Top 4 Anxiety-Producing Habits

Routines and habits that many people make their own, paying the price of developing anxiety.

If problems due to excessive anxiety are such a widespread problem among the population is, among other things, because there are a wide variety of situations that can feed this type of discomfort.

In fact, in the consultation of psychologists it is common to meet people who enhance and perpetuate their anxiety without realizing it, simply by reproducing in their daily lives a series of routines that favor the appearance of this phenomenon.

Here we are going to see a summary of the main habits that can be producing anxiety without you being aware of it..

The habits that foment the appearance of anxiety

These are some routines and habits that many people reproduce in their daily lives without realizing that they favor the appearance of too high levels of anxiety (with the problems that this entails).

1. Consuming addictive substances

There is multiple evidence that consuming substances with addictive potential (whether legal or illegal) goes hand in hand with a greater propensity to develop anxiety problems.

It is not only that those who experience more stress and anguish are at greater risk of approaching the world of drugs, the habit of taking drugs is a ticking time bomb in its emotional implications, and even before most people are in the habit of taking drugs, they are more likely to develop anxiety problems.In addition, the drug habit is a ticking time bomb in its emotional implications, and even before most people notice they have a dependency problem, they become more anxious.

Not getting enough sleep

The quality of sleep is one of the first aspects of life that suffers due to stress, and at the same time, not having an adequate control of our sleep schedule favors the appearance and maintenance of high levels of anxiety. As in many other cases linked to stress and anxiety, there is a vicious circle that, at a certain point, is difficult to undo without psychotherapeutic help..

This is because the simple fact of sleeping badly or not sleeping enough for several days in a row (or almost in a row) produces such physical and psychological wear and tear that we are much more exposed to the challenges of everyday life.

For example, it is known that sleeping less than 6 hours for two consecutive days reduces working memory performance by more than 30%. Fortunately, by regaining a good sleep schedule, these cognitive faculties recover, but as long as this does not happen, we are much more prone to express frustration, clumsiness and irritability.

3. Making a hobby out of worries

There are many people who make a habit of turning everything that worries them over in their head..

For example, they spend several hours reading on the Internet about possible diseases they may have, informing themselves about the symptoms of these pathologies, considering whether they fit with what they live in their daily lives, etc.

Another example would be someone who has to take exams throughout the university course and instead of studying regularly spends a lot of time thinking about the moment in which he must start reading his notes to avoid failing, or even looks back to estimate the grade he will never be able to reach because he did not start preparing before.

This is a type of habit that takes the form of two psychological phenomena that increase anxiety levels. On the one hand, psychological ruminationwhich consists of developing a propensity to suffer recurrent intrusive thoughts, which disturb us and monopolize all our attention.

On the other hand, analysis paralysiswhich consists in the fixation for not moving from theory to practice, for fear of facing emotionally painful situations in which what we feared is confirmed and that until that moment had only been confined to the world of our thoughts and our imagination.

Both act as an excuse that prevents us from facing our problem and trying to solve it in a constructive way.

4. Spending our free time without moving

A sedentary lifestyle increases anxiety. There are several explanations that try to put into words the psychological mechanism by which this occurs, but most likely it is a complex and multi-causal phenomenon.

On the one hand, the fact of not moving too much increases the likelihood of not interacting too much with others, and taking into account that social isolation favors the onset of depressive-type symptomsand that depression often overlaps with anxiety, it makes sense that it would occur.

On the other hand, sedentary lifestyles make it more likely that you will end up developing unhealthy routines unhealthy routines, which help to raise anxiety levels..

A body given to developing inflammatory processes due to wear and tear, for example, is more vulnerable to psychological disorders, since the body is too busy dealing with the most urgent "fronts" to worry about medium- and long-term well-being.

Are you looking for psychological assistance for anxiety?

If in your daily life you feel discomfort due to anxiety and you are interested in professional help to overcome this problem, please contact us. At Avance Psychologists we have been helping people for two decades through our psychotherapy services, and we currently offer it both in person at our center located in Madrid and through online sessions by video call. On this page you can see our contact details.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association -APA- (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Madrid: Panamericana.
• Balaban, C.D.; Thayer, J.F. (2001). Neurological bases for balance-anxiety links. J Anxiety Disord. 15 (1-2): pp. 53 - 79.
• Joormann, J.; Dkane, M.; Gotlib, I. H. (2006). Adaptive and maladaptive components of rumination? Diagnostic specificity and relation to depressive biases. Behavior Therapy. 37(3): pp. 269 - 280.
• Rodríguez Biglieri, R. & Vetere, G. (2011). Cognitive-behavioral therapy manual for anxiety disorders. Buenos Aires: Polemos.
• Sylvers, P.; Lilienfeld, S.O.; LaPrairie, J.L. (2011). Differences between trait fear and trait anxiety: implications for psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review. 31(1): pp. 122 - 137.