Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and agitation. It’s the brain’s way of reacting to stress and alerting you of potential danger ahead. Anxiety might result in sweating, feeling restless and tense, and having a swift heartbeat, according to experts.

Theoneste Bugingo, a mental health nurse at mHub Rwanda, says that feeling anxious, describes a mood familiar to most people, one that we may experience every day. Anxiety comes from a concern from lack of control over circumstances. In some cases, being anxious and worrying over a problem may generate a solution, though it will just lead to negative thinking.

When anxiety seems to come out of nowhere, is excessive, persists for many weeks without relief, or interferes with everyday life, it may not be an ordinary mood anymore. It may be an illness.

Christella Ishimwe, a clinical psychologist at mHub Rwanda, says being anxious is a normal emotion when a person faces stressful life issues and the brain can send an alert that they may be a danger around, everyone can feel anxious at least once in their lifetime. However, anxiety disorder is a mental health condition that is characterised by a lot of fear or worry, strong enough to interfere with a person’s daily functioning.

"You can tell that you’re anxious if your heart races, experience choking sensations, abdominal distress, numbness or tingling, muscle aches and tension, insomnia, tight chest, restlessness, shortness of breath or feelings of unreality,” Bugingo says.

He adds that emotionally, people with an anxiety disorder may feel short-tempered and apprehensive, fearing that bad incidents are about to happen.

Ishimwe notes that stressful life events like financial instability, serious medical conditions, family conflict, societal critics, public speaking, political issues, pandemic, work stress, divorce, future concern, and much more, may trigger anxiety.

Relief methods

Bugingo says that there are many things you can do at home to help relieve your anxiety and stress. Some of them are a healthy lifestyle, for instance, eating well, drinking water, going out in nature, spending time with family and friends, doing activities you enjoy, keeping active, and so forth.

The mental health nurse also says that practicing different breathing techniques can greatly help calm someone down. He urges trying alternate nostril breathing. "Place one finger over your right nostril and breathe in for five seconds through the left nostril. Hold in that breath for five seconds. Let out that breath of air through the left nostril (with the right nostril still covered). Now try this again, but this time cover the left nostril and breathe through the right. This process helps get air to both the right and left sides of the brain.”

Bugingo also reveals that doing something physically active is always good to relieve anxiety or stress. Physical activity releases endorphins which help you feel better. Yoga is a practice that involves physical activity and deep breathing, both good for relieving stress and nervousness.

Bugingo further states that meditation is also beneficial and he describes it as a practice where an individual trains the mind into a mode of consciousness, either to realise some benefit, or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content. This can be done by repeating a sentence or counting numbers. The idea is to be able to focus the mind on something not stressful so that you can become relaxed. 

He adds that stretching allows your body to get blood flowing and more air into your bloodstream. He recommends bending over and touching the ground, and reaching up to the sky. And to also try lots of other movements to get your body more relaxed and get more blood flowing.

"You can also journal. This is the practice of writing your thoughts and feelings down in a notebook each day.  It can be helpful to write down what you are feeling anxious about, so that you can clearly organise your thoughts more and approach them realistically,” Bugingo says.

Ishimwe adds that as you write down your thoughts and feelings, try to find out why you do feel anxious and what you think you can do about that issue.

She encourages going for therapy—therapy is a supportive conversation you can have with a mental health professional with the aim of listening to you, equipping you with strategies, and assisting you to see, feel, and think in a positive and energising way.

You can also use relaxation techniques like deep breathing, and coping techniques such as acknowledging five things you see around you, recognising four things you can touch around you, accepting three things you hear, acknowledging two things you can smell, and accepting one thing you can taste, Ishimwe adds.