Devon Hypnotherapy

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What is anxiety?

Anxiety is more often than not caused through the conditioning you received as a child and young adult or some trauma that you went through during your life, or both. However, anxiety can sometimes be a symptom of depression, or alcohol dependence. It can be caused by taking substances such as ecstasy LSD amphetamines, cannabis, or by withdrawal from long term drugs.

Sometimes the cause is known and when the problem disappears so does the anxiety, and at other times the circumstances are so upsetting that the anxiety goes on long after the event

Some people feel anxious before a driving test, a presentation, going to the dentist, or into hospital.

There are many different causes, suffice to say that there is always a reason for anxiety. Using hypnotherapy we are quite often able to resolve the underlying issue that supports the anxiety and when this is done the anxiety itself collapses. How long have you lived with your anxiety? Perhaps it’s time to resolve it.

What are some of the causes of anxiety?

Anxiety symptoms

Upset stomach

Diarrhoea

Dry mouth

Palpitations

Feeling sick, wanting to vomit

Shortness of breath

Dizzy feeling

Feeling of a lump in the throat, difficult to swallow

Shaking and trembling

Tense muscles

Tingling in the hands and feet

Cold or sweaty hands

Problems sleeping

Fear of losing control

Fear of going crazy

Fear of dying

Fear of a heart attack

Anxiety is a very common complaint which I see a lot in my clinic in Plymouth, Devon – it is a state of uneasiness or fear, either real or imagined, resulting from the thought of a threatening event or situation

Prolonged anxiety can disrupt work, relationships and sleep. There are many different types of anxiety and they include anxiety and panic attacks, fears and phobias, negative thoughts, public speaking, driving test nerves, fear of hospitals, dentists, exam nerves, social anxiety, generalised anxiety and many more.

We can understand anxiety better by looking both at what it is and what it is not. When we are afraid our fear is usually directed towards some external situation. We might fear going to the dentist, being unable to pay the bills, being accepted by someone we like.

There are other times when we experience anxiety, when we cannot actually specify what it is we are anxious about – it seems more internal than external, a response to a vague or unrecognised threat. We might be anxious about losing control of ourselves, or of some situation, or feel anxious about something nasty happening.

We all experience these feelings sometimes. They are normal emotions that can be appropriate and even beneficial under certain circumstances. However when anxiety is inappropriate it can severely disrupt our lives. If you suffer with anxiety, the question you have to ask is when am I going to take steps to change this behaviour?

If anxiety becomes more strongly marked it can show itself in different ways – we may have trouble falling asleep, think about a particular situation and find it difficult to think of anything else, feel tense, restless, have trouble concentrating. Some of us overeat or lose our appetite, have a feeling of disaster. All these symptoms can be very disabling and have great effect on our friends and family and our ability to work.

Anxiety problems are self-perpetuating with the overuse of flight/fight, negative thoughts, and avoidance strategies.

An example: Michael was terrified of going to the dentist, he booked an appointment, and the night before he start to think about the terrible things that might happen, what if he cannot control himself and faints, he then experiences a considerable amount of anxious negative thoughts and physical symptoms, the more anxious he gets, the more catastrophic he thinks, until he can’t stand it any more and cancels the appointment. This brought about an immediate reduction of anxiety, and therefore, the next time Michael makes an appointment with the dentist, he will not only be likely to think even worse thoughts, but will experience more anxiety, he will also be strongly compelled again to cancel the appointment – and then he will be stuck in an anxiety avoidance cycle that is difficult to get out of.

How anxiety can significantly effect lifestyle.

It is important to realise that there are many situations that come up in everyday life in which it is appropriate and reasonable to react with some anxiety. If you didn’t feel any anxiety in response to everyday challenges involving potential loss or failure, something would be wrong. Anxiety disorders are distinguished from everyday, normal anxiety, in that they involve anxiety that is :-

More intense, for example a panic attack
Last longer – anxiety that may persist for months instead of going away after a stressful situation has passed, or
Leads to phobias that interfere with your life.

So when is anxiety inappropriate?

Some of the various anxiety disorders are

Panic disorder

Phobias

Agoraphobia

Social phobia

Obsessive compulsive disorder

Post traumatic stress disorder

Acute stress disorder

Generalised anxiety disorder

Substance induced anxiety disorder

Fear and Anxiety Article: They Are No Match For Hypnosis

By Lyta Humphris

Many people struggle each day with fear and anxiety. We’re not talking about being afraid that you didn’t pass your last test or anxiety over a job interview. Anxiety and fear become deep rooted elements of a person’s life and can create havoc in relationships and make it impossible to function on a day to day basis.

Anxiety often creates a snowball effect of emotions that take place when something, even the smallest thing, goes wrong in a person’s life. For example, for someone struggling with anxiety, even the minutest intrusion can throw his or her entire day out of line.

Let’s say you are getting ready for work and your cat throws up on your carpet. Automatically your mind starts racing. This means you are going to be late for work, which means your boss is going to think you are irresponsible, which means you are never going to get the raise you need to buy your first home which means you are going to be stuck in an apartment forever and your whole financial life is ruined. In an instant cat vomit is equated to a destroyed life for someone dealing with anxiety.

Fear Is Often Related To Anxiety.
Individuals often become afraid of things that have led them to anxiety in the past. The individual in the above example may never look at cats the same way again. Fear leads to the avoidance of things that people fear and can create havoc in their lives such as the example given above. People may become phobic of snakes, spiders, clowns, chickens and many other things.

A New Approach
Perhaps you are someone struggling with fear and anxiety. You may have tried different methods including counselling and anti-anxiety medications to make it go away but nothing has worked. You may have spent hours in the self-help section of your local bookstore with no luck.

You still have one more option available to try and that is hypnosis. No, hypnosis does not mean that you are put into a trance by a freaky man with a pocket watch. The problem with basic therapy is that it simply uses the conscious portion of your brain. The conscious part is the portion that controls and assists you with day-to-day thought processes.

The purpose of hypnotism is to relax the conscious level of the brain and subdue it so that the subconscious portion is allowed to come forward. What is the subconscious? The subconscious mind is that portion of your brain that takes care of your automatic day-to-day business such as riding a bicycle. You have done it so many times that conscious though is no longer required for these tasks.

Once the subconscious is accessible to the hypnotist, he or she will work with you to rewire your subconscious. For example, if you are afraid of spiders, a hypnotist can help you relate spiders to something light and funny instead of something to be afraid of. Over time, you will learn that you are significantly bigger than your fears and can overcome them all through hypnotherapy!