In my work with people with intense feelings of anxiety, I have noticed that one major factor that aggravates their situation is their reaction to their anxiety. That is, when they feel the symptoms of anxiety coming on (e.g. palpitations, cold hands, and nervousness) they react by saying something like this to themselves: “oh no, here it is again! I’m going to make a mistake and make a fool of myself!!!…” They then become overwhelmed by feelings of panic and fear and resort to different behaviors to handle these feelings (many of which are not healthy nor effective). In these cases, the reaction to the condition is more disabling than the anxious condition itself!
One of the healthy ways to handle anxiety is to acknowledge it and accept its presence. Instead of reacting to it with “oh no! I’ll make a mistake!.”, say instead “oh, am being anxious again, these palpitations are just part of my anxious condition and just means I’m reacting to… (it could be a social situation or reporting in front of class). Even though I’m anxious, I know I can do this”.
