ANXIETY
AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT MANAGING IT
ONE TO ONE and ONLINE SESSIONS
Managing
Stress and Anxiety
Overview
Before
I discuss how I work with people let us take a clear look at what
anger, anxiety and resulting stress reactions are and how they
operate in our day to day life. In fact, strange as it may sound,
anxiety is a healthy condition by helping us to react quickly
to potentially dangerous events. But when we experience this anxiety
when no danger is present to trigger it - an angry person, a difficult
test, demanding situations we experience different forms of anxiety.
Anxiety
in the form of adrenaline surging around our body making our muscles
and senses heightened and aware is a natural normal and healthy
reaction. The 'fight (ANGER) or flight (ANXIETY)
response' was designed to protect us by preparing us to flee or
fight for our lives thousands of years ago and so it is now but
for different reasons.
The
human brain processes hundreds of small pieces of information
per second and much of this is dealt with by our unconscious mind.
What may be viewed as important will flash into our conscious
mind so that we enter this heightened awareness. At this time
hormones such as adrenaline increase which results in our heart
beating faster so that blood reaches parts of our body faster
to prepare the body to either run away from an attacker or fight
the attacker. .
We
breath faster to provide extra oxygen to release more energy and
we sweat to prevent our body overheating. Often the mouth feels
dry as the digestive system slows down to allow more blood to
reach the arm and leg muscles and our senses become heightened
as the brain becomes more alert to process all important information
about both the situation we face and the environment around us.
Once
this protection response against perceived danger drops down to
a normal level as we see the danger has passed other hormones
are released in our body to relax us down but the tense prepared
muscles may cause us to shake a little as the muscles begin to
relax.
Such
tension and heightened awareness my result as we prepare to sit
an important exam, prepare for an interview of begin a new job
or career.
This
is
Anticipatory anxiety as
we mentally prepare can affect our sleep, our appetite and ability
to concentrate. However, once we begin the exam, attend the interview
or begin our new job then such natural anxiety will disappear.
Your
First Steps
Naturally
many many people are attracted to what we call 'self medication'
in the form of alcohol. However attempt to limit how much you
drink given for many people in large measure this affects the
way we process information around us and can actually aggravate
anxiety and trigger panic attacks.
Sleep
(you can learn
more about this by clicking on this link to my dedicated page
here on the website) is important and so make sure that when
stressed you give your body additional sleep and rest.
As
I work with my clients one of our primary goals is helping to
accept that you cannot control everything and so put your stress
in perspective - step back for a few moments and examine if it
is really as bad as you think?
Severe
Anxiety
This
results when anxiety levels have stayed operating in our mind
and body for a long period of time which creates a circle which
I shall discuss later which results in anxiety distorting how
we see our world. The outcome is difficulty in dealing with every
day life given the feelings of anxiety have been around for so
long that you feel powerless, out of control and sometimes are
left feeling that you are so out of control that you are going
mad. Sometimes if these feelings reach a point where you are in
state of thinking you are overwhelmed by them then this may result
in a panic attack. . . .
What
is a panic attack?
A
panic attack happens when your body over reacts to your body's
normal response to either fear, to stress or to excitement. The
normal levels of anticipatory anxiety have built up over time
to a level where an extreme reaction can result in a pounding
heartbeat, feeling faint, excessive sweating, nausea, sometimes
chest pains along with discomfort in the normal breathing pattern
along with a sense of losing control and often shaking limbs and
a feeling that our legs are turning to jelly.
Once
again in my career working with people with severe anxiety the
person often reports thoughts such as they are going mad or that
they are going to black out or are having a heart attack. Naturally
such powerful threatening thoughts add to the anxiety.
Panic
attacks often happen very quickly with symptoms I have outlined
above peaking within about ten minutes Most panic attacks last
between 5 to 20 minutes. Some people I have worked with experienced
one or two of such panic attacks and then never experienced another
whereas some people had such attacks once a month or several times
a week with many people reporting how these panic attacks appeared
often to happen without warning.
In
a small number of cases such panic attacks happened whilst the
person was a sleep. These nighttime attacks are a result when
your brain is on high alert due to long term anxiety and even
though you are sleeping a part of your brain detects tension changes
which is seen as danger resulting in suddenly waking in your sleep.
Such an attack can be frightening as suddenly waking from a dream
state leaves you both confused and feeling very exposed. . . .
Why
are you feeling so anxious?
Often
this anxiety may relate to either
-
your personality, your current life circumstances,
-
your current or past childhood experiences
or,
as my clinical experience over the last 35 years has shown me
a combination of these factors.
Now
lets look at some of these KEYS which may create such a reaction.
Your
Past Experiences
If
an event or series of events which created anxiety in your past
where you were unable to deal with the associated emotions related
to such anxiety then it is natural for you to feel anxious in
terms of facing similar situations in the future in case they
link and create the same feelings as before of distress.
One
example for a client of mine, Mary, was how feeling anxious was
a powerful part of her early life because her parents always saw
and related to the world as a hostile and therefore dangerous
place to live in. Naturally, Mary has spent her life thinking
and feeling the same as her mother and father.
Some
theories from psychology suggest that Mary effectively inherited
a tendency to be more anxious and that during her early informatative
development period in her this powerful element from her childhood
became a part of her personality.
As
Mary and I worked together and she grew to feel more comfortable
and accepting of me and the ideas we were exploring she consciously
and then emotionally began to see how her anxiety related to the
'small child' within her and so embraced the fact that she was
now a grown adult who had power of her life and the decisions
she could make.
Physical
Everyday Habits
From
coffee, poor diet, physical and / or mental exhaustion to self
medication using alcohol or drugs or having a stress based lifestyle
then all of these habits both mimic and trigger symptoms of anxiety.
We look at these factors in our work together and here is more
detail which you can read about here on my website.
Your
Fear of Losing Control in Your Life
Many
people, and this is a growing number in our current society, are
worrying about the future. In my professional experience when
people do not feel in control of important aspects of their life
such as money, relationships, career then this anxiety shifts
and becomes a form of free
floating anxiety naturally
leading the person to start worrying about events which are beyond
their control such as global warming, of being attacked, developing
cancer or having a heart attack or losing their job.
Obviously
after a while we start to fear the symptoms of anxiety themselves
especially because the anxiety leaves us feeling out of control
and so this results in a powerful vicious circle. Such a circle
starts with feeling anxious because we dread feeling the symptoms
of anxiety and the impact it has on our day to day life and ability
to function which immediately results in actually experiencing
these powerful and unwanted symptoms of anxiety which began by
having anxious thoughts.
As
a result of my clinical experience I focus on the related areas
which result from stress in our lives and below you can see a
clear diagramme of the issues which can be worked on in one to
one sessions.
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