10 Sneaky Habits that may be causing you anxiety issues

Anxiety and depression are two of the most significant mental health concerns we all face in this fast-paced world.

We humans are born with different emotions and sensibilities.

As we grow and mature into different life phases, facing various challenges, we are bound to feel anxious.

What is anxiety? Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

Anxiety issues can morph over time into "anxiety disorder". Anxiety order can be defined as a mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities.

Examples of anxiety disorders include panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Anxiety disorder requires professional psychological care.

Sometimes anxiety can be challenging to handle. If proper care is not taken, with time, this anxiety can very well be one reason that a person may develop a mental health disorder.

Every person can feel anxious at any given point in time. It is natural.

To understand anxiety and its underlying causes better, let us take a step back and look at the broader picture. We can often categorize people into two groups when it comes to dealing with anxiety.

The first group of people is the "heroes" who seemingly have their lives together. They seem happy, successful, and always cheerful. They settle their scores with their mental conditions themselves, without the help of any external agency. They have a thorough understanding of themselves, meaning they have a good underlying emotional foundation. They are often determined to better themselves. They do not allow their anxiety, fear, and guilt overpower their life. This way of handling anxiety positively and positively morphing their anxious energy into something creative may come with age, previous experience, high endurance, and many more factors.

For example, a medical doctor would feel anxious about their first surgery, whereas the same doctor years later would not feel as nervous or uncertain.

The second group of people cannot cope with uncertainty, worry, and nervousness caused due to their environment. They need more time, familiarity to the situation, more information or need external help from mental health resources, books, doctors, psychiatrists, family members, and friends.

The second group cannot be called weak but simply incapable to deal with such negative emotions. They are prone to overthinking every action, reaction around them. They are also more sensitive to people's views and judgments. They develop a sense of guilt due to various apprehensions and fears, many times generated through the wrong comprehension.

Such Anxiety issues give rise to many mental and physical states. Let us look at some causes of anxiety in our daily lives and see how we can recognize them and use the information to deal with our emotions better.

Daily sneaky habits that contribute to anxiety:

Overthinking: we all overthink at times. When we talk about the first group of people, if something causes anxiety, they may stop midway and divert their minds towards something else which makes them feel better, and helps them break the anxious thought train. They slow down their anxious momentum by simply changing focus.

But the other group may, think and overthink, apprehend and comprehend various unimaginable dreadful future conditions and thus drive themselves towards the pot-hole, which might result in panic attacks and somewhere a prolonged pattern of thinking this way can result into an anxiety disorder.

Overthinking can be avoided by keeping oneself busy and engaged in exciting topics and changing focus. Keeping your mind occupied will not leave space for overthinking. It would help if you tried to live in the present and stop thinking negatively about the far off future.

For example, when you feel your anxiety building up, eat a snack, or watch a funny video, that will help you change your focus.

Self-doubt: Many people lack enough confidence to have a positive image of their own-self. Either it may be due to over expectations from the self or society's criticism.

The fear of being judged by people around sometimes makes you underperform, thus falling the prey in the clutches of self-doubt. People who may doubt themselves suffer from anxiety as they may feel as if they are always underperforming. Every task may involve challenging the self and our skillsets over and over again.

Self-doubt can be rewired. You can try affirming positive statements to build up your confidence. Try to be around people who encourage you and make you feel better about yourself without over criticizing.

Fear of Failure: The other cause which leads to anxiety is the fear of failure. An average person is always in doubt and anticipates failure more that success. But when fear dominates, a person is compelled to think negative about the consequences, and thus experience anxious moments.

As failure is an inevitable part of human life, it will help you understand failure's value without fearing. Failure in life teaches and assists in evolving your soul. Look at every great person that has ever existed. You will find that they have failed in their lives more than once. Motivational books, self-help material, and speeches of great people can help to deal with the fear of failure.

Guilt or Regrets: This is a severe notion that leads you to the gateway of anxiety.

A person who accuses himself of being the cause of every failure in life is always unhappy and frustrated. Their self-guilt snatches all moments of happiness in life, and sometimes the mind can obsessively play or remind you of your past mistakes, making you feel guilty.

No one is perfect. We make mistakes in our day to day life but learn the ways of life by experience. The self-guilt should not take over and destroy the rest of life.

For example, you may still feel guilty about not performing your best in an exam or a situation which you weren't prepared for.

A good rule of thumb to remember is that if you can't do anything about the situation that has passed or you have done everything else, let the memory of such events go.

If you keep the memories of such events alive, it is bound to lower your self-esteem. A person needs to develop a carefree nature to forgive and forget and move on ahead in life.

Insecurities: When a person is not confident of his or her abilities and is insecure about their career, finances, or future regularly, it is bound to create anxiety. We all are born with insecurities, but we gain confidence and strength gradually by working towards it by affirming the protective surroundings, closeness with family and friends, appreciating the positive, taking inspiration from everything around us and the lives of other people.

This insecurity is more in mind than in the physical space. Giving a lot of weightage to people's opinions can very well make you insecure about yourself and your life. Insecure people project their insecurities on others, and that is where usually this habit is born from. The mind becomes the playhouse for the different imaginary conditions for the future, thus making you insecure day by day. This doubtful and unsure belief about themselves gives rise to the panic attacks of depression.

All these insecurities can also be taken care of if a mind has an inclination to do so. The insecurity is more a state of mind, training your mind to not care about others, and appreciate the good in yourself can help you overcome these insecurities.

The overthinking of future insecurity can be worked on by taking suggestions from others who are capable of motivating.

Look for opportunities and incidences, which may help to overcome certain insecurities. Self-efforts may prove to be the best efforts.

Loneliness: When a person is lonely and has no outlet for various emotional moments, they may get anxious.

When there is no one to share the best or the worst moments of life, they may feel forlorn, unhappy, and depressed. Also, once they have the habit of living alone, interacting with others or being social may create more anxiety.

Man is a social animal, so they need humans to interact, love, and share life. We are interdependent. Changes in lifestyle will help a person to cope up with loneliness. You could try to mingle with family members or make new friends, reconnect with the older ones, to avoid lonely moments.

Relationship Stress: Two people in the relationship have a different mindset as they are two different individuals. Whenever there are differences between their interactions, they become stressed and anxious. They accuse each other of their incompatibility and often break up in tense moments. This can also result in depression because of guilt, self-doubt, and loneliness.

The younger generation should be taught how to deal with the related stress by the elders or family members. Breaking a relationship should not be considered as an end to life. When they part their ways, the people who were once in love find it very difficult to cope with the stress.

They should try to overcome it with the help of trusted friends and constant support.

Separation Anxiety: When a person moves away from family or loved ones for study or job, they may face new challenges away from their comfort zone.

Unable to adjust to the new environment, they may become nervous and agitated. This is a real testing time. Some people cannot bear the separation and thus quit their work or studies and come back to their comfort zone. But with endurance and self endeavor fight with the jumpy moments and divert their attention to their goal for which they have traveled away from home.

There are many more external and psychological reasons for anxiety issues, but each cause can be unlocked and worked upon to help a person cure his anxiety and depression. Medical aid and professional help should also be considered if the case needs proper medication and monitoring.

Life can be molded in various positive ways, so one should try to keep it on happy tracks by incessant undertaking, eliminating anxiety and depression from life.