Therapy or medication? Fighting anxiety

Most of my acquaintances take some kind of sleeping pill, for anxiety, for "days of downturn". They are not serious disorders (Clinical Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Sleep Disorder), but they do interfere with your daily life, and if they are not treated in time, they can become a chronic disease.

I have nothing against pharmaceutical chemistry, but I have observed that most people think that medication it will heal them, and it does not. It is one more resource, but if we get used to it, the pill will become essential in our lives, and we will need more and more doses to be effective..

What to do then?

Socrates said "Know yourself”Inciting the individual to search within his own limits. And I agree with him: he who knows himself well, has half the battle won over the emotions and thoughts that destabilize him. But in addition, you must know your enemy as well as possible and know what weapons you have to fight him..

To make these abstract ideas concrete, let's see what produces, for example, anxiety, and how we can counteract its effects.

The anxiety

The first thing we must understand is that it is a defense mechanism with an important adaptive function: to mobilize ourselves in threatening situations in the face of imminent danger. I am sure that this feeling of unease and tension has saved the lives of thousands of our prehistoric ancestors from a predator, forcing them to flee or fight..

Why, then, does this necessary innate mechanism cause us so much suffering?? Well, because we are no longer threatened by a predator that we can see. Our worries have become subjective and are a consequence of the rhythm of life we ​​lead. We are no longer concerned with a wild and visible animal, we are concerned with the future.

We are unbalanced by every bad event that can be included in the ellipsis of this question “What if… (I get sick, I don't turn in work on time, I forget my medicine, etc.)?”, And the string of negative thoughts that we generate the consequences of that event.

Therefore, we can have a diazepam every time we feel anxious anticipating "a subjective catastrophe”And learn nothing about ourselves and our fears or we can look inside and get the following with the help of a professional (if we can't alone):

1. Counteract physical symptoms with some method of relaxation or physical exercise.

Restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbance, etc..

2. Make our concerns aware. 

You can for a time and a couple of times a day (morning and night) write down your worries on a piece of paper, their duration, the level of anxiety they produce (for example, from 1-10) and the type (they are worries about problems that already exist or hypothetical). Remember: "Know yourself".

3. Learn tools that help us manage uncertainty. 

The fundamental thing is to increase tolerance to it, and to achieve this we must stop doing everything we normally do to avoid it: not delegate, doubt our own decisions, check again and again what we have done because we think it is not correct.

4. Question the usefulness of caring.

It is not useful to worry about something that has not happened yet.

5. Train ourselves in problem solving. 

Recognize problems before it is too late, assume them as a normal part of life, see them as a possibility to grow and not as threats.

Because do not forget that at the time we begin to learn or understand something, every time we question a belief, every time we look at a problem from a different perspective, new neural connections are created that always leave a mark on the brain by modifying it (Neuroplasticity), which makes us active agents of our own well-being, and not mere passive subjects dependent on a pill.