Anxiety or Panic Attacks

Anxiety or Panic Attacks 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.

Anxiety / Panic Attack Treatment
Anxiety and Panic Attacks can be treated in a number of ways and working together we’d use the techniques that you feel will fit best with you. For example, Hypnotherapy can be a fantastic tool to help you get ‘back on your feet’ and help you control the feelings.

A talk therapy such as Counselling can give an insight into the roots allowing you to be aware of what triggers are likely to affect you and how, and put the right coping mechanisms in place. . Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (A counselling intervention) we can begin to see how your thought patterns are affecting you and seek to challenge these as well as allowing you to develop new coping strategies.

As an area that I have a strong personal interest in, I have undertaken specialist training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, NLP and Hypnotherapy and use these techniques one there own or together depending on your requirements. Anxiety and panic is experienced by each individual in there own unique way, hence it’s very important that we work collaboratively to assist you in finding the solutions and strategies that fit for you.

Information about Anxiety and Panic
Anxiety can manifest itself as a simple, seemingly unexplainable feeling of nervousness through to a full-blown anxiety or panic attack. The symptoms of a panic or anxiety attack differs for each sufferer and can include palpitations, pins and needles, shortness of breath, sweating, a feeling of light-headedness, feeling hot or cold, feeling sick, fear of losing control, fainting, or feelings of unexplained but impending dread. They can have a disabling effect on your life where you avoid any place or situation that may create the fear of having an attack such as going shopping, eating in front of others or driving. As time continues the number of places and situations which are avoided grows which can result in the sufferer becoming increasingly agoraphobic.

Often the condition is a manifestation of deeper issues such as being triggered by a specific event or sets of events, a build up of stress or an inability to cope with changes – Fundamentally, your body is trying to tell you something but you may be unaware of what it is trying to say.

I am happy to offer information with no obligation to enable You to choose what is right for You as I appreciate that making the choice to undertake personal therapy is a courageous decision.

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.

Panic Attacks
The physical symptoms of panic attacks can be very severe, can vary from person to person and are often described as an unexpected overwhelming terror.

Commonly they can include: -

Hyperventilating
Tingling or Pins & needles
Shaking
Strong feelings of fear
Dizziness
Fainting
Unable to draw breath
Fear of losing control
Fear of being mad or mentally ill
Hot or cold flushes
Sweating
Panic attacks can vary in frequency and can be triggered by certain situations or circumstances. These situations and circumstances again will vary from person to person but are often associated in being around other people however, the actual triggers can actually be much deeper and may be resultant on long periods of extreme stress.

Situations that can bring on a panic attacks include: -

Eating out
Driving
Public speaking
The anticipation of going out
Going out
Being in the situation when the first panic attack was experienced
Each attack can potentially create a new situation to avoid. For example, suffering an attack in a supermarket can result in the avoidance of going to supermarkets. Having a panic attack whilst driving could spell the avoidance of driving and so on.

Theories about the cause of anxiety disorders
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.