Anxious

I have dealt with anxiety for many years, I always attributed it to my hormonal menstrual cycle because at some times of the month it’s consistently worse than other times. I've never had a full blown panic attack, but I've felt like my heart would beat right out of my chest, I've felt like someone was coming up behind me to stab me in the back for no reason, I've felt like I was going to hell for a mistake I'd made, and I've had irrational perceptions of myself and others based on the anxiety I feel. There is more to it than malfunctioning hormones. Here is an article I wrote for my Successful Therapy blog, see if you can uncover the answer.

Anxiety. One among many of the wide range of emotions we will experience during our life. Depending on its intensity anxiety can range from mild nervousness or anticipation to terror or panic.  Many of my clients come with the goal of not being "so anxious" or eliminating anxiety altogether.  Is it unnecessary to be anxious?  What constitutes a healthy amount of anxiety?
We need some anxiety, it keeps us from getting into goal-hampering or dangerous situations. For example, it’s anxiety that keeps us safe on the road, we pay attention to other drivers and don't wander into the oncoming traffic due to fear of getting in an accident. But too much of it and you become a road hazard; heightened anxiety can cause you to be paralyzed by fear, hyperventilate due to panic, or cry in fear, or become too terrified to get in a vehicle altogether.
Where are you on the anxiety spectrum?  If zero were "feeling completely calm and safe" and ten were "full blown panic attack," in what situations do you find yourself at a 3? a 9?  Perhaps when you are driving you are only at a 2, but going into the grocery store anxiety levels reach a 7? Perhaps at home you are a 0, but when someone knocks on the door you jump to a 10? It is different for every person because of differences in biology, psychology, and environment. Understanding how each domain influences anxiety can help you keep your anxiety at manageable levels.
In the psychological realm, our thoughts affect our anxiety levels. If you are afraid, it’s assumed that you must be anticipating bad things will happen, otherwise the fear would not be there.  What are you anticipating bad will happen?  What are you telling yourself when you are in the anxiety-provoking situation? Changing your thoughts to be free of distortions or self defeating beliefs can help decrease your fear of what might happen. This is hard to do because thoughts are so automatic and shaped over years of development.
In the environmental realm, stress levels affect anxiety. Depending on your stage of life and circumstances you may or may not have a lot of control over your environment. Be that as it may, high stress levels increase cortisol production, which is the "stress hormone" that moves you to action and can cause influx of adrenaline to be secreted unnecessarily. High amounts of cortisol are toxic to our brains and will decrease our ability to maintain healthy levels of anxiety.
In the biological realm, our sleep, diet, and exercise regime affect our anxiety levels. High intake of caffeine and sugar will affect mood swings and may create a heightened sense of anticipation. Not eating regularly can cause low blood sugar which may make you vulnerable to feelings of fear. Exercise helps regulate chemical flow in the brain and will give you an increased sense of control. Sleep restores the brain function and allows for more ability to think clearly.  Many are the benefits of a balance in healthy eating, active lifestyle, and sleep and rest; lowered anxiety is one of the benefits.
All of these domains are affected by each other. For example, if you are experiencing high levels of stress in your environment, it may be due to the fact that psychologically you are telling yourself that your productivity level is tied to your self-worth, which makes it feel impossible to decrease your work load. This can affect your time to rest and exercise, and even may negatively affect your eating patterns.  A good place to start in managing your anxiety is by monitoring your thoughts, which is why therapy can be so helpful.  We think, therefore we fear.  Grab whatever courage you can, and seek guidance to make sure your thoughts are not exacerbating emotional pain due to anxiety.

As part of therapy, diet exercise and sleep regulations are often suggested. This is because the mind and the body are connected, what affects one system will also affect the other. For example, chronic worry or stress can cause physical symptoms such as back pain, headaches, ulcers, and much more; chronic pain such as a head injury can cause depression and agoraphobia.  Many are the benefits of balancing one's intake as well as monitoring thoughts, you can think of regulating your diet as similar to getting rid of "distortions" or "unhelpful thinking styles" in your thought processes, what we choose to ingest affects our bodies which in turn affects our moods.

One vital and simple problem that may affect your mood is the general over-consumption of sugar. Although there are many substances that can cause adverse affects on the body, this is one that many people either don't know or ignore as a contributing factor to anxiety and depression, and is extremely important to understand because of the way it causes a physical and chemical imbalance in our bodies. For those not interested in pursuing anti depressant medications, please consider eliminating excessive sugar from your diet, (along with artificial sweeteners, caffeine, alcohol, and drugs of any kind). Exercising this kind of restraint is difficult, but easier than dealing with chronic emotional pain. 

“After years of glucose/sucrose overload, the end result is damaged adrenals. When stress comes our way we no longer have a healthy endocrine system to cope with it.” –William Dufty