Anxiety

I just had dinner with an ex colleague last night and we started talking about age (haha what else?) and she said a year of traveling aged her cos while on the road, her body is always tense and her neck muscles ached and her facial muscles were also tensed up most of the time. I told her that anxiety aged me. She asked me what that feels like. I gave her a list of some of my symptoms, such as headaches, giddiness, gastric pains, diarrhea, loss of appetite, insomnia. And she said she had all of that too. I know these are all common ailments, so I asked her if she's always had these problems. To my great surprise, she said no. She only started feeling these when she started her year long travel. Like me, she'd never been a light sleeper, never lost appetite, never had headaches or gastric pains. And they all came together. Fortunately for her, her symptoms started to ease now that she's settled in one place.

She felt somewhat shocked at this realisation cos previously she'd attributed all she felt to age. Well, I told her I'm pretty sure my symptoms are not due to age. They actually become quite severe and with time, as my mind becomes more easy and they actually almost disappear. If it's due to age, shouldn't it get worse gradually?

Which got me thinking, there's a difference between 'normal' anxiety and anxiety disorder. Many people suffer from anxiety symptoms and when they are generally tolerable and resolves on its own, they don't think much of it. This leads most people to think that severe anxiety sufferers make too much of their symptoms and that it will all 'go away' if they ignore it. However anxiety disorder is another ball game. It spirals down and just refuses to resolve on its own. It can lead to depression. The mind gets more and more knotted up and more symptoms will occur. In this case, it is really wiser to seek help earlier to prevent it from getting worse, which means a longer recovery time. With help, I mean medication, or counseling or exercise. None of these is an overnight cure; most people give up after a few tries, telling themselves it doesn't work. I think, as with anything else, it has to be multi-pronged. Counseling with more time spent on walk, listening to relaxing music, and exercise and medication if the sufferer is not averse. All of it has to come together. And then it would still take time.

It's like a cold. Most people get better on their own. For some people it could lead to pneumonia. And once you've had pneumonia or asthma, you may be more prone to pneumonia or asthma.