There is much written about the Buddha and Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths are the foundation of Buddhist teachings, outlining the nature of suffering and the path to liberation from suffering. They are:
- The Truth of Suffering
- The Truth of the Cause of Suffering
- The Truth of the End of Suffering
- The Truth of the Path to the End of Suffering.
I have taken the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, in which he described the causes of suffering and its end, and applied them to Anxiety.
The 4 Truths of Anxiety
1. The Truth that Anxiety exists.
Anxiety exists because fear exists. Fear is a natural response to an immediate and real situation that is perceived as threatening. Beyond this basic fear response, which is natural and unavoidable, anxiety sometimes develops.
Whereas fear is a response to a specific stimulus, anxiety is more diffuse and less timebound. Anxiety is not always a reaction to something real. It is a worry about potential current and future dangers, whether real or imagined.
2. The Truth that There are Causes of Anxiety.
Although everyone has a fear response, not everyone has anxiety. So why do some people have anxiety, and others do not? Below are some of the causes.
One cause of anxiety is our basic genetics. We are all inherently different in the baseline of sensitivity that we have in our alert system. Some people are naturally more sensitive and attuned to threat, some people are less so.
Another cause of anxiety is the learning which comes from our life experiences. If we experience a lot of negative or traumatic events, we become more attuned to threats. These may be specific, such as a result of an accident or trauma, or more general, such as repeated situations that caused emotional distress that were difficult to handle.
Finally there are the coping patterns we use to deal with upsetting situations. Some examples are obsessing about “what ifs” or avoiding things that provoke fear. Although these coping patterns are helpful in reducing immediate distress in the short term, they make anxiety grow in the long term.
3. The Truth that There is an End of Anxiety.
You don’t have to just suffer through anxiety. Although we cannot eliminate the basic fear reactions that are natural and adaptive, we can reduce Anxiety until it is manageable or completely eliminated. The end of Anxiety is possible.
4. The Truth that There is a Path that Leads to the End of Anxiety.
There is a path to the end of Anxiety, and this path has multiple components. There are body components, cognitive components, and behavioral components. Some can be done on your own, some can be augmented and supported in Cognitive Behavioral and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy.
Bodily components of the Path to End Anxiety:
- Lowering overall arousal level through relaxation and stress management techniques
- Lowering arousal by getting regular exercise
- Getting enough sleep
- Processing with EMDR therapy to decrease arousal and triggers related to past events
- For some people Psychotropic Medication such as a SSRI can be an important and useful tool in managing anxiety
Cognitive components of the Path to End Anxiety:
- Learning about anxiety through reading, listening to podcasts, or by discussions with a therapist
- Learning about your own anxiety triggers and thoughts though observation, taking notes, and keeping track of your day-to-day experiences, or through discussions in therapy
- Learning to use Mindfulness techniques to see the mental and physical processes as temporary and ever changing
- Learning to implement more adaptive thought patterns through practice on your own, with a book, with an app, or in therapy
Behavioral components of the path to end Anxiety:
- Providing yourself opportunities to relax daily though engaging in positive activities
- Practicing new responses to stressful situations
- Eliminating avoidance behaviors
- Exposing yourself to uncomfortable activities even and using positive talk and calming behaviors to manage through them
- Feel free to reach out to me if you would like to learn more about how I help people with Anxiety.
