A certain amount of anxiety is normal. Something that causes your concern is useful to increase your awareness and find solutions to your problems.

It helps give you the early warnings.

But feeling anxious excessively can block your memory and interfere with daily activities and routines and wreck your life.

Too much concern on your problems will cause you to become paranoid. You will feel anxious and suspicious of other people and their thoughts or motives.

Your irrationality can develop into a phobia. You will have the irrational fear and dislike of people or open spaces.

Your anxiety shows your lack of confidence and faith that you can handle problems and crisis in your life.

Your anxieties can range from your fear of...

1. Unemployment
2. Relationship
3. Being judged and criticized
4. Socializing
5. Dying
6. Old age
7. Illness
8. Losing your memory
9. Public speaking
10. Impotency

Among the causes of your extreme apprehensions are:

• Stress, worries and pressures.

Stress at work like meeting datelines can make you feel overwhelmed. Inability to cope and adjust to the work environment and people can drain your energy.

Divorce and break ups can affect you emotionally. Having to live with someone with terminal illness is frightening.

Death, loss, grief, sadness and disappointments cause the stress and anxiety in your life.

• Believing that you are "sick" or "broken". It is how you label yourself or your thoughts.

You may have been told that you are suffering from "generalized anxiety disorder" or "obsessive compulsive disorder" or whatever, and you believed it.

When you accept the label you create a corresponding emotion.

What do you feel when you say you have "cold feet"? You will feel numb and that will affect you emotionally and you will react to it physically.

You need to change the representation that you are making to describe your thoughts.

The belief that you are sick or broken will give you the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.

• Resentments and unresolved issues.

Resentment or unresolved issues and guilt that remain will show up as you move on in your life.

Your worries about your future based on the meanings you associate with your past experiences is causing your stress.

• The environment you live in.

The environment you are living in influences what you do and how you feel. Living with abusive people can affect your thoughts and cause unhappiness.

• Inability to enjoy being alone.

When you are not able to control your anxiety you will not enjoy your solitude. Instead you use the time and space to imagine more or your fears and worries.

Your world inside your head is causing your anxiety. You will tend to act on the outside in terms of how you feel inside.

Among the anxiety attack symptoms are.

1. Sick in the stomach
2. Heart beat speeds and pounds faster
3. Palms sweaty
4. Nervousness
5. Fearful
6. Can't speak - lump in the throat
7. Restless
8. Spaced out or lack of concentration
9. Losing sense of self
10. Out of body sensations
11. Chest pains
12. Body cramps
13. Mind racing
14. Cold feet
15. Trembling

Tips to control and handle your anxiety.

• Find out what is the cause of your stress and concerns.

Is your buried hurt disguising itself as your fear? Were you humiliated once and afraid that you might have to go through it again? Observe your behavior and feelings throughout. Knowing the cause is the beginning in finding the remedy.

• Writing down your feelings, thoughts and fears.

When you write down your thoughts or your worries and fears, you will notice the patterns.

There is always a trigger to how you feel and behave. Knowing the triggers and patterns will help you avoid, ignore or overcome them.

• Identify your strengths, weakness, fears and skills. Build your self-confidence, self-esteem and self-love.

Your nervousness or worries about your future has a lot to do with your lack of self-confidence and your self-esteem.

You need to identify your personality and attributes so that you can focus on the good and improve on your weakness.

Forgive yourself for your idiosyncrasies. Forgive others who have hurt you intentionally or without their knowledge.

• Knowing what you want.

It is very important that you know what it is that you want to become and have in your life. Having goals will force you to look to a better future.

Life just does not happen. You have to make it happen. Expect good things to happen because it will influence your behavior. Your moods will affect your physiology and the actions that you will take.

Don't expect that your worries will just go away. You need to consider your options and take positive actions.

• Meditate and relax.

There are several relaxation styles and techniques. Meditation creates awareness and will help remove your stress and unresolved emotional issues.

The easiest way to meditate is to focus on your breathing. Each time you exhale your body will be more relaxed.

When your body is relaxed your mind becomes quiet. Calm down and let your anxiety withdraw and solutions will arise.

• Run your own brain.

Your brain needs direction. If you don't give it something to do it will just go on running the same way and you will produce the same results.

Force yourself to change your state of mind from thinking of worry thoughts to that of hope and faith.

Changing your mind will change your beliefs about what you can or cannot do. Stop yourself from repeatedly picturing your failures and apprehensions.

You have control in running your own brain. You can instruct your mind on what you want to experience. The brain will do its work and take your orders. Using your brain effectively will allow you to disassociate yourself from the pictures of self-consciousness and produces change.

• Pre-visualize your success and face your fears.

Use your imagination to overcome your anxieties and disabilities. You can visualize success in your mind. Then test its effectiveness in your outer world by going for it. Face up with what you were afraid to do or feel and push yourself.

Pretend that you can do it. Focus on your strengths. Think hard of what you want to achieve.

• Take care of your health.

Certain food and herbs can suppress your feelings of hopelessness. Exercise will help you release your built-up stress.

A combination of deep breathing, your diet and exercise will give you more energy and more life.

• Self-hypnosis

Hypnosis is a powerful tool. It helps you enter a calm and relaxed frame of mind. You can use it to re-train and re-program your mind.

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