Jhanvi Venkitesh

Jhanvi Venkitesh

Ms. Kohler

English 8 Capstone Paper

24 April 2020

Home and Professional Impacts on Anxiety

I longed for emptiness. A period of chaos took every small situation and built it up into a massive rush of panic. Sometimes those feelings are able to stay hidden, while other times they are unable to be contained. All that I wanted was for everything to stop. No thoughts swirling through my head would be a paradise. Reflecting on the moments that had just passed, the only thought circling my head was that some people have it worse. There are so many people dealing with this problem of anxiety, but are unable to speak up. They feel this weight bringing them down, and I only know this since I have been in their shoes. I kept having to battle myself to get through this while also struggling to make sure others dis not find out. I would be too afraid that I would say something wrong to expose myself that I started to not speak at all, but at a certain point it was too much to handle. Not having to hide anything from people took that enormous weight off of my shoulders. It also gave me the opportunity to look deeper into this topic. Since then, I have been working and using capstone as a diving board to discover what anxiety is and how people can overcome it. I did this not only for myself, but to give other people the courage to look into this and to voice an opinion about it. This underrated subject is serious, and with the help of many other people to build awareness, people will start to realize its importance.

At first, I started using capstone as a way to research the mental disorder, anxiety, and get my school notes done at the same time. I did not realize that this subject was much deeper than I thought. By the time the pre capstone research finished, I knew that anxiety was something that I wanted to build off of for my project. My overall theme for this activity became helping yourself and creating awareness of anxiety, since not a lot of people choose to talk about it. I came to the conclusion that the only way to do this was to present the information in a way that people would want to see. Using platforms such as magazines and apps, which are forms of media that are common ways of attracting attention, I will be able to create a lot of awareness (especially during this stressful time). With the fear of Covid-19, many civilians are experiencing stress, and with these platforms, I will be able to calm people, as well as show them that this problem that they are experiencing might be on a milder scale. I mainly use the magazine and news to create awareness for this problem by creating articles of experiences, scientific reasoning, as well as some solutions that they might want to try. These solutions vary from doing simple breathing, to yoga, or even creating art. One method would be creating a stress rock that can help people change their mindset throughout anxiety too. These platforms are only the start to solving a larger issue. In order to make this project possible, there is a lot of research to be done, including on the different types of techniques and how effective they can be. In particular, when looking at home and professional remedies, the assumed results are not always correct. There are many aspects of home remedies for anxiety, such as art, yoga and mindfulness, that can make people dealing with anxiety stronger when compared to professional techniques like psychotherapy and medication.

Many mental health disorders, especially anxiety, are hard to understand since it is difficult to separate temporary symptoms, like stress, from actual symptoms of the disorder. Some anxiety related symptoms include intense and excessive worry about small everyday situations or activities. This can be caused by many things including traumatic events, environmental factors, genetics, and more (“Anxiety”). In fact, it appears that anxiety is more common in females than in males. Anxiety is a very serious topic that is likely to lead to worse mental conditions, like depression, if not taken care of properly. It is helpful to start prevention methods as early as possible (“Anxiety”). Some of these can be home remedies where you can begin to work toward precautions. Techniques like mindfulness, yoga, and art are simple, yet they can have significant changes to your mind, as well as body. At a certain point, it is beneficial to get help from professionals. This could occur when anxiety starts getting in the way of normal day-to-day activities and it gets hard to control (“Anxiety”). Some Professional treatments to consider could be Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. When Anxiety gets in the way and things become out of hand, it is necessary to consider treatment from home remedies to professional ones.

Treatment for anxiety is extremely important. One approach to this is art, which makes receiving help feel less like work and more fun. Art can be used for relieving stress or just for doodling during down time. Even when people do not think that they are getting treatment, just doing art on their own can calm and relax people. This technique, and so many more, can compliment other forms of treatment. This way, people can receive even more help. It is used a lot for expressing deeper feelings and complex emotions that might not be able to be translated into words (Cohen). Art pieces can teach people many things including skills as well as emotions that they might not have known they had. Art therapists can guide a patient in the right direction or give some possibilities as to what these art pieces might mean, but according to an art therapist, their goal is to help people “uncover emotions they may have been unaware of” (Dudley). Like this, there are so many different ways to effectively apply art for therapeutic uses from the comfort of home.

Although some techniques are extremely simple, there are some things that can completely change the outcome of the therapy. One of them is the clients attitude towards the approach (Dudley). This was brought up during an interview with a therapist when she said, “art could work for anyone who wants it to work for them” (Dudley). Therefore, when patients have an open mindset towards the method, they are more likely to receive positive results, which is the goal of this process (Dudley). When dealing with anxiety, art has shown to calm people down through simple sketching and art methods, which can be done at home or with professional guidance.

