Anxiety – What Is It?

The term anxiety is used conversationally to mean everything from stress to worry to fear. It’s commonly used, in part, because it is a normal aspect of human experience. In fact, anxiety can be both adaptive and helpful. It can motivate us when we need to prepare for an exam or important work obligations, such as a presentation or deadline.

Anxiety is often thought of as a thought or a feeling, but anxiety can also be somatic. Somatic is another word for body. At the NC Center for Resiliency we specialize in treating all types of anxiety but are especially well versed in supporting Clients to understand and regulate anxiety that shows up as physical symptoms such as heart racing, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, and tingling or other sensations. Somatic anxiety is an essential part of our autonomic nervous system, which regulates bodily functions that include our fight-flight survival responses. In other words, somatic anxiety helps our body physically activate to quickly respond in situations where we may need to flee and defend ourselves. To read more about somatic anxiety and how it’s treated at the NC Center for Resiliency, scroll down to the section entitled Somatic Approaches to Anxiety.

What Causes Anxiety?

There is no single cause for anxiety. It is often multidetermined. For example, one person may have anxiety due to an untreated medical condition whereas another may experience anxiety resulting from use of a substance, such as caffeine or alcohol. Frequently, people experience anxiety due to past trauma or life events that were unsettling and overwhelming. Other times, the source of one’s anxiety can include all the above!

Somatic Approaches to Anxiety

At the NC Center for Resiliency we emphasize a focus on the body or “soma” and regulation of its nervous system as a means to address anxiety and related disorders. This approach is sometimes referred to as “bottom-up” rather than “top-down,” because it relies heavily on the role of sensations in the body  rather than thoughts or feelings. While thoughts and feelings are viewed as important, they are not typically the primary focus of treatment. Instead, a somatic therapist supports Clients to learn the language of the body to help them better engage the body’s innate ability to rebound from stress and overwhelming experience.  While many somatic approaches, such as Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing were originally created to heal the effects of traumatic experience, they can also be used to address anxiety. As mentioned above, these approaches are very effective when anxiety is related to past trauma, but can also be impactful for anxiety unrelated to trauma. After all, sensations associated with typical anxiety is physiologically similar to hyperarousal or activation that manifests in traumatic stress disorders. In both types of anxiety, the body is activating a defensive response to protect itself through fight or flight, and in situations in which there is no escape, we tend to freeze. 

When you see a somatic practitioner, you can often expect to be supported in orienting. Orientation is a somatic term for bringing one’s attention to the present moment through all of our senses (sight, smell, sound, etc) without fear. This task is not small for individuals with anxiety! The somatic approach has a wide range of techniques to support Clients to experience the present moment without fear in a slow manner, so that it is not overwhelming. Overtime, Clients develop a sense of control and mastery over their moment by moment experience, making anxiety much more manageable. Once a Client is able to orient to the environment, they are supported to resource somatically by tracking sensation inside and gaining a greater awareness of what both positive and difficult experiences feel like for them.

Somatic approaches are highly attuned to the diversity of experience in the body and the importance of helping Clients learn what is safe and regulating for their body, rather than looking for an “objective” or “ideal” form of regulation. Individual resources can be external, like a calming plant, animal, or trusted friend. Resources can also be internal like a felt sense of calm or joy in the body.

Once a Client has the ability to resource and track sensation in the body, they are guided through somatic gradual exposure to difficult sensations, which supports greater resilience to anxiety related bodily responses, such as heart racing, excessive sweating, muscle tension, etc. A somatic therapist may support the Client to then self-regulate through the use of imagery, physical movements and gestures, or to connect feelings and meaning related to various sensations. As the Client moves through this process of exposure, anxiety becomes less threatening. It can now be experienced as a source of information from the body rather than a source of threat. Many Clients report finding this type of self exploration and mastery of bodily experience to be quite empowering as they are now able to choose the best course of action in any given situation based on their desires and needs, rather than fear of sensation.

There are many causes and types of anxiety disorders. Remember, the somatic approach is one of the innovative methods of treatment.

Citations:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA.
Mayo Clinic. (2019). Anxiety Disorder.
National Institute for Mental Health. (2007). Any Anxiety Disorder.