You might have heard from so many people that anxiety shuts them down entirely – to the point where they are unable to function and make sensible decisions. Biologically, this can be explained this way: During an anxiety attack, your body stops executing functioning so as to protect the parasympathetic nervous system, a system that is responsible for calming you down.
Since not many people have the ability to activate their parasympathetic nervous system again as they are not programmed this way, they find it disturbingly challenging to make decisions or work efficiently. The good news is that this ability and programming is something that can be worked upon with time to produce positive results.
But this article isn’t about that, is it? You came here to understand what really happens when someone feels anxious. When your body fails to counter the impact of stress hormones elevating in your body, anxiety is formed. Due to this reason, we often lose emotional balance and the ability to make sound decisions. Why do we find it hard to make decisions?
Well, because of anxiety, our system responsible for executive functioning is disturbed – weakened. Whenever that happens, you find it incredibly challenging to make decisions and it’s something that can’t be outdone even out of habit.
In addition to this, when you’re anxious, your sense of reflective functioning also bows down. This can be really damaging because you lose the ability to look within yourself and process whatever is going on. You become incapable of processing information and forming meaning out of the things that happen right in front of you. Again, this falters your ability to form decisions that result in favorable outcomes.
You might have heard by patients suffering from anxiety that it often induces physical symptoms in them. Hence, they might even experience increased heart and breathing rate, the tension in the muscle, choking feeling and perspiration. These are also symptoms of fear – when you can sense a serious threat. What do you do when something like this happens? You overreact and come up with a response that is not required or unnecessary.
There a term called magical thinking that many anxiety-prone individuals might be aware of. Now make no mistake, magical thinking is not like delusion but it does have indirect negative implications. To them, success may seem possible but it may also seem like something that doesn’t require any action. You might think that you’re in the right place and doing the right thing but in reality, you’re doing absolutely nothing to turn the odds in your favor.
This is another strategy by your brain, actually. It denies you of reality so as to avoid damage – to underestimate levels of uncertainty, the information you may not be ready or prepared to handle. Like, everybody in the world knows that the world is in a really bad place right now due to the pandemic. You, however, might go ahead and say that it’s a hoax.
Many people struggle with procrastination when they’re experiencing anxiety. In difficult situations, they shut down entirely by not thinking about the problem at all. They put it off for some time, at least. This helps them prepare and not face the stressful situation just as of yet. They are, of course, hit with the problem at the worst possible scenario in the end.
And lastly, anxiety can make you commitment-phobic. You try and not commit to anything until the entire picture is clear to you – sometimes, not even then. You don’t want o make the wrong decision so much that you don’t make any decision at all.
If you’re someone who struggles with anxiety, know that help is available and that you’re not alone. Students should seek help from assignment writers UK instead of adding more pressure on their already burdened shoulder during such times. The same goes for corporate workers, housewives, and others.
