Anxiety can have a huge impact on a person’s life and the lives of those around them.  Anxiety is a part of everyday life and is usually perfectly normal, however, when anxiety attacks are unexplained or frequent and affecting your life, it maybe time to get help.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that 4.7 per cent of adults experience generalised anxiety disorders not including depression, at any one time and that a further 9.2 per cent have mixed anxiety and depression with these ailments being more common in females than males.

You may also want to read the Panic Attacks section of this website

Help with Anxiety 

Counselling and Hypnotherapy can be very effective to help you deal with anxiety.  Your experience of anxiety is unique to you, however, in treating this and helping you move forward, its likely we’ll look to -

  • Help you gain an understanding of what anxiety is
  • Look at how your anxiety is affecting you
  • Find the steps you can take to alleviate the symptoms
  • Allow you to develop new coping strategies and mechanisms
  • Identify what the cause or roots of your anxiety may be
  • Employ longer terms coping strategies

 

About Anxiety

Anxiety is a universal human emotion and is experienced in many situations from preparing for a speech to watching a sporting event. As a part of everyday life it can improve motivation and performance by increasing alertness and preparing the body for action.

For many though, the extent to which anxiety affects them can cause problems and can impede their lives from having a mild affect to severe cases where anxiety can be described as ruining their lives and that of others around them. Described as an overwhelming feeling of emotional or mental discomfort or unease, many people can cope with these symptoms as they last for a short time and occur infrequently, thus having no major affect on their lives. It only causes problems if it the anxiety becomes severe and persistent and affects a persons life by manifesting itself as General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Attacks, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Phobias, Eating Disorders, Substance abuse, Agoraphobia and Social Phobia – these are known as Anxiety Disorders.

Generally when anxiety is talked of, many speak of symptoms such as: -

  • Excessive worry and fear of situations and objects
  • Unrealistic fear of future situations (fear of fear)
  • Disturbed sleep or insomnia
  • Fatigue
  • Trembling, shakiness, constant fidgeting
  • Cold hands or feet as blood is distributed to the major organs
  • Pins and needles or tingling sensations
  • Upset stomach
  • Increased heart rate
  • Increased breathing rate
  • Feeling of jumpiness/jitteriness
  • Apprehension
  • Unrealistic worry or fear that something bad may happen to loved ones
  • Impatience and irritability
  • Lack of attention span; being easily distracted

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

This is where people worry, have fears or feel anxious about everyday affairs and activities such as being pre-occupied with the welfare of others, constantly worrying about financial matters or having an ongoing fear for the future. GAD is viewed as a long term disorder, whereby you can experience anxiety for months and years and where it becomes part of your accepted everyday life. You may go for long periods without being consumed with worry but may be anxious most of the time. This disorder is often linked with depression.

Common Symptoms: -

  • Constant feelings of worry and being anxious
  • Feeling of being on edge, shaky and wound up due to high tension levels.

There are numerous causes with each individual having different contributing circumstances and differing symptoms. Commonly though, it be resultant of ongoing periods of stress, inability to cope with life changes or from a single or series of previous traumatic experiences that may be strongly affecting the person.

Theories about the cause of anxiety disorders

Examples of anxiety disorders include – GAD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Anorexia, Bulimia and Panic Attacks.  There is no single situation or circumstance that causes an anxiety disorder and often it can be resultant of the experiences and environment of the individual. There are many theories speculating possible causes and include it being hereditary, a chemical imbalance in the brain, mental, and emotional issues, personality issues, a stressful lifestyle, trauma and abuse or negative life experiences. There are a number of theories that delve deeper that are put forward by varying published psychologists.

The renowned psychologist Bowlby is best known for his attachment theory. This centres on how infants understand their social world and how the early parent-infant relationship has a major impact on the development of personality. He claimed there are great distinctions between secure and insecurely attached children with securely attached children developing a stronger sense of esteem and insecurely attached children developing beliefs that they are unloved and unwanted which lead to feelings of anger, mistrust and anxiety. Since Bowlby’s research in the 1970’s and 80’s where he proposed that ‘anxiety is the fundamental condition underlying insecure attachment’, studies have been carried out on individuals with anxiety disorders to see if there is a correlation in their attachment style. Two studies found social anxiety disorder to be positively correlated with individuals having an avoidant, anxious or insecure attachment style indicating that the ability of creating a secure attachment between parent and infant can influence the likelihood of the infant to mature to develop an anxiety disorder. The studies did state, however, that some people with social anxiety disorders did exhibit secure attachment styles.

Psychoanalytic Theory (Freudian) suggests that anxiety is rooted in unconscious conflicts experienced in childhood. This could be a conflict of sexual feelings toward their parent of the opposite sex (Oedipus Complex) or could be resultant of problems from an early traumatic experience. The symptoms can be alleviated by identifying and resolving this unconscious inner conflict.

Other theories suggest that anxiety is a learnt response to certain situations or objects and when faced with that stimulus they will look to avoid it. The theory suggests that this learnt response can also be unlearnt.

Chemical imbalances in the brain have also been researched and it is thought that all thoughts and feelings are complex electrochemical exchanges in the central nervous system. Studies indicate that feelings of anxiety and panic are resultant of certain biochemicals therefore the treatment of anxiety should be to correct these imbalances. This does not necessarily mean with the use of medication as biochemical changes can come about through emotional, psychological and behavioural changes.