This audio should be self explanatory.

It is not meant to be 100% all inclusive, but of these 7 characteristics, you have at least one, and possibly all of them

If you are willing to listen, accept this and “see” that you can shift these things, you will begin to see your axniety and panic attacks melt away.

Calmness will present itself in otherwise scary situations.

Listen below, or read the transcript, either way.. Absorb this awesome sauce!!

Ben

ps. Make sure you jump into our previous post after this one – “Nervous Energy” – Click Here..

 Grab A Copy Of My Anxiety and Panic Crushing Course While It Is Still mere pennies!!

Transcript

Hey, it’s Ben. How are you doing? This one’s pretty important. I wanted to talk about the seven characteristics of people who struggle with anxiety and/or panic attacks, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder. These seven very important characteristics of people who struggle with this and just for the blanket, for this recording today, we’re just going to call it anxiety as a whole.

It’s also important for me to note that just because of the fact that you may be having some challenges with anxiety does not necessarily mean that you have every one of these characteristics but everyone who does have anxiety, who experiences anxiety, has at least one of these characteristics and likely most or a good portion thereof.

The first one is, is that people who struggle with anxiety are sensitive, sometimes overly sensitive. They’re not necessarily sensitive in every area their lives, but in some specific areas of their lives, they’re very sensitive. They second one is that they’re strong feeling. They’re people who feel very strongly about specific things.

Now, of course everyone in the world, well a vast majority of people in the world, would certainly feel quite strong about things but people who struggle with anxiety feel extra strong or have extra strong feelings in regards to specific things that are sometimes almost a little bit out of control. Of course these feelings are sometimes a little bit too much to handle or too much to deal with or can be extremely overwhelming.

Number three is kind of interesting because the truth is, is that everyone in the world, basically everyone in the world kind of fits within this, but people who struggle with anxiety or who experience anxiety fall within this category a little bit more than most people in the world. Number three is, they see themselves as lesser than they actually are. They see themselves as not strong enough or not powerful enough or pushed around or picked on or too small. The other interesting thing about that is that most people, who are around these people who experience the anxiety, likely see them as more than they see themselves. Number four, people who struggle with anxiety feel they have less control than they need and as a result, they’re at the mercy of too many things in their lives.

These are all broad/statements meaning that we’re kind of painting with a very inclusive brush but the truth is, is that people who struggle with anxiety feel that they have less control in their lives than they actually need. Let me give you an example. Let’s say, for instance, in regards to dealing with people, you feel very powerless, you feel very out of control, you feel very small or you struggle in regards to dealing with other people.

Well, that’s a perfect example where you feel like you don’t have enough control and you have less control than you need in regards to dealing with people. Therefore, you’re at the mercy of specific things when dealing with these other people. Number five, they’re often overwhelmed and have a low capacity.

What’s interesting there is this, is that this may actually be almost the most important one because people who feel overwhelmed, people who feel like they have a low capacity are unable to process and handle specific things in their lives. They feel unable to deal with specific things. There’s just too much going on.

Now, again, this may not be in every single area of your life, but it may very well be that you only experience anxiety in one specific area of your life. As a result you feel, in that specific area, that you don’t have sufficient capacity to handle that. You’re not big enough to handle that.

Number six, people who experience a lot of anxiety, people who struggle with anxiety feel unsafe. Now, people who experience panic attacks, which of course, we’ve talked about before, is a very high level anxiety, it’s like anxiety to the extreme in that moment. If you’ve ever experienced a panic attack you know that it comes with some very specific feelings. One of the feelings is, “Get me out of here.” Another feeling is, “I’m about to die.” Another feeling is that, “I’m extremely unsafe right now. I feel like I’m in danger.” As a result, people who experience a great deal of anxiety often feel very unsafe.

They don’t feel safe in their surroundings or maybe again, going back to the situation where it’s only a specific area of your life. If there’s a specific area of your life where you feel unsafe, then it’s nice to know there’s a little bit of a circle around that in that it’s somewhat compartmentalized from the rest of your life.

