Anxiety

Understanding Anxiety, Causes, Types and Treatment

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions in Australia. It is estimated that one in four people suffer from some form of anxiety or stress regularly. This can range from a general feeling of uneasiness and fear to intense panic attacks. To many, it can seemingly come from nowhere, creating feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty.

Anxiety comes from our brain’s hardwired need for protection. Our ancestors had to survive in harsh conditions against threats from predators and the environment. This “fight or flight” survival instinct has helped us survive as a species for millions of years.

While we may all experience anxiety at some point in life, it is important to seek help to manage the anxiety if it is affecting your ability to function in a regular way. Physically we may experience an increase in heart rate, shortness of breath to sweating, anxiety can trigger a multitude of unpleasant physical reactions

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Causes of Anxiety?

There are many possible causes. It may be due to a specific one-off traumatic event, such as sexual assault, an accident or witnessing a crime. Or your anxiety may be the result of multiple events over time, such as insecurity or abuse in childhood, domestic violence, school or workplace bullying or the events leading up to a relationship breakdown. Sometimes people can’t really explain why they feel anxious, they just do.

Anxiety is an extension of stress and can occur even at times that may not seem stressful to others. If you find yourself avoiding situations or dwelling on your anxieties to the point where you no longer enjoy life, your subconscious mind is likely playing a role in your feelings. Fears from the past can become locked away and manifest themselves in the symptoms of anxiety.

Hypnosis can be particularly helpful in treating those difficulties associated with anxiety including but not limited to insomnia, panic attacks, fears, phobias, addictions, obsessive compulsive behaviors (OCD), eating disorders, poor self-image, difficulties asserting yourself and making friends.

Types of Anxiety?

Many people with anxiety experience symptoms of more than one type of anxiety condition, they may experience depression as well. It’s important to seek support early if you’re experiencing anxiety.

Your symptoms may not go away on their own and if left untreated, they can start to take over your life.

There are different types of anxiety. The most common are;

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
People experiencing feel anxious on most days, worrying about lots of different things, for a period of six months or more.                                                    

Social Anxiety.
Where people have an intense fear of being criticised, embarrassed or humiliated, even in everyday situations, such as speaking publicly, eating in public, being assertive at work or making small talk.     

There are many different types of phobias.

Specific Phobia.
This is when people feel very fearful about a particular object or situation and may go to great lengths to avoid it, for example, having an injection or travelling on a plane.

Panic Attack.
People experience an intense, overwhelming and often uncontrollable feelings of anxiety combined with a range of physical symptoms. Someone having a panic attack may experience shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness and excessive perspiration. Sometimes, people experiencing a panic attack think they are having a heart attack or are about to die. If a person has recurrent panic attacks or persistently fears having one for more than a month, they’re said to have panic disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
People may experience ongoing unwanted/intrusive thoughts and fears that cause anxiety. Although the person may acknowledge these thoughts as silly, they often try to relieve their anxiety by carrying out certain behaviours or rituals. For example, a fear of germs and contamination can lead to constant washing of hands and clothes.

Treatment of Anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotional response that comes from a deep unconscious sense of unease. A feeling of being not safe. This creates an uncomfortable state of emotional arousal and a sense of being on edge. Hypnotherapy is very useful in calming the autonomic arousal within a very short time.

Anxiety is not a conscious choice; it is an emotional response triggered in the deeper parts of the brain. As hypnotherapy deals with the subconscious mind, and addresses emotional responses directly, it is the most effective way of creating a feeling of calm quickly and safely.

We have 60,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are negative. The more negativity you’re dealing with, the longer it may take to notice the effect of hypnosis — no matter how much you consciously want things to change.

Anxiety is most effectively treated with a combination  of therapies, these include Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Clinical Hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP),  Ericksonian hypnosis and Mindfulness.

Research indicates that correcting mental and behavioural patterns is very effective intervention more so than medications in the majority of cases. Another benefit of this approach is a much lower rate of relapse.

Hypnosis (clinical) provides a series of reminders to reduce anxiety and fear, encouraging clients’ minds to go in more positive directions when they feel overwhelmed by negativity. Sometimes” — they will guide you back to the first time a traumatic experience occurred and help you process it so that you can release it from your subconscious.

Regardless of the cause, hypnotherapy can relieve the symptoms of anxiety in a relatively short time.  “Anxiety is actually self-hypnosis in a negative way — when you [practice] hypnosis, you reprogram the mind with different beliefs,” hypnotherapist and psychotherapist Fayina Cohen says.

In hypnosis we can also generate new positive beliefs that support your desire to be strong and empowered. This may include helping you create lifestyle changes so that you are healthier both.

Left untreated, anxiety often develops into depression over a number of years.

Our Lake Macquarie Psychotherapy Treatments

Can Change Therapy offers the following treatments in Lake Macquarie and Newcastle: