Anxiety – overcoming anxiety

More people than ever are looking for help with overcoming anxiety

Anxiety is thought to be the most common mental health problem in the western world with women twice as likely to experience  anxiety as men. A Study from Cambridge University says that those under 35 are particularly affected. In the UK it is thought that four in every 100 people suffer from anxiety.

By Rebecca Sanderson – Director of The Mindset Clinic

6th June 2016

Are you suffering anxiety?

Anxiety

Maybe you are finding yourself worrying more than you used to. Possibly you’re experiencing feelings of fear in situations where once you could have easily coped. Perhaps you have started to become afraid of driving your car, people breaking into your home or being asked to present something at work. Potentially you are experiencing a heavy sensation on your chest, starting to have panic attacks, heart palpitations, dry eyes, numbness, headaches and dizziness? Whilst there are many common symptoms associated with anxiety each individual will experience their own unique physiological reaction triggered by a unique stimulus. Symptoms of anxiety vary in type and intensity and effect people in different ways. So whilst you may feel nauseous when anxious another person may feel dissociated and disorientated and another may experience irritable bowel syndrome.

Why do we experience anxiety?

When you feel threatened in some way your body will react emotionally and physically. Anxiety draws on the memory of the electrochemical status of your body each time you experience fear so that the next time you experience a fearful situation your fight or flight response can kick in. This is useful when you experience true danger such as being attacked but when your anxiety is triggered by a seemingly low level threat such as traffic noise, watching something on TV or sitting in a meeting it can start to become a problem. Over time it takes less and less in the way of triggers to set off feelings of anxiety so that eventually you are living in an anxious state the majority of the time.
“High levels of anxiety are emotionally and physically debilitating”
Although anxiety is a common experience that everyone has from time to time, it is difficult to describe, to those who don’t experience extreme high levels of anxiety, how emotionally and physically debilitating it can be. People may say they get anxious when they have to speak in public or when they sit an exam but those levels of anxiety are fairly normal. Then, after the situation is complete, the anxiety goes away and the person goes back to feeling logical and calm.

Panic attacks and extreme levels of anxiety have an intensity that defies any logic and the person genuinely may feel like they are going to die or want to die because of the degree of the experience.

Fear of fear itself

Anxiety on a severe level can be so frightening that the person then lives in fear of anxiety attacking again. A vicious circle starts, they become afraid of the anxiety and this brings it on again. It is like asking someone ‘not’ to think of a blue tree. By trying not to think of a blue tree you end up thinking of one!

How to beat anxiety

But imagine a world where you are free from anxiety. What would you be doing? How would you be feeling? What are you experiencing instead? Close your eyes and just picture what your world will look like when you no longer feel afraid. Become aware of how you look, how you are behaving and how different your voice sounds. If it helps imagine seeing yourself in the picture and then imagine stepping into the picture so you are looking through your own eyes. Did that feel good?

At the Mindset Clinic we use very effective techniques to enable the part of your brain that stores the reactions to threats and fears to create new neurological connections so that you are no longer locked in to the cyclical pattern of anxiety. Instead you will feel calm and relaxed, totally in control and able to cope. We teach easy to implement techniques that you can quickly and effectively put into practice into your everyday life.

Rapid results for overcoming anxiety

Freeing yourself from anxiety needn’t be a long drawn out process. The Mindset Clinic achieves rapid results with the people that we see. Understanding how anxiety works and re-educating the brain is our specialty. We consider ourselves to be very privileged to be able to help people who have become so scared of life that at times the future feels too bleak to even consider. If you need help getting your life back on track then please get in touch to see how we can help you too – info@themindsetclinic.co.uk