Some decisions you make are easy. You wake up in the morning, decide what to eat for breakfast, pick out what you want to wear in the morning, etc. Everyone makes these choices every day.
However, what if you are struggling with anxiety? What happens then?
Your morning routine can get completely turned upside down. Decisions that typically only take you a second or two to make now cause you to freeze in place. You worry over what is the “right” food to eat in the morning or that your outfit has to be perfect for stepping out of the door.
This can be paralyzing and completely disrupt your life, especially if it involves big decisions.
Take a moment to consider how anxiety affects the decisions you make and what you can do about it.
Why You Feel Anxious
There can be reasons why you feel anxious. Anxiety is part of the “fight, flight, or freeze” phenomenon that happens when you experience stress.
For example, you are at the grocery store shopping. However, you realize that you forgot your list! You find yourself staring at different cans or packages of stew, trying to remember the specific brand you need to get. Eventually, you have to make a decision, but you’re afraid it will be the wrong one.
Meanwhile, your brain is releasing stress hormones, you find yourself sweating more, and you experience racing thoughts. These are all part of your body's fight, flight, or freeze response.
A Response Rooted Deep Within Your Brain
One of the biggest issues with response anxiety evokes is that it is rooted in the more primitive part of your brain, including the limbic system. This is where your more basic emotions come from.
The problem with this is that these emotions are not rooted in logical decisions. (The frontal cortex is responsible for those.) Thus, when you find yourself in a situation where you feel anxious, it’s very hard to make good decisions. In fact, for some, it’s impossible to do so.
Teaching Your Brain to Make Better Decisions
To avoid experiencing anxiety whenever you make a decision, you need to teach your brain how to cope.
For example:
Participating in vigorous physical activity, then perform exercises that require you to make decisions. People do this all the time to train for various scenarios that require making decisions under duress.
Question your anxiety and why it is occurring. Is what you are thinking aligning with reality?
Use breathing exercises to slow down your respiratory rate so you feel less anxious and panicky.
These are all things that you can do on your own to counter your anxiety. With time and practice, your confidence in your ability to handle these situations will increase.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Anxiety
Another way to address the problem of worries, concerns, and anxiety is by participating in anxiety counseling. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a powerful tool that can help you work on this issue.
When utilizing CBT, therapists focus on what are called cognitive distortions. These are thoughts that you have that don’t necessarily align with reality. For instance, you walk into a room filled with people for a conference. You think to yourself “They are all judging me!” In reality, the people present are more focused on the conversations they are having with each other, not you.
Therapy helps to identify these distortions and to adjust your thinking so you can recognize what is actually occurring in your environment.
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We all struggle occasionally with worry and stress. That, in turn, affects our abilities to make good decisions. However, if this is a constant occurrence for you, then it’s important you get professional help and support. Contact me to find out more about how CBT and anxiety treatment can work for you.