Overcoming anxiety - on stage and in life

How Does Anxiety Develop?

When the environment is not classified as safe, the first thing that happens: the body prepares itself for fight and flight.

This means it provides energy. And quite a lot of it—in case of mortal danger, the maximum possible energy.

When the danger is present, but we can neither fight nor flee, then anxiety emerges. Because the energy cannot be channeled and expressed, cannot be utilized.

Anxiety therefore only occurs in the following situation: when we are exposed to (life-threatening) danger and cannot act, thus are powerless. This creates the symptoms in the body that we call anxiety.

An example: we're sitting in a car that's on fire and we can't get out. When we can neither fight nor flee, the body enters a state that we call anxiety.

The energy provided by the body for fight and flight cannot be channeled because we cannot act.

So where does the energy go? It circulates in the system. These are purely biological bodily processes and they have to do with survival.

Anxiety is a specific range on the body's stress scale:

At first we might have an uncomfortable state, next we call it stress, when the danger or intensity becomes greater we eventually call it anxiety, when it increases further we call it panic, and one step further would be a flashback, where we completely lose control and, so to speak, freak out.

It's all a degree on the same scale of the autonomic nervous system, based on biological foundations.

Purpose of Anxiety

The whole process has a purpose. If, for example, I am exposed to danger in nature, such as wild animals, and cannot escape, or fighting makes no sense, then our system tries to stop everything. This moves in the direction of freezing, playing dead, dissociation.

When this charge is in the system but cannot be acted out, then we say that we have anxiety.

When Anxiety Makes No Sense

However, we also come into this state when we project danger. That is, when previous experiences of danger and powerlessness have not been processed (attachment and developmental trauma/shock trauma).

When we then come into similar situations, our mind projects a danger into the future, even if nothing is visible or indicates it. This projection can be so massive that the body also gets into a state of anxiety and panic.

Although there is no danger externally.

These are autonomous processes, which means we don't decide whether we put the body into anxiety or bring it out again; this eludes our direct control and we cannot control it with our will.

What we can do: we can indirectly influence it.

Anxiety is Not a Feeling but a Body State

In my view, anxiety is not a feeling.

When we talk about physical pain, it's clear that we're not talking about feelings, but bodily states. With anxiety, it's not so clear and it can easily be confused with feelings.

Having to feel the anxiety is complete nonsense and against our biology.

It's about immediately helping the system to get out of there and into a state of safety.

So that emotions are allowed to be there again and the release process can begin.

What Are Feelings?

With emotions, it's something different; they are the level above the brain stem in the limbic system, where it's no longer about survival issues, but this is the level of social interaction.

Feelings are like something finer; they also result in bodily reactions, but they always have a relationship context. It's about another person and the associated needs.

The more you work with yourself, look inward, and perceive the body, the more you can learn to distinguish this.

For me, it's not a theory but a direct experience of how anxiety feels in the body and how the feelings feel.

Anxiety is also not a mental disorder. It has psychological effects, but the cause and suffering are always the over-arousal or pain in the body.

What Can You Do to Overcome Anxiety and Panic?

The most important thing is that, in situations where you get anxious, you first check whether you are in real mortal danger or not. If you are in real danger, you must act; then the anxiety is justified.

It is something that can be perceived through the senses—eyes, smell, ears—and not something that you feel (this gets mixed up a lot).

When we actually need to act, we don't suffer, because then the body state is coherent with the environment. Suffering means when anxiety arises even though there is absolutely no external danger.

So always when we project a danger into a future.

The first step is therefore to realize that the body state no longer corresponds to the external world, and then it's about first perceiving this discrepancy.

Before that, it's like a mush—the body state, the environment, the projection, etc.—and that's why it seems real.

Through verification, it becomes clear to us that there is no more connection. If you're anxious and sitting relaxed in an armchair, it makes no sense.

Furthermore, it's about conveying to the nervous system that safety is now present. This can happen, for example, by catching up on the escape movement or by taking action. It must be physically anchored that the escape movement is possible today.

It is not sufficient to only approach it mentally, as the retained charge is still stuck in the body.

It is necessary to start with the body (e.g., also through body-oriented trauma work) and to integrate underlying feelings so that we are able to act and set boundaries.

Because when we have an issue with anxiety or panic, we usually do things that aren't good for us or that we don't want to do. For this, it's important to first perceive these situations in life and gradually stop doing them.

What gives the nervous system the most security is communication and exchange. Because this problem originated in the attachment context and can also be solved through connection.

Then gradually something comes together: namely, that this trigger, i.e., the situation that puts the system in anxiety, and impressions of safety.

Because the problem is that something is wired together that does not (anymore) belong together, and this must be decoupled.

Essential is therefore this understanding that I convey in this blog article and how you can deal with it in a new way.

Through this, the body can finally relax, and joy and lightness are possible.

More and more people suffer from anxieties and don't know themselves what they can do. Anxieties are based on a deeper dysregulation in the body, and it's about finding self-efficacy and self-regulation.

These are, so to speak, precise laws according to which one must proceed.

No one needs to have anxiety anymore; it no longer makes sense (unless there is acute mortal danger).

If this is too difficult for you to implement alone, then I am happy to offer support, or it's about finding someone who understands the bodily processes and can correctly address the problem (polyvagal theory and qualification in trauma therapy, etc.).

"That traumas exist is a fact of life. However, they need not become a life sentence." Peter Levine