But mostly, it’s due to the standards you set yourself and the lifestyle you live. If you ignore your inner divinity, the demons make themselves at home.
Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric problem among adults. It is estimated that over 40 million people in the US alone suffer some form of anxiety.
Medical institutions cite a whole range of triggers for anxiety. These range from heart disease, to external factors such as caffeine, drugs or alcohol and even race, age or gender anxiety.
However, there is often an underlying cause of anxiety that prompts individuals to turn to substances or feel insecure about their race, age or gender in the first place.
I find it striking that hardly any medical institutions cite a lack of psychological development as underlying causes of anxiety. Fortunately, mental health practitioners acknowledged anxiety disorders are neurodevelopment in their origin.
Healthcare professionals will tell you that to improve your health you need to find an underlying cause of the problem rather than merely treating a symptom.
Symptoms are merely an indication that something needs addressing. They should serve as a prompt to dig deeper to understand the underlying cause. Treating the symptom alone merely masks the problem.
Taking a pill to manage your anxiety is a temporary solution that will not repair the underlying cause until you address the root cause of your feelings.
Anxiety is a symptom that you are not taking good care of your emotional wellbeing. In my experience, it was because I didn’t know what I really liked or what interested me so I just did what my friends did even though I didn’t enjoy it. I was a creative growing up in a totally mainstream town.
Lifestyle choices play a major role in your psychological and emotional development. If your emotional well-being is not cared for, anxiety surfaces to inform you that something is wrong.
In this article, I identify three reasons you probably suffer from anxiety. They are not symptoms, they are the root cause. And the difference between identifying symptoms and recognising the cause is the first step to healing.
And you won’t need medication either!
A lack of self-worth is typically described as a lack of self-esteem by mental health professionals. Signs that you have low self-esteem include:
A lack of self-worth naturally conjures thoughts that you are not good enough, you are not worthy and that other people are better than you. This causes unnecessary anxiety because you are worried that you’ll make mistakes and that people will judge you in the same way you judge yourself.
To overcome a lack of self-worth, identify things own yourself that you value. Focus on your skills, and successes, and ask your friends what your best strengths are.
You also need to identify things you value in life; what you enjoy doing in your spare time, which music makes you feel alive, and which people make you feel good.
Do more of the things you value and less of the things that conjure negative feelings. Especially stop hanging around people who damage your emotional and mental wellbeing.
A lack of self-respect is typically described as a lack of self-esteem by mental health professionals.
Yes, I know I said that about self-worth, but there is a difference between self-worth and self-respect.
Self-worth is how you value yourself. Self-respect is how you treat yourself. Pay yourself the respect you deserve to nurture your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Self-Respect involves:
When you start treating yourself better, you develop self-esteem and your anxiety dissipates. The reason you feel anxious in the first place is that you are ignoring the things you need for your emotional survival.
I know this from experience because I used to suffer from anxiety, which matured into social anxiety and culminated with anxiety attacks. The underlying reason was that I did not know myself and didn’t develop a sufficient amount of personal interests as a teenager and my view of the world was typically challenged by my peers. It still is.
Subsequently, I developed poor quality behaviours which did not respect my True Self – my archetypes. Archetypes are vital energies that need integrated into the conscious mind so that you can operate in the world and achieve your goals.
If you’re not paying homage to your internal archetypes, you won’t develop the skills, knowledge, and emotional wellbeing you need to survive. Anxiety is a warning sign that something is wrong.
“The outbreak of the neurosis is not just a matter of chance. As a rule, it is most critical. It is usually the moment when a new psychological adjustment, a new adaptation, is demanded.” ~ Carl Jung, Freud and Psychoanalysis
A lack of self-confidence is typically described as a lack of self-esteem by mental health professionals.
Yes, I know I said that about a lack of self-worth and a lack of self-respect, but it is a lack of self-confidence that causes a lack of self-esteem.
So does a lack of self-worth and a lack of self-respect.
These are the underlying causes of self-esteem and thus the underlying causes of anxiety.
It is acknowledged that there is a difference between self-confidence and self-esteem.
Self-confidence is related to trusting your abilities. It is built through knowledge, experience and practice. Essentially, it is outward-facing and determines how well equipped you feel to deal with life.
Self-esteem is inward-facing and relates to how you feel about yourself. Your thoughts and feelings are heavily influenced by your perception – of yourself and how others think about you. Self-esteem is the process of appraising, valuing, rating or estimating (from the Latin aestimare.)
The key difference between self-confidence and self-esteem is that people with self-confidence don’t necessarily have self-esteem. And people with self-esteem don’t necessarily have self-confidence in things they have no experience about.
Self-confidence can be built by achieving goals and mastering skills. Self-esteem is built by the experiences you have in life and your relationship with other people.
“People with healthy self-esteem do not need to prop themselves up with externals such as income, status, or notoriety, or lean on crutches such as alcohol, drugs, or sex. On the contrary, they treat themselves with respect and take care of their health, community, and environment.” ~ Neel Burton MD, Psychology Today
A lack of self-confidence is born from a string of failures; probably starting when you were a child. If early failures continued into your teens and adult life, you’re more likely to develop anxiety whenever you’re faced with a new challenge.
If you don’t have any self-esteem, your lack of confidence will be an underlying cause of anxiety that could get worse as you lose more trust in your ability to survive in the world.
Self-worth and self-respect are attitudes you need to adopt to build self-esteem. Self-confidence comes from achievements you earn. If you need to build self-confidence, give yourself the time, respect and patience to reach your goal. Show yourself self-worth and self-respect by accepting yourself for who you are and acknowledging your limitations.
If you are struggling with anxiety, it may be worth taking note of how you nurture your inner world, rather than focusing on external triggers in the outer world.
Once you strengthen your inner world, you will find you no longer get anxious about things in the outer world.
