Fear Keeps You Sharp We all know the feeling of being afraid, whether it's for your job, your money, your relationship, your house or your health, we've all been there. Fear can be a very effective teacher, however, and its voice serves as an alarm to tell you of potential dangers in your life, including those things that may or may not be true. I have been a lifelong sufferer from anxiety, from a fear of germs to the fear of public speaking. It can affect you at work, in your relationships, and even at home, especially if your family members are anxious. I can recall a time where my wife asked me if I was home, and she could hear me in my bedroom in the next room (thank God the door was open), so much so that she called in and asked what the heck I was doing in there. My dad suffered from anxiety so bad he couldn't go to work, he would cry for hours in his room, and my mom had it pretty bad as well, so that was the case for me. Anxiety can affect your career path, by either making you too nervous to go into a new field, or by taking you out of your comfort zone and getting you started into a new, more fulfilling career. At times, you may feel anxiety is something that's holding you back from succeeding in your career. That's when it's time to take a stand and face your fears. Take a long look at yourself. Do you feel the need to worry about everything? How many times in a day do you find yourself on the edge of a panic attack? How many moments in a day do you feel like things are just too much to handle? Most people feel anxiety for different reasons, and it may change over the course of a day or a month. Sometimes, we don't even realize that we are anxious, we just know that we are "feeling it" in the pit of our stomach. Being afraid of success can really hold you back from advancing to a new and better opportunity. It can be easier to become complacent in our role and stay there. So it's okay to feel uncomfortable. When you feel like your anxiety is getting in the way of your well-being, be sure to seek out help. The first thing I recommend doing if you are experiencing high levels of anxiety is getting medical help. If you have been to a family doctor and received an accurate diagnosis, this will give you a good starting point to get your anxiety under control. You can also check out the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a federal government organization that has a wealth of information and resources about anxiety. At the NIMH site, you will find a wealth of information about research, symptoms, causes, risk factors, and treatment options to reduce anxiety, such as medication and therapy. And this is just the first step. As soon as you start working on getting your anxiety under control, you should aim to get a professional therapist or psychologist who will understand your unique situation. In this chapter, you will learn more about how fear can get in your way and how to battle those fears. **5 Types of Anxiety** The fact is there are many different types of anxiety, such as social anxiety, OCD, and PTSD, to name a few. Anxiety can cause a multitude of physical and psychological symptoms. What you experience depends on your personality, the severity of the anxiety, and what you learn to do to deal with it. You may need a series of different strategies for different types of anxiety. That said, here is a good place to start and keep in mind throughout the book. 1. **Phobias.** Common phobias include fear of flying, heights, and closed spaces. For me, it was the fear of flying that really kicked in as I got older. Fear of heights and of spiders is pretty common, as is fear of needles. Most phobias are common in children and adolescents and may be experienced for years. The good news is that when you get to a point where you have had enough of the fear and don't want to be afraid anymore, you can use exposure therapy to reduce your fear. 2. **Generalized Anxiety Disorder.** These are constant feelings of stress, worry, anxiety, or nervousness. People with this disorder don't fear specific things, but rather situations that happen regularly, and those fears can become severe. GAD sufferers fear most anything that's related to health, travel, money, and death. 3. **Panic Disorder.** Panic disorder usually involves a series of intense, sudden, and repeated panic attacks that last up to an hour or more. When this happens, people typically feel a fear of dying. Panic attacks can happen in any situation where you feel you are under significant stress. The attacks can be spontaneous and unpredictable, or triggered by normal events. 4. **Social Anxiety.** Social anxiety is a very common problem in which you feel very nervous and self-conscious around others. This can be especially overwhelming in a professional environment, such as the office or a meeting where you feel an increased sense of discomfort. It can also lead to avoidance. Sufferers may also get sick over and over, perhaps due to performance anxiety. 5. **Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).** Obsessive Compulsive Disorder involves recurrent unwanted thoughts and intrusive images (obsessions), as well as repetitive behavior that you do (compulsions). You may repeat things over and over in your head or constantly check something to make sure it is the way it is supposed to be. OCD can cause a variety of different symptoms, some of which include intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, ritualistic behaviors, feelings of guilt, and a lot of anxiety and self-consciousness. **The Anxious Mind** Anxiety occurs when you experience fear or anxiety. In general, fear may manifest in the mind as one of the following four emotions: fear, disgust, surprise, and anger. Fear is the most common negative emotion experienced. While fear is a normal and adaptive emotion that helps us to avoid dangers, anxiety occurs when the fear level becomes out of control or is perceived as unnecessary or unwarranted. According to research, the main causes of stress include threats to survival, health, financial security, personal relationships, and social identity. Anxiety symptoms often include feelings of worry and fear in response to the possibility of future threats to self-identity and an inability to cope with these threats. The most common form of anxiety is the worry that one may experience if one has a heart condition or if there may be a cancer diagnosis. Another major concern for people with anxiety disorders is an uncertain future, that is, they are uncertain of their future and have some fear of whether they will live or die. **THE EFFECTS OF ANXIETY** According to research, people with generalized anxiety disorder often experience symptoms such as chronic and persistent worry, physical discomfort, and insomnia. This results in more than four billion visits to a physician a year, and almost 18 billion visits to a physician or nurse practitioner. You can see that anxiety really can affect a lot of people, especially if you suffer from it on a daily basis. Anxiety does not just affect you as a person, but it also affects those around you. It affects your family, your friends, and even your clients. Think about it—many children and teens get nervous going to a new school, a new job, and so forth. It doesn't matter how old they are; even adults experience anxiety when we are nervous and excited. Anxiety can affect just about anyone at any time in life. It's natural for everyone to experience some nervousness when meeting new people, for example. ## **What You Need to Know about Brain Chemistry** You can think of your brain as being in either the **fight or flight** mode, or being in the **rest and digest** mode. When you have anxiety, your brain is in the rest and digest mode. So when you are anxious, you tend to just sit back and observe rather than move forward and be proactive. But this is not a natural or healthy way to deal with a threat. So you need to find a healthy way to deal with it. I talked about the fight or flight response and the effect of stress on the brain and body in the previous chapter. The body was designed to release a whole lot of hormones—adrenaline, endorphins, and cortisol—when it sensed a real threat. This was an important evolutionary response to ensure the person would either fight for his life or run away as fast as he could to get away from the threat. As you may recall from our discussion in Chapter 2, when you are confronted with a real threat, your body releases this cocktail of chemicals that make you alert and more ready for action. The flight-or-fight response is a very natural part of our makeup. Let's take a look at some of the symptoms you may experience when you are in fight or flight mode: • The heart beats rapidly • You perspire • You breathe faster • You feel as though you have to urinate • You can't think straight • It feels like you need to escape • You feel your blood pressure rising • You feel a feeling of excitement • You feel anxious • You feel irritable • You feel that you are going to die Now think about what happens to you when your mind starts to get on the