You’ve probably noticed that when you get used to something, you feel relaxed and there is no problem. However, anxiety is a strange thing. When you get used to a feeling, and you haven’t solved the root cause of that feeling, anxiety will find a new moment where it will draw your attention. Your brain thinks it would make it easier for you to find the cause that makes you turn to that observation.
For example, you need to go somewhere for five days, you are worried about the trip, anxiety will then start attacking you. In order not to focus on that fear of the road, anxiety will give you, for example, a stomach-ache. You will turn all your attention to your stomach and start to fear that it is not something serious. Actually, it takes you away from what you fear, it takes you away from that path. Anything – an exam, a conversation with someone, etc. Anxiety will create a physical problem for you to fear for and worry about that problem, as well as to take your focus away from what actually caused you to go into that unpleasant sensation.
Anxiety wants you to have a serious and real physical problem, so that you can take your mind off what is really bothering you in life. It will begin to squeeze you in the chest. If you are afraid that it is a heart or a heart attack, you will start worrying about it so much that your whole day’s attention will be on it. You will study the heart, you will read about it, and you have solved the problem with, for example, the expected trip that you are afraid of. So, you no longer have a problem with travel, but with the heart, suffocation, etc. However, if the heart was previously a symptom that you have now learned, then anxiety will find a new and next symptom. Somewhere, quite by chance, you will notice e.g., blurred vision. As soon as you latch on to something, anxiety will make you fear that you will start to question your vision as soon as possible. When you start imagining you’re going blind, anxiety will think it’s done the right thing by taking your mind off that dreaded anticipation (exam, road, or something else). It makes a change of focus; you turn to the state of health. If you had a stomach problem, it won’t shoot you in the stomach or the heart, but in the eyes, for example. If you don’t get scared even then, it will go dizzy.
So you’re looking for a moment in your body to grab onto, or to escape from the real problem. We run away from anxiety into a problem that we can supposedly control because we can’t control the exam, the road, the emotions in skydiving… That’s why it gives you a stomach-ache. Then you take a medicine, drink tea and somehow control it. It saved you from what you can’t control and shifted your focus to what you can control. But if you’re used to swallowing stomach medications, it asks for the following. It will find a new way, a new path. This also happens with hypochondria, which is a way of escaping from a situation that we cannot control. In order not to be overwhelmed by that situation, anxiety gives you a moment in your body. It will never give you a nail, a finger, an elbow, on top of a condition, but it will always give you something that can really scare you into doing it. You will notice that you can never be focused on a situation that is catastrophic in your head when you have a hypochondriacal thought or something that will overwhelm you because it is related to health. That’s why it targets health, that is. you target yourself by increasing attention and focus combined with fear on that point. It looks like you’ve been away all day, you’re not the same in the mirror. You are scared, you worry about it, you are not at peace, you constantly worry about the problem that anxiety gave you (stomach, neck, heart, eyes, etc.).
Whatever it is, maybe there is something suppressed, and you don’t want to see a real problem, for example in a marriage or relationship. Maybe you don’t admit to yourself that it’s not right and so you run into introspection, checking, so that you don’t have to face that terrible event. You know that if you tell yourself that this is the problem, then you will have to deal with a strong emotional charge. In order to skip that part that is not the comfort zone, the brain looks for shelter and sometimes jumps in to save you with introspection.
What needs to be recognized at that moment is to try to clarify why you went into introspection. Prove it to yourself and talk to yourself about that event that needs to happen. If you do not know what is at stake, it means that you are not admitting to yourself the truth that is visible somewhere in your subconsciousness, so you run away into introspection. So, sit down, think, reconsider and see. Don’t think about the physical symptoms because it’s already a vicious cycle. There is no solution in that circle, it is only a consequence that you are dealing with. You can do it forever. In fact, there is no need to look for any way of salvation in that consequence but find what made you run away into introspection and illness.
It’s anxiety, which is very clever and always tries to find a new way to scare you to make sure you don’t go and figure things out, because if you do, it’s going to be terrible. Your subconscious mind tries to convince you at times that you don’t need to face it. Don’t deal with that vicious circle, but address the cause.
