What is Anxiety?

How exercising thoughts and practicing relaxation can improve mental wellbeing

Most of us will experience symptoms of anxiety during our lifetime. Classified as a common mental disorder, anxiety affects about 90% of the population at some point in life. According to a recent Mental Health Research Canada poll, majority of Canadians experienced increased levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, with half of the individuals reporting moderate to severe anxiety levels. This is significant because it means we are failing to prevent common mental disorders on a very large scale.

For prevention and early intervention, it is important to understand what causes anxiety, and how symptoms can be reversed. According to the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Questionnaire, the key symptoms of anxiety include:

· Feeling nervous, anxious or on edge

· Not being able to stop or control worrying

· Worrying too much about different things

· Having trouble relaxing, feeling restless

· Becoming easily annoyed or irritable

· Feeling afraid as if something awful might happen

Each of the symptoms can be experienced at different levels, from rarely to nearly every day. If a person experiences most of the above symptoms consistently for a period of 14 days, they are likely at the clinical level of anxiety. While the GAD-7 Questionnaire is…