Anxiety and its Related Symptoms

On this page: Some of the signs of Anxiety / The impact of Anxiety / Related Symptoms / Treatment of Anxiety with Hypnotherapy

Anxiety marks the foundation stone of all issues that can be successfully conquered with Hypnotherapy. Anxiety can be either the symptom and condition itself or the fertile ground from which other, seemingly unrelated, chronic issues grow. Anxiety is fundamental and diverse, under-estimated and potentially profoundly damaging to the chances of a fulfilled and contented life.

Most importantly, though, Anxiety, and everything that goes with it, is rapidly and permanently treatable with Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy.

Some of the signs of Anxiety

Few people go through life never having experienced anxiety, even in its mildest and least persistent forms. Almost everyone has a sense of dread or nervous trepidation before an important exam or the first day in a new job etc. Anxiety becomes problematic, and necessary to address, when it becomes the default mode of internal response to all manner of events, obstacles and stimuli whether they warrant it or not.

General Anxiety Disorder can result in the internal response being significantly disproportionate to the stimulus, meaning that something quite harmless and everyday that need not cause any anxiety causes the kind of anxiety more usually associated with an incident of genuine and considerable threat. For example, if someone is due to attend a social function that they know will include meeting several people they do not know. This is, objectively, a situation of negligible risk, however, they may respond to the prospect under the influence of anxiety. Their thoughts, feelings and actions will be much more akin to being under genuine threat. They may repeatedly dwell on the forthcoming prospect with increasing dread, and unease. They might run through possible scenarios of the event, foreseeing increasingly catastrophic misfortune. The prospect of the event may haunt them enough to make relaxation and sleep difficult. They might start to avoid associated situations and even make excuses not to attend the event itself, such is the dread of it.

This is a simplified example and in real life anxiety-inducing events do not stand alone, but are part of a long-term developing network of similar stimuli that form a pattern of behaviour, thoughts and emotions. The principle remains - anxiety results in a disproportionately heightened response to relatively normal situations.

The Impact of Anxiety

Left unchecked, anxiety can leave the sufferer in an almost constantly uncomfortably heightened state of alert. On the few occasions of relative comfort they may still have no rest because they will be prone to the dread of anxiety itself. It can therefore leave its mark on every moment of the day.

For the chronic sufferer no part of life is truly, free of anxiety. For example when communicating with others, by any medium, they will fret, overthink and worry about what and when to communicate then be in a similar turmoil whilst waiting for a response and then over-analyse the response, returning to the subject time-and-again. A very simple and straightforward exchange becomes a thing of mild distress and doubt. This process can be extrapolated across all interactions and added to the stock-pile of anxieties.

This is truly exhausting. To maintain such a state of heightened alertness is a physical, as well as mental, toll. To suffer from anxiety is to exhaust oneself with its toll. Thankfully, all of this can, with hypnotherapy, be reversed.

Every sufferer of anxiety has their own struggle, their own story, and their own set of triggers for their condition. Successful treatment depends on close understanding of their experience of anxiety and tailoring the interventions to suit it based on the understanding of the individual and of anxiety itself.

Related Symptoms

So one person's experience of anxiety is not necessarily the same as that of the next person. With that in mind we know that anxiety can manifest itself in so many ways, some obviously directly related to anxiety others less clearly linked and a few that seem to have no connection to anxiety until they reduce or disappear when the anxiety is removed. Here is a broad (though not exhaustive) list of symptoms that can be the result of anxiety:

Persistent troubling/negative thoughts   -   Insomnia/struggling to get to sleep/struggling to stay asleep/lack of deep sleep   -   Erratic behaviour   -   Poor decision making   -   Feeling of Nausea/'Butterflies in the Stomach'   -   Frequent feelings of dread about non-threatening things   -   Avoidance of people, events, situations because of dread or fear   -   Muscular aches and pains due to physical tension   -   Tension headaches   -   Unpredictable or irregular gut function   -   Panic attacks   -   Compulsive behaviours (see related section)   -   Alcohol/Drug abuse (see Addictions section)   -   Smoking (see Addictions section)   -   Unwanted persistent habits (eg hair-plucking, skin-picking, nail-biting etc)   -   Lack of Assertiveness (see Self-Improvement Skills Training section)

NB. Some of the symptoms above require medical assessment prior to consultation for Hypnotherapy. I will continue to assist those presenting such symptoms only if they have consulted a medical doctor and have been cleared of potential medical conditions first.

Treatment of Anxiety with Hypnotherapy

The great news is that Hypnotherapy is a fast, safe and effective way of combating Anxiety that can set the sufferer back on the right course for continued future improvement. It's positive effects are a pleasure and a privilege for me to witness as a hypnotherapist. If you think you have any of the signs of anxiety or its related symptoms and you'd like to discuss this with me you can contact me to request a free, no obligation conversation:

Some of the most common recent work I have done with clients for anxiety-related symptoms include:

• Persistent troubling thought-stopping
• Habit reversal
• Assertiveness Training
• Reduction of compulsive behaviours
• Anger reduction
• Work-related Stress reduction
• Relaxation Skills Training

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