The document discusses the negative impact of anxiety on personal growth, highlighting how it can lead to avoidance of meaningful experiences and even despair. It explains that while anxiety serves a natural purpose as a warning signal, excessive anxiety can impair clarity and hinder success. The author suggests reframing anxiety as a signal to be managed, promoting counseling and therapeutic tools to help individuals confront their fears and regain control over their lives.

1. Psychology: Too much anxiety can stifle personal growth
Even with the gentle August sunsets we have been having and the soft feeling of summer passing by,
there are people suffering from significant stress.
In fact, speaking with some college-aged individuals, there is already a growing trepidation or
anxiety developing about their imminent return to school. This matches research that shows that a
significant number of adults experience Sunday anxiety as a result of worrying about going back to
work the next morning.
The anxiety is prevalent enough to actually impair or rob them of enjoyment of their day off.
In another real-life example, a man named Bill wanted more than anything to give the toast at his
friend's wedding this summer. He mulled it over for days, thinking about what he would say and
imagining how others might respond to him. Sometimes he felt like he was ready to say "yes" to his
friend and commit to making the toast, but other times he felt like he just couldn't bear the thought
of making a mistake and having people think poorly of him.
In the end, Bill told his friend that he could not make the toast and to ask someone else. Bill felt
relief from his avoidance, but he also felt a deep despair and disappointment that he had once again
allowed anxiety to prevent him from doing something he wanted to do. Bill is not alone, as anxiety is
the most prevalentsigns manic depression problem in our country.
Many people don't realize that despite all of the problems it causes, what many of us consider as
"anxiety" is a natural emotion that can serve a useful purpose when it occurs at the right time and in
the right proportion. Anxiety, in small to moderate amounts, is simply a signal that can alert
someone to the need to be more vigilant.
Studies of performance show that, without any anxiety, people may feel flat and listless and not
perform their best. At the same time, too much anxiety can create havoc and destroy a person's
ability to think clearly or succeed at their task. In other words, both too little arousal and too much
anxiety can be self-defeating and interfere with life.
Optimal performance is related to just enough heightened arousal to be on one's toes without
tripping over them.
Many people suffer from anxiety disorders and feel that high amounts of anxiety rule their life and
effect almost everything they do. The natural reaction for many anxiety sufferers is to avoid

2. situations that may involve this unpleasant feeling. This leads to lost opportunities, missed
experiences and eventually living in a very small and constricted "safe" world.
Unfortunately, most anxiety sufferers do so in silence and do not share their fears with others, partly
for fear of being ostracized or being told to "just get over it," which leads them into even further
isolation and even despair.
Anxiety can be a devastating emotion for those who experience it too often and too intensely.
Because anxiety is a "warning" system, it involves and effects almost every major system of the body.
When the mid-brain perceives threat, no matter how abstract or trivial it may actually be, the body's
"alarm" goes off and signals the central nervous system, the endocrine system, the digestive system,
the circulatory system and the muscular-skeletal system to be on alert.
Under pressure, the body dumps adrenaline and cortical steroids into the bloodstream and the heart
beats faster, blood pressure rises, blood vessels constrict, muscles tense and become engorged with
blood (for running or fighting) and digestions slows or even stops.
These rapid changes in the physiology of the body are accompanied by emotional perceptions as
well.
In more extreme anxiety, there is a pervasive sense of foreboding or even doom that creates a
feeling of loss of control and fear. For others, there is a sense of challenge, vigilance or even threat
that may be ill defined and ambiguous, but is there nonetheless.
Many anxious people will report that they are not sure what they are worried about, but that they
just feel worried. That is much like having your home security system alarm going off, but not
knowing what triggered it. That can be very frustrating and eventually exhausting.
These feelings can lead to avoidance of potential anxiety-provoking situations in an attempt to side-
step the issue. People who get into this pattern often use a series of maneuvers including passive
and dependent behaviors like oversleeping, cancelling at the last minute, using drugs or alcohol, or
being sick as efforts to avoid their discomfort.
This can create occupational and relationship problems, which feed back into and worsen the core
anxiety creating a vicious circle that keeps building in intensity.
The key to handling anxiety regardless of its specific manifestation, which is different for each
person is to re-frame or view anxiety as a signal, rather than as a problem in itself. Once the origin
and purpose of anxiety is understood, it can be seen as a maladaptive communication or "false
alarm" that the brain is generating in a well-intentioned effort to protect the individual.
This understanding facilitates the person choosing not to "listen to" or act on the signal because it
does not contain any meaningful information and to make an effort to manage or turn the false alarm
off.
This also means empowering the individual to face the false alarm rather than succumb to it and to
make every effort to do what they wanted to do regardless of that feeling. By facing anxiety and
engaging in what is feared, the brain's feedback loop will incorporate and accommodate the new
learning and eventually turn the alarm off, at least for that activity.
If Bill wanted to deliver the toast at the wedding and understood what he was facing, he would write

3. the speech he wanted to give, practice it in front of the mirror, give it in front of his closest family
and friends (or join Toastmasters group and do the same thing) before eventually actually delivering
it at the wedding.
Over time, even his anxious brain would calm down and understand that he is safe and there is no
threat to worry about.
Understandably, this is not always easy to do as the discomfort of anxiety can be quite disconcerting.
Think of the last time you heard an alarm go off and what your reaction to it was, and imagine that
happening inside your body.
Counseling and therapy for anxiety can be very effective in helping people understand and face their
discomfort in order to transform it back into a motivational signal rather than a hindrance. Good
therapists teach anxiety sufferers about anxiety and also practice tools for managing it effectively in
order to face it head on. Tools like deep breathing, positive self-talk, use of imagery, self-cuing and
even hypnosis can all help anxiety sufferers overcome their discomfort and engage fully in living
again.
So if you are like Bill in avoiding meaningful life activities, or like many other Americans dreading
upcoming challenges and feeling chronically anxious, consider making the decision to get help and
reclaiming control over your life. You will be glad that you did!
Dr. Scott E. Smith is a licensed psychologist with Spectrum Behavioral Health in Arnold, Annapolis
and Crofton. To contact him, call 410-757-2077 or write to 1509 Suite F, Ritchie Highway, Arnold
MD 21012.
Copyright 2015, Capital Gazette