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- [Narrator] Hey, Psych2Goers. Welcome back to our channel.
Thank you so much for all the love that you've given us.
Your ongoing support has helped us make psychology
and mental health more accessible to everyone.
Now let's continue.
What do you think about when you hear the word anxiety?
According to the American Psychological Association,
anxiety is defined as a future-oriented fear
that leads people to avoid certain situations
that may trigger or worsen their distress.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports
that approximately 40 million people
all over the globe suffer from anxiety
and more are emerging each year.
And this makes it the most widespread mental illness
in the world,
but you still might not know that you even have anxiety
because it can take the shape of everyday habits.
Before we begin, it's important to note
that while this list is by no means meant
to substitute a medical diagnosis
from a trained mental health care professional,
being able to recognize your anxiety
as early as possible can make a positive difference
in getting the help you need to overcome it.
With that said, here are eight things
you might not realize are related to anxiety.
Number one, you have a high bar of perfectionism.
While perfectionism in and of itself
isn't a clear signal of anxiety,
it's another thing entirely when your rigid demands
for yourself start to border on obsessive behavior.
Do you feel driven to always be the very best
at everything you do
or to do everything perfectly all the time
even on your first few tries?
Do you feel like a failure whenever you fall short
of your unrealistically high expectations?
Thinking you need to be perfect at everything
just to avoid the judgment of others
could be a serious sign
that you're struggling with anxiety.
Number two, you're very self-critical.
Do you often judge yourself much more harshly
than you do others?
Do you struggle with strong feelings of unwarranted guilt,
shame, and inferiority?
Anxiety can make it hard for you to feel good about yourself
by taking all of your insecurities
and things you dislike about yourself
and putting it under a microscope.
Once you start to believe
in all the self-criticism your anxiety brings up,
it traps you in a vicious cycle of negative self-talk
and self-defeating behaviors that make you feel
like you'll never be good enough for anyone,
especially not for yourself.
Number three, you tend to feel self-conscious.
Have you ever entered a room full of people
then suddenly felt like you forgot how to walk?
Or have you had to talk in front of a crowd
and felt strangely aware of every little physical sensation?
Like the way you were standing,
or the texture of your hands,
or the sound of your own voice.
You can feel overly self-conscious
because you feel like everyone is secretly judging you.
You feel anxious and on edge
because you're worried about the way you look, talk, act,
and how you come across to other people.
Number four, you feel constantly restless.
When you start to feel anxious,
you often feel the need to keep yourself busy,
doing things that distract you from your emotional turmoil.
If you find that you can't seem to sit still
or relax when there's nothing left for you to do,
this may be the reason why.
Living with anxiety can feel a lot like having a busy mind,
but most of the time,
you don't even have a lot to show for it.
You occupy yourself with lots of tasks
but never get any important work done.
Number five, you have catastrophic thoughts.
This is a term coined
by the renowned psychotherapist Aaron Beck.
Catastrophizing or catastrophic thinking
is the cognitive distortion
that happens when we overthink things
and make them out to be much worse than they actually are.
Simply put, if you're a pessimist,
who's always quick to jump to conclusions
and find the downside to every situation,
then this is catastrophizing.
And if this is something you do a lot,
then it could be a very serious sign
that you might be dealing with a lot of anxiety.
Number six, you're irritable
and struggle with emotional volatility.
Do you often find yourself getting upset
or stressing out about even the tiniest of inconveniences?
Do you have a temper that's quick to flare up the moment
something doesn't go the way you want it to?
Though we can all be guilty of letting
our emotions get the better of us from time to time,
it's certainly worth noting that this kind of irritability
and emotional volatility could be a sign
of pent up, unrecognized anxiety.
Studies show that frequent mood swings, temper tantrums,
and difficulty controlling your emotions are all
to be expected when you're feeling overly anxious.
Number seven, you're extremely indecisive.
Extreme indecisiveness and being unable
to make up your own mind can be seen
as a manifestation of hidden anxiety,
especially if you feel like whatever choice you make,
it'll be the wrong one.
When you're anxious and indecisive,
you have a strong fear of failure
and a deep-rooted distrust in yourself,
which leads you to overthink every little choice you make.
You need to think long and hard about every decision
because you're always so anxious about making the wrong one.
And number eight, you have unexplainable physical symptoms.
Last but certainly not least
is the experience of unexplained physical symptoms.
This can happen when your anxiety is so deeply repressed
that your mind has no choice
but to manifest it into something physical.
This is because feelings of anxiety trick the brain
into believing that we're being threatened,
and it responds by putting us on high alert
for any signs of trouble.
The most commonly associated physical symptoms
include an erratic heartbeat, chest palpitations,
muscle tension, chronic pain, shaky hands,
profuse sweating, nausea, and an upset stomach.
So do you relate
to any of these more subtle signs of anxiety?
Do you think you could be suffering
from anxiety without even realizing it?
Making an effort to know more about anxiety
can make a positive difference
in the lives of those suffering from it,
and perhaps even help you overcome it
if you're struggling with it yourself.
So please like and share this video if it helped you
and you think it could help someone else too.
The studies and references used are listed
in the description below.
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