Now, everyone experiences anxiety differently but the truth is, is that there are a broad range of similarities between people who struggle with anxiety. You might struggle with anxiety for a completely different reason than someone else’s struggle with anxiety, but there are very common feelings and very common perceptions and beliefs behind what hold the experience of anxiety in place.

Number seven is an interesting one. They feel, people who struggle with anxiety feel that their needs are going unmet. In other words, they feel that in one specific area of their lives or in all areas of their lives, they feel that their needs are not being met. Now what’s interesting there is that that kind of ties in with all of the rest of them because if you feel unsafe in any one area of your life, well guess what? Your need for safety is being unmet in that specific area of your life.

You may feel, we’ve all heard the expression, “Ops so and so, is so needy,” or “In this particular moment I feel very needy. As a result, what happens is that that neediness is actually needs being unmet. In other words, you don’t feel as if you have the ability to meet your own needs in one specific area or in one areas of your life. Let me give you a specific example. Everyone needs to feel a certain element of or a certain amount of capability and ability in their life. In other words, they need to feel capable enough to do their job or capable enough to be a parent or capable enough to bike ride around the block or drive from A to B or whatever it is that they need to do.

If you, as an individual do not feel capable, then your need of being capable is going unmet. In many cases, again it comes back to ourselves, is that we are the only ones that can ever meet that need. I’m the only one that can ever meet the need of me feeling capable enough. In many ways when it comes to our anxiety, when it comes to the panic or obsessive compulsive disorder or post traumatic stress or whatever it is that we’re struggling with, we are the only ones that can truly, truly meet our own needs.

A really good example would be, imagine that your son or your daughter or your niece or nephew or a close friend or someone that’s close to you, imagine that they don’t feel safe when they’re going to bed at night. They just feel kind of on edge and it’s really difficult for them to fall asleep because they get so worked up in regards to whatever it is going on for them.

Now, you can snuggle with that person, you can hold them close, you can pat their hair, you can tell them that they’re safe and that everything is going to be okay, but if they don’t believe you, that need still runs unmet. Now, even if you do all those things, maybe you’re meeting the need in the moment but yet, does it need to be repeated again tomorrow night?

It’s one of those things where we do our best all the time, any time, to meet our needs and the needs of people around us but it’s very, very important that we understand that any time that we feel that sense of neediness, that there’s something that is not being met.

Now, I’m going to give you a quick little bonus here. The bonus is this, anytime you have a sense of craving or if there’s addictions or if there’s anything like that, for me sometimes it’s sugar or I just get this sense where I just want to have some junk food or something like that. Anytime you have that sense obviously a bag of chips is not going to satisfy the need for safety or a bag full of sugary candy or a soda pop or something like that is, it’s not going to satisfy the need for self esteem.

It’ll never do that but yet those cravings still rise to the surface and it’s important to note that anytime those cravings come up, it’s not that they’re easily satisfied with spoonful of sugar. Really what it is, is that we’re looking for something else bigger than that because that need within us feels unmet and will continue to go unmet until we do something about it, until we personally for ourselves, meet that need, until we come to the place where all of a sudden.
We just go, “Hah, I don’t need that anymore and the reason I don’t need that anymore, I don’t need that self-esteem is because I have it. I know I have it. I don’t need that confidence anymore because I have it. I know I have it. I don’t need that safety anymore because I have it. I feel safe, I’m safe to do this, I’m safe to do that, I feel safe to do those things and as a result, I’m okay to move forward.”

This was a little bit longer recording than I was expecting but I hope you found it really helpful. I hope you’re having an awesome day. You’re doing great, you’re doing fantastic. Just keep on keeping on.

Okay. Great job, will talk to you soon.

Bye. Ben.

ps. Make sure you jump into our previous post - "Nervous Energy" - Click Here..