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For people with anxiety there are multiple options for them to get help. A type of therapy is Psychotherapy, or also known as talk therapy. “Psychotherapy must be directed at the person’s specific anxieties and tailored to his or her needs”(Anxiety Disorders). People will often feel uneasy about being upfront with their fears. Another type of anxiety therapy is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This is a method that will teach people to think, react, and behave differently. “CBT can also help people learn and practice social skills, which is vital for treating social anxiety disorder” (anxiety disorders). People also typically go on medications such as Pregabalin. “This is an antiseizure drug which is normally used to treat epilepsy, but is also licensed to treat anxiety” (Anxiety and Panic). Benzodiazepine tranquilizers is a medicine used for people who suffer from severe anxiety giving a person's day to day life a huge impact. However for some people self help or a support group will work better. For example in a support group they have the opportunity to share their problems and accomplishments. In conclusion there are multiple different ways to treat anxiety disorders.

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Anybody can have anxiety anywhere in the world. “According to World Health Organization, an estimated 3.6 percent of the world's population suffers from anxiety disorders”(Konkel). Researchers have found that environmental and genetic factors are often involved in anxiety disorders and usually are working together. Mental disorders also can be passed from parental history. “The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 19 percent of american adults are affected by an anxiety disorder each year” (Konkel). Anxiety is commonly found with people who have been divorced and widowed. Adults can be affected by having only few economic resources. “48 studies noted that anxiety was more prevalent in women, in people under 35, and those who lived in north america” (Konkel). In childhood years, shyness or behavioral inhibition can have a big role in anxiety or other mental illnesses. Another risk of being diagnosed with anxiety is being “exposed to stressful events in childhood or adulthood” (“Anxiety Disorders”). Studies showed that almost 11 percent of people with a heart diseases in western countries have reported to having anxiety. In addition to the people with heart diseases, “32 percent of people with multiple sclerosis had some type of anxiety disorder” (Konkel). This shows that mental illnesses can also be connected to physical disorders or diseases.

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Anxiety is when a person has extensive worry or extreme apprehension. Some anxiety related disorders are panic attacks. Panic attacks are “severe episodes of anxiety which happen in response to specific triggers” (“Anxiety.” Psychology). When people have panic attacks they can get them unexpectedly or even when they wake up. Another type of anxiety is a phobia. Phobias are when “Many people fear certain objects or situations, but when these fears become so extreme that they interfere with daily activities they have become a phobia” (Wyborny). When a person has a phobia they will go to great lengths to avoid that person or object. Social anxiety is also a very common type of anxiety. This is “excessive fear of becoming embarrassed or humiliated in social situations, which often leads to significant avoidance behaviors” (Jovanovic). Some symptoms of social anxiety is when someone has persistent fear or social or performance situations. This usually happens in large groups of people or when exposed with unfamiliar people.

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Mildren is Montag’s wife and she is overwhelmed because she is lonely. “Mildred had both ears plugged with humming bees”(Bradbury 16). Montag says this when he sees Mildred and is referring to her listening to something through headphones. This shows that she could be trying to shut the world out, this made him unable to communicate with her. Since he couldn't communicate normally with her it affected their relationship. She also isolated herself from other people by being obsessed with her “wall tv”. This is a symbol of  distraction from her everyday life and also an escape. On the wall tvs Mildred watches people she call “the family”, and this is her way of replacing Montag with the family she wants to have versus the one she does have. “Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now…”(Bradbury 108). Mildred says this as she's leaving her home after she put in the fire alarm on her own home. Mildred put in the alarm because there were books in there and these books were her husbands. She had said earlier in the book that, “Books aren't people. You read and i look all around but there isn't anybody”(Bradbury 69). When she said this she was telling Montag that he is caring too much about something that isn't real. Overall she wanted a family and to have someone there mentally and physically.

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To be a fireman in fahrenheit 451 can be a stressful job. Their job is to burn houses that have books in them because books are illegal. The firemen's slogan is “Burn them to ashes, then burn the ashes”(Bradbury 6). This shows that these people are making the choice to burn their problems and burn them again to make sure they are gone instead of fixing the problem. A very important symbol of the fireman is a salamander. A salamander is a representation of strength, power, and immortality. For the firemen to use this as their symbol to show that they can withstand both the fire. “Beatty, keeping his dignity, backed slowly through the front door, his pink face burnt and shiny from a thousand fires and night excitements”(Bradbury 36). This was said after he had burned a women with her books in her house. The women loved her books so much that she chose to die with them. The quote describes how Beatty is a bit overwhelmed because of what he just did but he was trying to keep it together. He had to act like nothing that happened bothered him so he could look like a good chief. This is because a fireman needs to be strong like a salamander.

