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Being nervous or anxious can occur in a wide variety of life situations. In some instances, it serves a purpose. In other instances, it gets in the way.  

I, personally, suffer from a severe anxiety disorder. This has been my biggest symptom in the past decade, because I've kept the psychotic disorder at bay through medication, reality checking, and doing the equivalent of a virus scan on my thinking. Thus, at the mental health treatment center where I receive services, they sometimes mistakenly think that my primary problem is anxiety--they haven't seen the psychosis come up. The staff has turned over nearly completely since the time when my psychosis was apparent.  

I can't take a massive amount of medication to deal with my anxiety. Some anti-anxiety medications are habit forming. Others are sedating. Since I drive an automobile, I can't take most of my anti-anxiety medications until I am certain that I am done driving for the day.  

I use a lot of cognitive techniques to deal with some of the anxiety. This is not a hundred percent effective. In some instances, I am forced to simply tolerate the discomfort of the anxiety.  

However, anxiety sometimes serves a valid purpose. Your body is trying to tell you something. In fact, if you are trying to do something, and if it is bringing up extreme levels of anxiety, sometimes but not all of the time, it might be best to heed the anxiety and back off from whatever it is that you're trying to do.  

Sometimes our gut knows things that our heads don't acknowledge.  

Anxiety about an upcoming situation could cause you to do mental rehearsals--such as, "What would I say or do if..." Anxiety could also cause you to take other steps of preparation for something that you are facing. The type of preparation depends on the specifics of what you're facing.  

I also suffer from agoraphobia. However, I can go places if I rest in advance, and if I provide myself with enough energy to handle the environment of where I am going. Anxiety plays a role. If I haven't prepared for something, and if someone springs something as a last minute surprise, it is upsetting; I might create a surge of anxiety and I might respond to this by getting verbally bent out of shape. I might outright refuse to do whatever it is someone is asking for.  

Anxiety can cause you to prepare for an anticipated challenging situation. Or, it can prepare you to say "no."  

On the other hand, if you are excessively passive and if you usually function on "autopilot," you might have learned ways of blocking emotional discomfort that could otherwise provide you with important messages. Genuine problems don't disappear due to blocking the worry about them. When the impulse to maintain emotional comfort supersedes dealing with necessary things, therapeutic or cognitive work should be done to change that.  

It is not that I am saying we need to be worried. We need to heed various warnings that come up, but we should not be controlled by fear.  

Excessive anxiety can create problems where none existed before. It can prevent you from doing what is necessary. It can shorten your lifespan, and at the same time, can make your shortened life miserable.  

Anxiety is definitely a problem when it is debilitating, and when it gets in the way of doing what you need to do in your day-to-day living.  

Meditation and/or other cognitive techniques can help alleviate some or much of one's anxiety. Anxiety could be partly psychological and part neurological. Practicing mindfulness is very useful, even when a lot of the anxiety is apparently produced by a "hardware" problem.  

However, meditation, to be effective at clearing anxiety or other problems, requires that time and effort be spent learning how to change your mind. Yet, it is often time well spent.  

Before you get to the stage of clearing your anxiety through cognitive methods, you may have to learn to tolerate the discomfort that comes with painful or frightening emotions. You may have to learn to function in spite of them.  

The world and its demands do not go away simply because you could use a break. Demands are put on us, fair or not, and we can not always get out of them. If the environment demands something of you, sometimes you will not have the luxury of doing meditation to resolve your suffering, until later, after the challenging situation is resolved.  

There are a number of techniques that can be used on the mind in order to make you generate less anxiety. There are plenty of books on the subject and there are plenty of meditation instructors. So I won't go into specific methods here.  

However, in some instances, anxiety could be strong enough that it takes over the mind. When this happens, it may not be feasible to try to meditate. That's why at least some of the time, there could be a use for anti-anxiety medications. However, these medications are not to be misused.  

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Jack Bragen is author of "Instructions for Dealing with Schizophrenia: A Self-Help Manual," and other titles. Please do not patronize websites offering free downloads, as this is without my consent, and is copyright infringement. Your best bet is to go to LULU.com or Amazon.com.