Bite-size blog: Anxiety as a Smoke Alarm

Anxiety is something that nearly everyone will deal with at some point in their life. Worry and stress are normal, necessary and important parts of anticipating and dealing with situations. They keep us focused, aware of risks and aware of anything that could compromise what we’re working towards. Anxiety keeps us alert to these threats, but we can sometimes become too alert, leaving us with a sense of panic, fear or just general negativity. I think of anxiety as a smoke alarm. Smoke alarms aren’t there to tell us there’s an active fire, they’re there to warn us before a fire. Similarly, anxiety is a radar that looks for any signal of threat and it is great at getting us to notice those signals. The more it does it, the quicker we respond and the more effective the system feels. But just like smoke alarms that might respond to every day norms like burnt toast in the toaster, our anxiety might not always respond to genuine threat. It might be so well tuned that any tiny little signal that something might possibly not be ok might make us feel that the worst thing in the world is about to happen! Being aware of this process helps to challenge anxiety and slow our response systems down. If you feel panic, fear or anxiety building or kicking in, try saying to your anxiety “Thank you for warning me but I’ve got this” (even if you don’t believe it). This helps to bring our rational brain back online, disrupts the threat signals, and in time, will divert anxious thoughts. Being aware of your body’s response to anxiety can help you spot the signals much sooner, meaning you can cool the smoke alarm down before it even goes off.