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In Fahrenheit 451 Montag is stressed in different ways in both the beginning and the end of the book. In the beginning Montag says, “It was a special pleasure to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 1). This shows significance because he has internal stress to be what is expected of him. In this quote he is saying that it is easier to change things negatively rather than fixing them. However Montag is too engulfed in his everyday life to notice the darkness that is in his job. Soon in the story Montag meets a girl named Clarisse that helps him see the world better and opens up his mind. Towards the end of the book Montag gets the plan to get revenge on the firemen. In order to do this he was going to put books in their houses so they would have to be burnt. On the night of this plan the fire alarm goes off and it's for Montag's house. The fire chief Beatty tells Montag him he has to burn his house on his own. After he burnt the house he had been so upset that he left Beatty “a shrieking blaze, all writhing flame on the lawn as montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him.” (bradbury 113) Montag has been so stressed out that he had killed his best friend and fire chief. By the end of this book Montag had made multiple bad decisions out of stress.

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This image shows different charts on anxiety, for example different thoughts, feelings, and methods of reducing anxiety.

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This photo shows a girl with random, wild thoughts. This girl appears to be trapped in a bottle, which represents her mind.

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I am sure at least one of you is suffering or has suffered from anxiety at some point through his or her life .. it is not fun </3

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In this image the word anxiety is being defined while blurring out the the rest of the page which is significant because it shows how anxiety can take over.

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Follow me at @srinipillay

Everyone worries, but some people worry more than others. When worry is excessive, people may develop generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In fact, close to a quarter of people who go to their primary care physicians with anxiety suffer from this.

In general, stressful events in childhood and adulthood, having strained economic resources, being divorced, and being female all put you at risk for GAD. But what do all of these different high-risk groups have in common psychologically? Why do they worry so much? And what can they do about this?

The surprising benefits of worry for people with GAD

A recent study explained why people with GAD worry so much - and the findings may surprise you. While many people think they are just worriers, they do not realize that they actually worry for a reason. Their worry is an attempt to protect themselves! If you're wondering how such a nagging, persistent, annoying, and sometimes distressing psychological state can be helpful, you're probably not alone. But the findings do in fact make some sense.

It turns out that worrying about something puts your mind into a negative state, but this helps, because when something negative does happen, you don't feel that much worse. You've already been feeling bad. For people with GAD, it's better to feel bad most of the time so that a negative event - someone being ill, sudden financial challenges, or rejection from a loved one - doesn't have the power to create a massive emotional swing. It's the sudden shift from a neutral or positive mood to a negative one that is of great concern to worriers. They will do anything to avoid this, include preparing to be miserable. They really hate the contrast of a situation unexpectedly going south. To people who aren't worriers, this would sound counterintuitive, but they don't have the same sensitivity to sudden emotional shifts. In fact, for them, worry is undesirable, whereas worriers find worry helpful.

This poses a dilemma for treatment, then. If someone has GAD, just asking them to lose the worry will not work. And if you have GAD, expecting your brain to simply stop worrying on command is a tall order. Another study has helped us understand that people who are prone to worrying are soft-wired to pay attention to threatening news, thereby building up a library of evidence in their brains that worrying is necessary. Think about it. On any given day, there are so many threatening things happening in the world - anything from new viruses, terrorist attacks, or political conflicts to a hostile email or upcoming storm are all real events. Yet, if you only pay attention to the threats, you have no space left in your brain to process anything else. Threat becomes your reality, and worry becomes your justifiable response. Anyone telling you to give up your worry will sound out of touch, to say the least.

What you can do to get your worry under control

As challenging as this sounds, there are things that you can do to retrain your brain to stop worrying. Cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of talk therapy where you simply revisit your assumptions in an attempt to reframe your thoughts, works according to some studies but not others.

It's important to remember that you can benefit from other forms of talk therapy , though, and that you can benefit from medications as well. But if you want to try changing the way you think right now, prior to therapy or while you're waiting, you might consider the following approach.

