Experiencing Anxiety as a Secondary Emotion

Experiencing Anxiety as a Secondary Emotion GAD Coping Print How Anxiety Can Be a Secondary Emotion By William Meek Updated on October 19, 2019 Generalized Anxiety Disorder Overview Symptoms & Diagnosis Causes Treatment Living With In Children aldomurillo / Getty Images Anxiety is a common secondary emotion. A secondary emotion is one that is experienced in place of another emotion that is difficult for the person to feel or express. For men, anger is often a cover for jealousy, hurt, disappointment, embarrassment, and sadness. For women, anxiety tends to often function in the same way. Theoretically, this way of defending ourselves protects us from having to deal with the more complicated and difficult feelings. Therefore, we can easily make a mistake thinking that a situation or occurrence has made us anxious or angry when in fact the true emotion is something different. For people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), this can become very complicated. Most of life is experienced as anxiety, and it is a relatively expected and familiar feeling. Generalized Anxiety Disorder People with chronic anxiety and worry that is uncontrollable and cause significant life problems often get diagnosed with GAD. People with GAD tend to have some sort of disposition to experience the world in a way that is anxiety-provoking, and most of their life experience  is seen through this lens. GAD symptoms can vary. They may include: Persistent worrying or obsession about small or large concerns that are out of proportion to the impact of the eventInability to set aside or let go of a worryInability to relax, restlessness, and feeling keyed up or on edgeDifficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind goes blankWorrying about excessively worryingDistress about making decisions for fear of making the wrong decisionCarrying every option in a situation all the way out to its possible negative conclusionDifficulty handling uncertainty or indecisiveness Physical signs and symptoms of GAD can include: FatigueIrritabilityMuscle tension or muscle achesTrembling, feeling twitchyBeing easily startledTrouble sleepingSweatingNausea, diarrhea or irritable bowel syndromeHeadaches Understanding Other Emotions In trying to understand what feelings (primary emotions) could be underneath your anxiety, the first thing to do is actually ask yourself that question. If you allow yourself to be open to the possibility that you are hurt, disappointed  or grieving, rather than anxious, you are taking great leaps forward in understanding yourself, having greater emotional intelligence and having the ability to make efforts to improve your situation based on other underlying feelings. If you are left with some sort of fear, then your anxiety is likely in the right place. Give this a try and see if it can reduce your worry, and help you make life changes that will actually alleviate the true negative feelings you have, rather than miss your experience and cause continued worry for “no reason,” as many people with GAD tend to do. The 7 Best Online Anxiety Support Groups