How Anger Can Lead To Anxiety, Panic, and Depression, and How To Stop It From Happening
So all day today I’ve been waiting in for a new fridge to be delivered. I was given a delivery time of between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. (why do these delivery companies always give such big windows of time? My agoraphobia used to keep me stuck in the house, and now these delivery companies do!).
Anyway, I start waiting this morning just before 8, hoping the fridge will come soon so my whole morning isn’t lost (I normally walk my dog Millie as soon as I get up, but today I couldn’t).
A couple of hours pass, no delivery. My frustration increases.
Another couple of hours pass, and now it’s gone 12 p.m. and the time they told me it would be delivered has come and gone. So I call the delivery company, only to be told that there is no scheduled delivery to my address today, or any other day.
So I’ve been waiting for 4 hours for something that was never even on its way to me. Now the frustration is getting worse.
After about 10 minutes of hassling them on the phone, they finally agree to get the fridge sent out to me today. Sometime before 5 p.m. they say. Great. Another long wait for ne.
So all afternoon I’ve been watching the clock tick away. I can’t go out and walk my dog (or do anything else, for that matter) and I can’t even go out into the back yard in case I miss the delivery truck. All I can do is watch the clock.
You guessed it - 5 o’clock came and went, and no delivery.
I call them again and now there’s no answer because they’ve all gone home. I felt like I was gonna go nuts with anger!
So, you might be wondering why I’m telling you this long, boring story about a fridge delivery? (You’re right, by the way. It’s boring, I know. But I’m about to tell you why I’ve made you sit through it.)
All day my frustration has been growing. And by the time I’d realised I’d waited in all day for nothing, my frustration turned into genuine anger. And the moment I realised how angry I was it reminded me of something I read a few weeks ago.
I’d read a report on how damaging anger is to the human body.
There are very few things worse for your body than anger. Most people think that stress is the single biggest cause of heart attacks (sorry to get so grim on you), but anger is actually a bigger risk-factor than stress. It also causes a huge chunk of the anxiety and panic we experience. And that’s the part that I remembered from that report I’d read.
Once I’d been reminded of how damaging anger is for your health, and for your anxiety, it was suddenly very obvious to be that my general anxiety was much higher than it normally is these days.
For most people, this isn’t really a problem. In fact, I’m sure it’s completely normal to have periods of every day where your anxiety increases slightly. But for people with anxiety problems, or even for people like me who once had anxiety problems, I think we need to take extra care not to expose ourselves to any unnecessary anger, stress, or any negativity, period.
Why take the chance?
All day I’d been stewing, sitting around waiting in, being messed around by the delivery company, only to find out that it was all for nothing. My anger in that time had crept up on me, so slowly I almost didn’t notice that it was there.
It was a good reminder for me, and it’s one I’ll make good use of. I won’t let anger creep up on me again. I hope you won’t either.
And if ever you do notice that anger or stress has gotten the better of you, immediately do something about it - don’t let it sit in you, growing into something harmful. Today, as soon as I realised the delivery wasn’t being made, I took my dog on an hour-long walk, which is one of my best de-stressors!
And another thing I did was sit here and write this blog post.
Venting your anger, getting it out of your system, is a great way to lessen its impact on you. So if you keep a journal or a blog, make use of it when you’re experiencing any stress, or anger, or depression. Getting it out is one of the best ways to get rid of it.
The Power of Your Imagination
Filed under: Anxiety Disorders, Panic Attack Help, Personal
A long time ago I heard someone quoting Albert Einstein, and the quote stayed with me. I just happened to hear the quote again today, and it inspired me to write this post.
So, here’s the quote: “Imagination is more important than intelligence.”
Not that exciting, I hear you say!
But stay with me. This lead me to some of the ideas that are most responsible for me finally winning my battle with panic and anxiety a couple of years ago, and I’m hoping it can help you in just the same way.
When Einstein said that imagination is more important than intelligence he meant that nothing is possible, no matter how much intelligence and determination you have, if you haven’t first imagined the outcome that you want to achieve.
That really struck a chord with me.
When we just go after something, like a goal for example, and we haven’t used the power of our imagination to vividly imagine that outcome first, we’re short-changing ourselves. We’re decreasing the chances of being successful in getting the thing we’re going after.
The reason I called this post “The Power of Your Imagination” is because I don’t think most of us appreciate just how powerful our imaginations are, or how much our imaginations can help us to achieve.
Here are a couple of things to think about:
We take these abilities for granted, but they’re incredible, and with their help we can achieve almost anything. To demonstrate this, here’s another thought for you to consider:
And despite that, so many of us go after our goals blindly, not really knowing where we want to end up, and not really knowing if we’ll even like it there when we get there. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have this incredible ability of imagination. We can picture future versions of ourselves and use those images as inspiration and as a compass to lead us there.
If you’re anything like I used to be, stop robbing yourself of this ability. Start using it. Too often I see “experts” advising people with anxiety to live in the moment so they don’t become “overwhelmed” with unpleasant thoughts from the past or unknown events in the future.
I couldn’t disagree with this any more strongly.
None of us should live in the past, whether it was terrible or wonderful. But imagining a better future for yourself is one of the most beneficial things you can start doing right now, today.
Decide on where you want to be - your dream life. Your dreams can be big or small. It doesn’t matter. It just matters that it’s what you want. And when you get it clear what you want, start imagining it. And make your imaginations vivid, like you already have what you want, like you’re already there.
The moment you start doing this your subconscious will begin looking for ways to get you there. You’ll start asking yourself different questions. Positive, results-getting questions.
Letting my imagination loose was one of the best things I ever did in all my efforts to stop my panic and anxiety-related problems. You can probably tell how passionate I am about this idea. And I hope some of my enthusiasm rubs off on you and you give this a try.
Here’s a final thought on this, and this one idea was as big a breakthrough as I made in all my time battling my anxiety:
- Nothing happens that hasn’t been imagined first
Everything that becomes real started with a thought, an imagination. If you aren’t imagining a better future for yourself, one that’s happy and peaceful and calm and anxiety-free, it can’t come true.
All you have to do to fix that is to start imagining the future you dream of. It’s the first and most important step in that future coming true.
-
Be My Friend
