Stop anxiety stealing your fun

Panic about missing a flight or losing your passport is normal, but if constant worries are spoiling your summer it's time to regain control

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As much as I love going on holiday, it can be stressful sorting out the details before we go. But, despite that, for many of us the run-up to a trip is met with excitement. However, for some it can provoke anxiety, often made worse by the belief that you shouldn’t feel like this about a supposedly happy event. I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. Anxiety is extremely common and – like many other things – travel can exacerbate or trigger it, which has become more common following lockdown.

Worry is a normal human emotion on a spectrum with anxiety, but they are not the same. While worrying is unpleasant, it helps us identify problems and risks that we need to address so we can make changes to our behaviour to keep ourselves safe. It’s usually intermittent and disappears when problems are resolved.

Anxiety is an exaggerated form of uncontrollable worry that’s distressing and disruptive. In generalised anxiety disorder it’s persistent, the person experiencing ongoing anxiety regardless of how concerns are managed or fixed. Sometimes anxiety is isolated to certain situations but, regardless, anxiety hinders the ability to separate logical reasoning from heightened emotion and in some people can create considerable physical symptoms, such as sweating, tremor, palpitations and rapid breathing.

As a GP, I definitely see anxiety more in women and global statistics tell us women are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety than men, but I often wonder if we just feel able to talk about it more? Hormones definitely play a part and I commonly see anxiety as a symptom of perimenopause as oestrogen levels plummet.