Although many therapies work with your mind, yoga can reduce anxiety by using exercise and movement. This technique can be extremely calming. Like art therapy, yoga is able to be done alongside other treatments,. At the same time, it can lower blood pressure and improve many symptoms, including those in the respiratory system. The slight movements in yoga can drastically change how certain body systems function. Using concentration as its core, this approach can have major changes to your brain. It allows people to look into themselves in a very calming way, and teaches them self-control, honesty, and truthfulness. All of this impact comes from a bunch of different kinds of movements that combine mental, physical, and spiritual dimensions. These simple positions can impact many parts of our body, but at the same time, there are some parts of yoga that are not always helpful. Sometimes, due to injury, some movements are unable to be done. Without the proper concentration and ability to execute these positions, one could hurt themself even more. This is why new people doing yoga are advised to start with an experienced instructor who can guide them through this process (Frey). Yoga has some ups and downs but has the ability to drastically change your body and mind through simple movements.

In addition to the solutions mentioned, there are so many more that can have an enormous impact on humans. One of them is the technique of meditation and mindfulness. This simple form has the ability to completely change a person’s mind. With a lot of practice and concentration, it can even change personality. In fact, it has been shown to be more effective than some professional treatments and medications. It decreases the size of the amygdala, or fear sense, which allows a person to stay calm in certain stressful situations. These benefits change by doing simple concentration activities over a long period of time. By doing meditation, certain neural connections become stronger, and when they are repeated over and over again, they start to be subconscious. After those connections are strengthened, the weak ones disappear, which can change your personality as a whole (“Mindfulness”). Achieving this is an extremely easy process. All it takes is concentrating on one thing for a couple minutes a day. At first, the mind wanders a lot, but over time the mind concentrates better as you notice that the wandering has decreased (“Mindfulness”). Although meditation has a significant amount of benefits, there are also negative sides to this treatment. It was shown that twenty-five percent of people believe that it has caused them stress. The occasional negative effects of meditation is primarily seen in those without a form of religious belief . Religions have shown to alter one's lifestyle in a positive direction which can alter the results of meditation for the better (Holt). Although it has its occasional negative aspects, this beneficial technique can strengthen people's brains so much that it can have significant changes in personality and more.

Like meditation, psychotherapy can change your brain and its automatic thoughts. Certain professional therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, C.B.T, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, D.B.T, can help patients deal with complicated situations and train their brains for scenarios in the future (“Which” use the first two words). It even helps the patient understand where the unwanted, immediate thoughts come from. Over time, they learn not to judge themselves and to stop believing in negative and self-deprecating thoughts. C.B.T. works on correcting your way of thinking (Davis). It turns negative thoughts into joyful ones. Different exercises can be done that will help the client to not only think, but to behave and react, too (“Which”). This can be done through various formats like talk therapy, diary entries, role play, exposure to fears, and more. Another type of psychotherapy similar to C.B.T. is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, D.B.T (Davis). This therapy can increase self respect while decreasing anxiety and suicidal thoughts. It is very similar to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. D.B.T. also focuses on not judging the people and corrects their way of thinking, but it also deals with regulating their emotions. Although this is a professional treatment, science has shown that there are other remedies that the patient should try first, like, yoga or mindfulness. Psychotherapy can have significant changes to altering one's attitude during stressful situations, but it has shown that this treatment is not always the best one to choose, as there are stronger ones that might be of more value.

Another technique that is often used in these situations is medications, but it might not always go the right way. This solution usually tends to have a short term effect. With the help of doctors and therapists, the chances of the treatment leaning towards extreme negative effects are low. They are used to reduce some of the symptoms of anxiety, not always cure the disorder as a whole. There are many different types of medication, too. Some of these medications are taken daily, even if the symptoms are not being expressed that day, such as SNRI and SSRI, while others are used as a quick way for immediate stress relief. These immediate relief pills can cause drowsiness, memory loss, attention problems, and other effects that are not always good. Medication can have a positive effect on people but is usually seen as a short-term solution, as sometimes it is easy to get addicted to them and there are other negative effects that can come out of it. These effects include drowsiness, dependence, withdrawal, and more problems. Like psychotherapy, doctors tend to suggest other forms of therapy before this one. In fact, techniques like mindfulness are shown to have an equal or better effect on people compared to medications (“Understanding”). Since there are many effects of these solutions, it is sometimes hard to judge whether this is an option that should be advised to people. Medication is a short term solution that may benefit people in the moment, but could also have worse effects in the long run.

Researching multiple home and professional remedies for anxiety was crucial when completing a project like capstone. This helped me get a better insight on the topic, and it showed that usually, home remedies can be more impactful than professional remedies. This can be great advice for people who are trying to figure out solutions that are low on budget and can have a better impact on them. With the help of the interview I conducted, I could see how the results of treatments vary by the thoughts that go through a client's head. I hope when people see this they will have the courage to fight this complication with me and continue this process too. My goal is to make this project public so that other people can come across my work and be able to have the courage to speak up and make this problem heard. Only thirty percent of people going through anxiety talk about their experiences, and I want to be part of the change of that movement. By creating a welcoming environment, I want to work to encourage people to come out of their shells. This could not only have an impact with those around me, but it could change the view of the community of those with anxiety. Anxiety is a subject that is important to be heard, but that will only happen when more people step up and make their stories understood. This is only the beginning for the change that can happen, which can start with one person standing up to give others the courage to use their voices for this issue.

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