For most people, they don't know what their anxiety looks like until the anxiety is really high, maybe 8, 9, 10 out of 10. There are some problems with this. One, by the time the anxiety is at an 8, 9,10 out of 10, it take a long time and a lot of effort to bring the anxiety back down. The second problem with this is, if people don't know what anxiety looks like until it is an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10, they are not going to do anything about it until it is already really high.
In order to better manage anxiety, people need to gain an understanding of what anxiety looks like as it is increasing. If people can put strategies in place to address the anxiety when it is a 3, 4, 5, 6 out of 10, it doesn't have to go to the higher levels of anxiety.
The tricky part of this is, everyone's anxiety can look different. There are many symptoms of anxiety but each person experiences their own symptoms of anxiety and each person's symptoms can occur at different levels of anxiety as well. For example one person may get sweaty palms when his anxiety is around a 3 or 4, but another person may get sweaty palms when her anxiety is at an 7 or 8. So each person can have different symptoms and the symptoms can also vary depending on the intensity of the anxiety. To add to this, what creates anxiety in one person may not create anxiety in another person. Anxiety is lack of confidence to handle things so what may create anxiety for one person may not create anxiety for another person. This makes identifying anxiety even more challenging.
Symptoms of anxiety generally appear in 3 areas, physical symptoms, mental symptoms, behavioural symptoms. Below is a list of different symptoms of anxiety. These symptoms can be at a 1 or a 10 or anywhere in between. The symptoms can also be for other things, so it is important to think about if the symptom is related to anxiety. For example, rapid heart beat is on the list. If you only get a rapid heart beat when you are running, then it is likely not related to anxiety.