Rather than challenging yourself or someone else about worry, you can actually accept that the worry is serving a purpose - to avoid a sudden negative swing. Then, start to delve deeper so you can discover that the negative swing is probably less negative than you think. Giving up the struggle and control with worry, and accepting that it has not been helpful, is the next step. You can then re-examine your library of negative "proof" and swap out threatening realities for positive ones. In fact, this kind of deliberate optimism can protect you from GAD.

Worry in GAD can be debilitating, but there is an increasing amount of data that shows you can address this effectively.

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Managing worry in generalized anxiety disorder - Harvard Health Blog

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Follow me at @srinipillay Everyone worries, but some people worry more than others. When worry is excessive, people may develop generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In fact, close to a quarter of people who go to their primary care physicians with anxiety suffer from this.

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This image is significant because it shows the man struggling with random and mixed thoughts.

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So my last blog dealt with introducing sensory processing disorder and the difficulties children who have it face in daily life. However, although I conveyed the essence of the disorder, I would like to take a moment to talk about a result of SPD that your children may or may not experience. Anxiety.

It is only natural to consider that if a child experiences a world too stimulating that they would feel a bit uneasy (to put it lightly.) In fact, it is quite common among the autism community for people to have multiple diagnoses. Whether that is because of the DSM's lack of detail or the diagnosis-happy doctors, each source of research has its own explanation. But all too often therapists realize that although what is in ink and paper is classifiable it is not definitive.

Anxiety comes in many forms (some people even believe eating disorders to be a form of anxiety) and it is no wonder that a child acclimating themselves to a world that moves too fast will have difficulty with that process. Here, I will outline anxiety. But it is incredibly important to note that because autism spectrum disorder is expressed individually, some children may express behaviors that seem like anxiety but in reality are behaviors that stem from autism. It falls along the people closest to the child to identify the environmental and internal stressors a child may posses, and from there conclude whether it is actually anxiety or something else entirely.

Not too long ago, anxiety was seen as a "yuppie" disease (you can thank one of my college professors for that term.) Anxiety was temporary. Anxiety was for those who had experienced trauma and those who were anxious were just deemed "delicate." In today's world we are more aware of the impact anxiety can play on an individual's life. Anxiety is, in my understanding, a CONSTANT state of mind. For many people it comes in the form of doubt.
Do I really think I can do well on that test? I barely studied. Sure my professor says I'm prepared and smart enough...but he's probably just saying that so I can stop bothering him. God, I'm such a pain.
In other instances, anxiety can come when faced with something novel or frightening. Of course, everyone has experienced something LIKE this in the past. However, it is rare to meet people on the street who see everything as novel and frightening (perhaps that's because those who DO see the world in this way are holed on up in their homes.) But it is this perception of the world that many children with autism carry with them. One way to look at this is as if the neurotypical population and those with autism are "tuned in" to a different frequency. I am tuned into the faster, shorter, squigglier wavelengths while my clients may only be able to digest smoother and slower wavelengths. We're forcing people who are used to walking a straight line to take a turn.

The visible, audible, tangible world can be incredibly confusing to those who are experiencing a world at this different wavelength. And in our insistence to make those with ASD part of our world we may sometimes forget that it might be too much (how much is too much is again, for you, your child, and your child's therapists to decide.) We're throwing them into downtown Miami without knowing a lick of Spanish. Naturally, these children will begin to become nervous in the newfound territory. And left long enough in a dizzying world without comfort people tend to exhibit anxiety. Jumpiness, increased irritability and fatigue...the list continues. One quality that is quite common is worrying about the tasks throughout the day.

"What are we going to do today? And after that? And after that? And after that? Then what comes next? Will we eat after that? Are you sure? You're sure there's going to be chips because one time there wasn't."

Worrying just about what you're going to do, then, makes it much more difficult to actually work on those things. For instance, if you hate talking to people but you know that if you don't your taxes won't be filed, you're probably going to hold off on going into H&R block as long as possible until you don't have any other choice but doing it. For many children with autism they thankfully don't have to worry about taxes and curt bankers. But they might be anxious about other aspects of their lives. Transitions, or moving from one task to another whether that is physical or mental, are often difficult. So when someone is forcing that child to go from the classroom to the lunchroom, or from the lunchroom back to the classroom it might be difficult to cope with the sudden change. A child may detest these changes and suggest alternatives or make excuses why they can't go to lunch and why they won't get up from their seats.

