Cinewrite Therapy: How Anxiety Could Look Like and Effective Coping Techniques: Scenes from Ambulance Girl

There are different causes of anxiety. If you’ve watched the movie Ambulance Girl, a TV-film distributed by Lifetime network, you might have met Janet, a food writer who according to the movie has always was afraid about everything. She overcame her anxiety by volunteering as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The story is based on Jane Stern’s memoir Ambulance Girl: How I Saved Myself by Becoming an EMT. Jane, according to her memoir’s blurb has suffered from panic attacks, depression, hypochondria, and claustrophobia.

In this post, we have explored the movie Ambulance Girl and described how her anxiety was depicted in the movie. We also included Jane’s coping strategies and how she overcame her anxiety.

I. Understanding How Anxiety Looks Like

1. What anxious people see can cause them to easily worry, and think that it can happen anytime or would manifest in real life.
2. They can assume or sense that their loved ones can be frustrated with their situations and phobias – which can be true or not.
3. Because of their strong fears, they allow themselves to be controlled by it and think they can’t do anything about it.
4. Anxious people may have self-defeating and nagging thoughts.
5. They always think about ill-fated events, that’s why they can be doubtful.
6. They worry about being trapped with strangers and having accidents with people they don’t know.
7. Because of their fears, they have the tendency to be controlling.
8. If they think they can’t control an unfamiliar situation they worry too much or do not pursue it at all.
9. Their worries push them to think or suggest odd solutions, or even make decisions that are disappointing to others and make them feel neglected.
10. Commonly their house is their comfort zone. That’s why they are mostly staying in their house and could feel uncomfortable going out. So, they always feel alone.
11. From having a pleasant mood it can suddenly switch anytime to being anxious.
12. Though able, they experience and have developed disabling habits or feelings, or both.
13. Physical symptoms of anxiety you can see in them include palpitations, cold and wobbly feet, teary eyes, paleness, and handshaking.
14. They suddenly suffer from panic attacks, so even the most fun activities or what used to be fun for them like horseback riding, could be something they may find terrifying or unenjoyable.
15. Because they’re anxious most of the time, they can be perceived as needy and clingy.
16. They can be unaware that people who are closest to them might feel suffocated because they’re too focused on their worries.
17. People close to the anxious person might feel they are being micromanaged by them, even if they do it unconsciously and unintentionally. They may feel they’re being the center of the anxious person’s life
18. Unexpected situations can make them feel uneasy.
19. They can be impatient when they don’t have control over situations or things are not going according to their plan.
20. Anxious people are fidgety.
21. It takes one to know one. Anxious people are sensitive to those who are also uncomfortable and easily notice them.
22. Because they always worry, and think about worst-case scenarios, they may bring items useful for emergencies.
23. They can be sympathetic because they can relate to the feeling of discomfort, uneasiness, and worry.

☑️ COPING STRATEGIES

1. Finding ways to improve condition by searching self-help books.
2. Squeezing stress balls to relieve anxiety.
3. They’re encouraged when they help someone or feel needed. It boosts their confidence and they feel good.

Overcoming Anxiety

The first step to overcoming anxiety is to decide to start being different and convince yourself that you can do it.

It’s helpful if anxious people would encounter something that would inspire and motivate them to pursue an activity that would help them overcome their fears. Going out of one’s comfort zone, exposing oneself to difficult situations that are hard and fears you would help reduce your anxieties. Others call this strategy as desensitization.

Here’s a quotable quote from the Ambulance Girl movie:

“Fear is like a hologram. It seems real, filled with substance. And then, when you go beyond it, you realize it’s just an illusion.”

The movie did not specify the kind of anxiety that Janes has. But based on how Jane herself, described her anxiety in the movie, it suggests that she has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). If a person has GAD, they can have fears about everything. Learn more about this anxiety category by clicking the links below:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• What are Anxiety Disorders?
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

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Credit:

• Ambulance Girl. (2005) Lifetime Television