ANXIETY AND STRESS

Anxiety Disorder 

Whether it is a permanent high state of alert and sense of dread, random panic attacks or you have that constant feeling in your stomach, anxiety disorders can make your life hell. It might even make you question your own sanity! If you suffer from this, please remember that you are not alone and you can get help.

 

Hypnotherapy is becoming a more recognised method for reducing feelings of anxiety. It can help boost confidence and self-belief, while reducing feelings of fear and intense worry. It can help you develop the ability to access the calm state of mind needed to overcome the often-overwhelming emotions you are living with.

 

Anxiety is a normal, if unpleasant, part of life, and it can affect us all in different ways and at different times. Whereas stress is something that will come and go as the external factor causing it (be it a work, relationship or money problems, etc.) comes and goes, anxiety is something that can persist whether or not the cause is clear to the sufferer.

 

Anxiety can make a person imagine that things in their life are worse than they really are, and prevent them from confronting their fears. Often they will think they are going mad, or that some psychological imbalance is at the heart of their woes. What is important is the recognition that anxiety is normal and exists due to a set of bodily functions that have existed in us from our cave-man days.

 

Back then, we were equipped with an internal alarm system designed to protect us from the dangers surrounding us in the wild. This system would make us hyper-alert by giving us a boost of adrenaline that would increase the heart rate and boost the amount of oxygen going to our limbs so we were better able to fight or run from danger. This is known as the “fight or flight” response. The “butterflies in the stomach” feeling that many associate with anxiety is this mechanism kicking in, but instead of being used to avoid immediate danger, it is often wrongly and inappropriately activated in a person during normal, everyday situations when stress has built up, often unknowingly.

 

Some people have a very identifiable cause for their anxiety; a traumatic incident, lots of stressors or have undergone a significant life event (moving house, getting divorced, having surgery). However, some people don’t have an identifiable cause for their anxiety and it causes them some distress. One way of thinking about your anxiety is to imagine your stress levels as being like a bucket of water. If we keep adding stressors to the bucket (even tiny ones like the school run or commuting to work), over time it fills up until one day it overflows. This can be a good way of looking at anxiety as it explains why sometimes it can seem to come out of the blue with no significant trigger. However, what has happened is that the trigger was just a very small stressor that tipped us over the edge and allowed our bucket to overflow. What we need is a leaky bucket with lots of holes in to reduce your overall stress levels. Each one of these holes could be something positive that you do to manage your anxiety, such as yoga, exercise, reading, listening to music or spending time with friends or family.

 

By aiming to access your unconscious and using the power of suggestion, it works to promote positive change. These suggestions are tailored to help you learn what triggers your anxiety and why, as well as changing the way you react towards them.

 

Hypnotherapy can begin to teach you how to regain a sense of control and normality. It can help you understand what triggers your anxiety and how to cope when you start to feel anxious.

 

 

Stress 

The word stress is usually used to describe the feelings that people experience when the demands made on them are greater than their ability to cope. At such times people can often feel overloaded, under tremendous pressure and very tense or emotional. Stress affects everyone, young and old and is a completely normal reaction that all human beings will experience from time to time when faced with situations that they feel under pressure in.   Stress can be looked at in terms of external and internal stressors. External stressors are sources of stress that we are aware of around us, these can include traumas, life experiences or simply daily hassles. Internal stressors are the sources of stress that are inside us and are often the most common sources of stress. They are the thoughts and feelings that pop into your head and cause you to feel unease, these can include unrealistic expectations, uncertainties, low self esteem and apprehensions.

 

We all experience stress at one stage or another. It can be caused by our professional or personal lives, and each individual will cope with it differently. What one person may regard as highly stressful, another person may regard as highly motivational. Problems occur when individuals perceive themselves as unable to cope with the level of stress they face. This can then impact both their mental and physical health.

 

If you can answer YES to 5 or more of these symptoms then you may be experiencing stress.

• Obesity and Over-eating

• Increased or excessive drinking of alcohol

• Loss of appetite

• If you smoke – you’ll smoke more

• Increased coffee consumption

• Excessive and continuing irritability with other people

• Substance Abuse

• You can’t make decisions, large or small.

• Unable to concentrate – (common symptom of stress)

• Increased and suppressed anger

• Not be able to cope with life, feeling out of control

• Jump from one job to another without finishing things

• Excessive emotion & crying at small irritations

• Lack of interest in anything other than work

• Permanently tired even after sleep – (another very common symptom of stress)

• Stress can cause Nail biting

 

Hypnotherapy can help address your stress and anxiety levels. With the help of a hypnotherapist, you may be able to identify the cause(s) of your stress. Or you may find it’s a past experience, a situation, a physical issue or something to do with a relationship that’s the main cause.

 

After discovering the root of the problem, you will then agree upon a goal. This goal could include how you would like to feel and what you would like to do in life without stress holding you back. Your hypnotherapist will then work with you to achieve your goals using a variation of different techniques. Each therapist might use different techniques, but they all will work towards the same goal.

 

If you are suffering from stress or anxiety, contact us now to discuss how we can help you.