Now, I'm not saying give into these protests and excuses. But addressing a child's anxiety is important. If someone is continually forced to do something they don't want to do it may cause negative coping mechanisms or a negative outlook on their problems. Instead, it is important to address what is making your child anxious. Ask them to describe their feelings (if they are verbal enough), or point to emotion boards for help understanding. From there, decide if this is something in the environment that can be fixed (a flickering bulb in the hallway to lunch being replaced, or a different route that cuts out going down a hallway with a humming a/c unit.) Or it may be time for your child to learn a positive coping skill (having a coat or jacket that they find comforting, or taking deep breaths and looking forward to the lunch they get to have once they get to the lunch room.) Working with children who have autism as well as anxiety requires a bit more consideration than just deep breaths. Sometimes they don't understand why they can't eat lunch in the classroom. It may require more explanation, modeling, and perhaps a little bit of patience on your side, parents.

Anxiety is another way to look at the world that requires a little more preparation than a normal state of mind. It does not mean your child will always be afraid of a deviation of schedule or always need to be reminded to take deep breaths and meditate. But being aware of how stressful it may be for children to acclimate to a dizzying world is important. It is integral in healthy integration to address such anxiety and any doubts or fears a child may have.

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So my last blog dealt with introducing sensory processing disorder and the difficulties children who have it face in daily life. However, although I conveyed the essence of the disorder, I would like to take a moment to talk about a result of SPD that your children may or may not experience.

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This photo represents different symptoms that fall under the category or anxiety.

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40 million adults in the United States (U.S.) are affected by anxiety disorders (1). I will focus on the most prevalent anxiety disorder in the U.S.: Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I will outline some of the most effective methods I've personally used when dealing with anxiety.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a common anxiety disorder that is characterized by significant worrying, tension, and nervousness (2). We will refer to this disorder as "anxiety" for the remainder of this article.
*If your condition is persistent, severe, or ongoing, I highly encourage you to seek professional medical help. This article is not meant to serve as a substitute to proper medical treatment.
CURRENT MEDICAL TREATMENTS

I'm going to briefly touch on the most common medical treatments used for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. However, the majority of this article is meant to act as a guide for powerful lifestyle changes to combat anxiety.

COMMON MEDICATIONS USED IN THE TREATMENT OF ANXIETY:

Benzodiazepines: Diazepam (Valium), Alprazolam (Xanax), Clonazepam (Klonopin), Lorazepam (Ativan)

Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): Citalopram (Celexa), Escitalopram (Lexapro), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva), Sertraline (Zoloft)

There are some significant downsides to using these medications in the treatment of Anxiety. Benzodiazepines are habit forming. I've seen the effects of addictions to these medications in the long-term. It's not pretty. The addiction is difficult to break. I'd encourage you to seek other options if possible. (Note, I am not a doctor and this should be discussed further with your healthcare provider.) However, there are cases of extreme trauma or life circumstances that warrant these medications. You'll have to talk to your healthcare provider about this.

The evidence for the effectiveness of SSRIs in the management of anxiety is mixed. These drugs also come with a host of side effects and rarely address the underlying cause of your anxiety.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of thought restructuring supervised by a mental health professional. CBT is a highly effective method to treat anxiety (10). The results are often maintained in the long run as well.

DEALING WITH ANXIETY: LIFESTYLE MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY

The good news is there are a lot of things you can do to manage anxiety in your daily life. In my case, I've assembled a list of lifestyle changes that have worked well for me. Here are my methods how I manage my own anxiety:

Vigorous exercise - if you are physically able, moderately intense exercise has been shown to significantly decrease anxiety (3) This includes activities that elevate your heart rate to approximately 80% of your target heart rate maximum. You can calculate the suggested target heart rate for your age here. 30 minutes of sustained target heart rate or 15-20 minutes of high intensity interval training will often suffice.

Yoga - While peer-reviewed evidence is limited (4), the use of yoga in your daily routine may help abate the symptoms of anxiety. The combination of conscious breathing with purposeful movement has a calming effect on the central nervous system.

Mindfulness Meditation - A recent meta-analytic review (5) concluded that Mindfulness-based therapies may be an effective means to reduce anxiety. This practice has been one of the most helpful tools in my anti-anxiety toolbox. Mindfulness meditation is not about "clearing the mind." It is a practice where we observe our thoughts through the mind's eye. We watch. We listen. We acknowledge without judgment. By doing this, the tension of unsolved problems become less burdensome on our psyche.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) -The process involves a series of purposely tightening and relaxing muscles throughout your body. You typically start at your toes and systematically work your way up to your head. Most research of PMR has been performed on patients with cancer. In the research, PMR has produced favorable results for those dealing with anxiety (6). A free MP3 guided recording of PMR can be found here.

Regular Sleep Patterns - If you are coping with anxiety, regular sleep patterns are a must. Sleep is a time to repair and rejuvenate the brain and body for the coming day. Without sleep, you will have difficulty focusing, feel wired, and / or anxious. Make a strong commitment to the times you go to bed and rise for the day. Sleep in a dark, cool room (68-70 degrees F), with as little noise as possible. These are optimal sleeping conditions.

Address Gut Pathology - There is a significant amount of research (7) in the works examining the relationship between mood disorders and gut health. When I began working on my microbiome (gut environment) on a regular basis, there was a noticeable improvement in my mood. This likely is related to the gut-brain axis. Simply put, the gut-brain axis is a strong biologically-wired relationship between our mind and gut environment (8). If you have difficulty with your gut, it may be worth exploring further. An in-depth guide on how to restore gut-health can be found here.

Acupuncture - Evidence is mounting that supports Acupuncture in the treatment of anxiety (9). While I don't fully understand the mechanism behind this, I can personally attest how much acupuncture has helped me in the past while dealing with anxiety. While some may be averse to the idea of the needles, most clients report that acupuncture is almost entirely painless. This is my experience as well.

Essentialism - Do you feel busy but not productive? Is your time often hijacked by other people's agendas? Do you feel simultaneously overworked yet underutilized? If this is making it difficult to manage life while dealing with anxiety, I highly encourage you to check out the book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Greg McKeown outlines an "essentialist" lifestyle that helps you cut out all the extra garbage in your life. Instead you can focus on what really matters to you. This book opened my eyes to how many non-essential tasks I was undertaking, thereby increasing my anxiety.

Toxic Relationships - If you are around individuals that suck the marrow out of your life, it might be worth reconsidering the value of such a relationship. This is certainly difficult. It may seem the relationship is worth more than it really is. This is because of how much time you may have invested already. Always continue to assess and re-assess the direction of such relationships.

These are but a few possible options that may help you cope with Anxiety. I've found these changes in my life to make the biggest impact dealing with anxiety in my own life. If you found this helpful, subscribe to our mailing list (above) to receive notifications on our upcoming online course to thrive despite anxiety.
Question for the comments section: How do you deal with anxiety?
REFERENCES:

(1) Anxiety and Depression Association Of America: Facts and statistics

(2) Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

(3) Regular exercise, anxiety, depression and personality: A population-based study

(4) Yoga for anxiety: a systematic review of the research evidence

(5) The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review.

(6) A randomized clinical trial of alprazolam versus progressive muscle relaxation in cancer patients with anxiety and depressive symptoms.

(7) The microbiota-gut-brain axis: neurobehavioral correlates, health and sociality

(8) Harvard: The Gut-Brain Connection

(9) Acupuncture for anxiety and anxiety disorders - a systematic literature review

(10) Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disordered youth: A randomized clinical trial evaluating child and family modalities

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Dealing With Anxiety: Long-Term Solutions

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40 million adults in the United States (U.S.) are affected by anxiety disorders (1). I will focus on the most prevalent anxiety disorder in the U.S.: Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I will outline some of the most effective methods I've personally used when dealing with anxiety.

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In this video Ted talks about how his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and they didn't know what could be done yet. Ted was so upset that they didn't know what could be done that we went to the book store and bought every book on breast cancer. As soon as he got the phone call that she had cancer he was determined to become an expert and researched every chance he got.

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When your mind works against you | Ted Powell | TEDxJacksonville

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He says that he fell out of his loop of happiness and had a panic disorder for 3 years. A year later is it less stressed no longer has panic attacked and is even happy due to therapy.  After his recovery he found his balance and be less stressed. He says that short routines only ease the anxiety in the shrt run and actually lead to long lasting fears.

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Breaking The Loop of Anxiety | Colin Bien | TEDxLeuphanaUniversityLüneburg

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Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is like American society today because he shows characters turning bad thoughts into actions and, based on research on anxiety, in today’s society people being stressed and overwhelmed negatively affects their everyday lives and the people around them.