What is anxiety?
It is a state of uneasiness or fear, either real or imagined, resulting from the thought of a threatening event or situation and is fairly common in today’s living. If it’s left untreated, then prolonged anxiety can disrupt work, relationships and sleep.
We can understand anxiety better by looking both at what it is and what it is not. When we are
afraid our fear is usually directed towards an external situation. We could feel anxious about the dentist, being unable to pay the bills, not being accepted by someone we like or whether we will get on in a new job. There are also other times when we experience anxiety when we cannot actually specify what it is we are anxious about and it seems more internal than external. For example we might be anxious about losing control of ourselves, or of a situation feeling that something nasty will happen.
Anxiety will not hurt us, but is very unpleasant when being experienced, and we will all have felt this at some point in our lives, some more than others and in different strengths. Anxiety problems are self-perpetuating with the overuse of flight/fight mechanism; these are negative thoughts, and avoidance strategies.
Some people are more prone to anxiety inheriting this through their genes. Sometimes the cause is known and when the problem disappears so does the anxiety, and at other times the circumstances are so upsetting that the anxiety goes on long after the event.
What can cause anxiety
Anxiety can appear from a variety situations:
from long term drugs
If anxiety becomes more strongly marked it can show itself in many ways. For example, you may have trouble falling asleep if you are thinking about a particular situation; you may find it difficult to think of anything else, you feel tense, restless, and have trouble concentrating. For some people this can lead to overeating or others will lose their appetite completely. All these symptoms can be very hard to deal with and take effect on our friends, family and our ability to work.
Physical symptoms caused by anxiety
How does anxiety work?
Bob hates going to the dentist. He was due to go so he booked an appointment. The night before, he started to think about the terrible things that might happen: what if he fainted, what if he got so bad he started to get upset. He then begins to experience anxious negative thoughts and physical symptoms. The more anxious he gets, the more catastrophic he thinks, until he can’t stand it anymore and cancels the appointment. This is immediate reduction of anxiety and the next time Bob makes another appointment with the dentist, he will not only be likely to think even worse thoughts, but will experience more anxiety and will be more likely to cancel the appointment again. Each time this will worsen and he will be stuck in an anxiety avoidance cycle that is difficult to get out of.
If an everyday anxiety becomes more intense it could evolve into something more serious for example a panic attack. The anxiety lasts longer, and the anxiety that may have persisted for months; instead of going away after a stressful situation has passed, could even lead to phobias that interfere with your life.
Some of the anxiety disorders
Treatment of anxiety
Hypnotherapy is great for this as you can be shown various effective ways in which to relax or to start right back to basics in learning to relax if you’re not that way inclined. Hypnotherapy will assist you in managing this anxiety and taking back the control of your life that you deserve. You’re encouraged to go at your own pace as everyone heals in their own time, so there is no pressure on you. All you need to do is want to work with me.
