Give Up Smoke Now Blog

We all experience certain levels of anxiety regularly in our lives and it’s nature way of telling us that there may be something developing that we should monitor and consider.  However, it is when this occurs regularly and with significant impact on our daily lives - especially regarding other than serious issues - that we should begin to consider that there may be something else at work here - a burgeoning anxiety disorder condition. 

The question tends most often to be one that asks how much is significant and how often is too often for us to have these feelings.  More importantly, however, is not how often but how severe the reaction is and how much negativity it injects into our daily lives.  While not an easy answer to make, science tends to agree on the frequency and severity of the effect on your daily life that produces the right answer.

Don’t try to make a self-diagnosis with one of those - Are you worse off than you were yesterday-type assessment techniques, as they are comparative in nature rather than independent and empirical.   Therefore, it is prudent to consider an emphatic and systematic approach that attempts to assign a ‘significance’ factor to the possibility of a panic attack based more upon empirical rather than comparative, i.e comparing present to past experience levels, approaches.  Here are some obvious questions and the related empirical quantification:

1.  Do you experience a level of worry or anxiety that stays with you for more than several seconds on a regular basis throughout your day.  Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

2.  Do you tend to see the outcome of potential problems as being BOTH negative and severe?

Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

3.  Do you tend to remember past, negative experiences as being more severe than they actually were?

Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

4.  Do you have the same feeling or worry about an issue or problem more than once during the same day?  Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

5.  Do you re-live or re-ponder negative thoughts of the day as you prepare for sleep and arise?

Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

6.  Do you find yourself pondering a potential issue or problem with a greater level of worry or greater level of expected severity-of-outcome? Seldom?  Occasionally?  Often?

If you answer ‘Often’ to 3 or more of these questions, you probably have a growing level of anxiety and you might experience an anxiety attack.