety.

What’s worse is that you can’t escape imagined fears. If you were facing a real threat, such as a tiger, you could run away or freeze in the hope that the danger would pass. But how do you escape something that doesn’t exist? This inability to “flee” from imagined threats is what makes chronic anxiety so distressing. It leaves you feeling stuck, hopeless, and imprisoned by your own mind.

Breaking Free

Does this sound familiar? If so, the first step to addressing your anxiety is understanding that the root cause of your distress often lies in negative self-talk and the inner critic—the bully in your head.

It’s also crucial to recognise that physical symptoms such as a rapid heartbeat, migraines, or stomach aches could be a direct result of your body’s fight-flight-freeze response being perpetually activated. See that it's a survival mechanism, and that this is not you. Often, people who live in a constant state of anxiety are unaware what's happening and start to believe that there is something wrong with them. The good news is: there's nothing wrong with you, and you are not going crazy!

The first step is to become fully aware of the mechanisms mentioned above. This will help you to see what's happening from a distance and allow you to no longer be identified with your anxiety, because now you see it for what it is - a mechanism.