What is anticipatory anxiety? And why do so many people have it? Anticipatory anxiety is not a disorder, but a symptom of other anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety disorder. The uncertainty of the future can be scary because it is out of our control.

Sometimes, we just need to focus on something other than our anxious thoughts. We can always come back to them and work through them. But it’s okay if you need to take some time to distract yourself with something else. Going for a walk, calling a friend, listening to music, doing chores around the house, reading a book, or watching a show are all healthy ways to divert our focus for a bit.

Statistics In U.S.

In brief, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the United States, and insufficient sleep is known to have sweeping negative implications for overall health.

Adults          Percentage 
Affected        U.S. Adult 
in U.S.                                             

Generalized Anxiety
Disorder 6.8 million 3.1%	                      


Panic 
Disorder 6 million   2.7%	                                                 


Social Anxiety 
Disorder 15 million  7.1%                                


Specific 
Phobias	19.3 million 9.1%	                                         


Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 2.5 million 1.2%	               


Post-traumatic Stress Disorder 7.7 million  3.6%	               

     

Anticipatory Anxiety Test

The anticipatory anxiety test is a psychological assessment tool Using the psychological assessment tool, professionals can assess the severity of anticipatory anxiety in individuals. typically involves a series of questions that ask about an individual’s current level of anxiety, feelings of dread or worry about upcoming events or situations, coping mechanisms, and past experiences with anxiety.

Important to realize, the HAM-A was one of the first rating scales to measure the severity of anxiety symptoms. Professionals are still using it today in both clinical and research settings. The scale consists of 14 items, each defined by a series of symptoms, and measures both psychic anxiety (mental agitation and psychological distress) and somatic anxiety (physical complaints related to anxiety). In addition, anticipatory anxiety can manifest in many ways. You may notice physical symptoms like: muscle tension, difficulty focusing, your heart racing a mile a minute, an upset stomach, or trouble getting a good night’s sleep.

Each item is scored on a scale of 0 (not present) to 4 (severe), with a total score range of 0–56, where <17 indicates mild severity, 18–24 mild to moderate severity and 25–30 moderate to severe.

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in, and day-out.” – Unknown

Anticipatory Anxiety Panic Attacks

People often feel anticipatory anxiety because they fear that they will have a panic attack when they are in these situations. Given that, it is closely associated with the way you think. With panic disorder, your thoughts are generally focused on worrying about having a panic attack in a situation that will result in embarrassment, extreme discomfort, a heart attack, or even worse.

If you have panic disorder, you are probably very familiar with “what if” worries. Perhaps your worries are similar to these:

• What if I have a panic attack and drive my car into a ditch?
• What if I start to panic in the store and embarrass myself with some bizarre behavior?
• What if, while eating at a restaurant, I can’t swallow and start choking on my food?
• What if I take a walk around the block and start to panic and can’t get back home?

In any case, this kind of thinking causes a lot of anticipatory anxiety that can lead to avoiding certain activities. The anxiety may be so intense that it causes a condition called agoraphobia.

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein

Anticipatory Sleep Anxiety

Anxiety is frequently connected to sleeping problems. Therefore, excess worry and fear make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night. Sleep deprivation can worsen anxiety, spurring a negative cycle involving insomnia and anxiety disorders. In any event, serious sleep disturbances, including insomnia, have long been recognized as a common symptom of anxiety disorders. People who are plagued with worry often ruminate about their concerns in bed, and this anxiety at night can keep them from falling asleep.

Distress about falling asleep can create a sleep anxiety that reinforces a person’s sense of dread. Therefore, these negative thoughts about going to bed, a type of anticipatory anxiety, can create challenges to healthy sleep schedules and routines. Research indicates that anxiety and pre-sleep rumination may affect vivid dreaming during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In effect, anxiety can provoke nightmares and disturbing dreams that create a higher likelihood of sleep disruptions and may reinforce fear around going to sleep.

“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” – Les Brown

Anticipatory Anxiety Treatment

Good self-care begins with taking care of basic needs.

• Reduce sources of stress where possible.
• Eat a balanced diet, and limit caffeine and sugar, which can make anxiety worse.
• Exercise regularly, as research Trusted Source indicates it can reduce anxiety.

Drugs Used For Treating Panic Disorder:

Tricyclic antidepressants:

Imipramine (Tofranil)      50 to 300 mg per day

Clomipramine (Anafranil)    25 to 250 mg per day
  

 SSRIs:

Fluoxetine (Prozac)    
20 to 80 mg per day

Paroxetine (Paxil)              10 to 50 mg per day

Sertraline (Zoloft)       50 to 200 mg per day


Benzodiazepines:

Alprazolam (Xanax)              2 to 10 mg per day

Lorazepam (Ativan)              2 to 6 mg per day
   Clonazepam (Klonopin)    1 to 3 mg per day



Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is a type of therapy in which you’re gradually exposed to the things, situations and activities you fear. There are a few different approaches to this therapy. It can help treat several conditions, like phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and panic disorder. Exposure therapy is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy in which your therapist creates a safe environment to expose you to your fears.

Exposure therapy helps show you that you’re capable of confronting your fears. In short, you’ll learn to attach new, more realistic beliefs to the things you’re afraid of. You’ll become more comfortable with the experience of fear. Studies show that exposure therapy helps over 90% of people with a specific phobia who commit to the therapy and complete it. It’s often the only kind of therapy necessary for a specific phobia.

   Practice Relaxation and Grounding

Techniques to help relaxation can reduce anxiety over time. They also improve sleep quality. Useful techniques include:

-deep breathing
-progressive muscle relaxation
-guided imagery
-grounding techniques

People can learn more about these techniques from a therapist. There are also numerous apps or online videos that can help guide people through each process.

Conclusion

Overcoming anticipatory anxiety takes a lot of patience and diligence. Therefore, you have to be able to work through all the downs and not give up. Even when you feel like it’s not getting any better. You learn that coping with anticipatory anxiety is possible. When you don’t try, you will be stuck in this endless loop. At this point, you feel like you can’t handle life anymore. Then it gets really scary because you begin to have suicidal ideations. Please, seek help before this happens. At first, I didn’t and I was in and out of the hospital. When I decided to face it head on, I started to feel better. Well, that’s all for this post. Talk to you soon…

Articles

-Coping With Anticipatory Anxiety

https://www.verywellmind.com/anticipatory-anxiety-2671554

-What Is Anticipatory Anxiety and How Do I Manage It?

https://psychcentral.com/anxiety/what-is-anticipatory-anxiety

-Take our quick Anxiety test

https://www.clinical-partners.co.uk/for-adults/anxiety-disorders/anxiety-test

Have a Good One,

Cindee Murphy, One Voice – Unstoppable

 “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’”
— Audrey Hepburn