Anxiety
Anxiety is a feeling we get in our bodies when we respond to something frightening or threatening. We experience a range of symptoms such as heart beating faster, sweaty palms, feeling more alert to danger and tenseness in our bodies.
Anxiety is a normal emotion and everyone experiences it from time to time. However some people experience such high levels of anxiety, it impacts severely on their relationships, work or college and life in general.
Some people experience 'social anxiety', often believing that other people will think badly of them, or be judging them.
If you experience social anxiety, certain social situations are incredibly difficult, and you experience symptoms of anxiety, such as tension, beating heart when you are in a social situation e.g. a crowded shop, a pub, a work meeting.
When we are anxious we can feel nervous and jumpy, our mind races and we are sensitive to what others might say or do. We might fear certain places, or people, or situations and our behaviour might include: avoiding people or places, staying in, or leaving the feared place early, feeling or getting ‘snappy’ with people around us and using certain coping behaviours to get through a situation e.g. smoking, avoiding eye contact, or fiddling e.g. with our clothes.
These coping behaviours help in the short-term, but the relief is short-lived and in the long term we experience an increase in physical symptoms, more worry and lose confidence in ourselves.
Anxiety can be caused by a range of factors including stressful life events, pressures in our lives and sometimes personality and our upbringing.
When I work with people who experience anxiety, I first want to understand how you are affected by the anxiety, what kind of symptoms you notice, what kind of situations cause you to feel anxious, how do you cope with the anxiety. Then, together, we explore how you can manage the anxiety, including facing the feared situations, people or places.
By understanding more about how anxiety affects us, we can over time learn to change the way we respond, and lessen the impact and hold it has on us.
As part of this work, we look together at what currently helps you relax and feel relieved or tension, and what else you can try to reduce the bodily stress and tension. We also explore your thinking ‘pattern’ and look at how to challenge your thought process in order to help relieve the anxiety.
When the anxiety is long-standing and relates to past experiences, the therapy often takes longer and can be more difficult. If you are ready to explore these past experiences, it can help make more sense of your feelings and responses, so that you are able to get to a place where you can move forward with your life.
References
www.cci.health.wa.gov.au
www.anxietycare.org.uk
www.ntw.nhs.uk
www.sheffieldmind.co.uk
Anxiety is a normal emotion and everyone experiences it from time to time. However some people experience such high levels of anxiety, it impacts severely on their relationships, work or college and life in general.
Some people experience 'social anxiety', often believing that other people will think badly of them, or be judging them.
If you experience social anxiety, certain social situations are incredibly difficult, and you experience symptoms of anxiety, such as tension, beating heart when you are in a social situation e.g. a crowded shop, a pub, a work meeting.
When we are anxious we can feel nervous and jumpy, our mind races and we are sensitive to what others might say or do. We might fear certain places, or people, or situations and our behaviour might include: avoiding people or places, staying in, or leaving the feared place early, feeling or getting ‘snappy’ with people around us and using certain coping behaviours to get through a situation e.g. smoking, avoiding eye contact, or fiddling e.g. with our clothes.
These coping behaviours help in the short-term, but the relief is short-lived and in the long term we experience an increase in physical symptoms, more worry and lose confidence in ourselves.
Anxiety can be caused by a range of factors including stressful life events, pressures in our lives and sometimes personality and our upbringing.
When I work with people who experience anxiety, I first want to understand how you are affected by the anxiety, what kind of symptoms you notice, what kind of situations cause you to feel anxious, how do you cope with the anxiety. Then, together, we explore how you can manage the anxiety, including facing the feared situations, people or places.
By understanding more about how anxiety affects us, we can over time learn to change the way we respond, and lessen the impact and hold it has on us.
As part of this work, we look together at what currently helps you relax and feel relieved or tension, and what else you can try to reduce the bodily stress and tension. We also explore your thinking ‘pattern’ and look at how to challenge your thought process in order to help relieve the anxiety.
When the anxiety is long-standing and relates to past experiences, the therapy often takes longer and can be more difficult. If you are ready to explore these past experiences, it can help make more sense of your feelings and responses, so that you are able to get to a place where you can move forward with your life.
References
www.cci.health.wa.gov.au
www.anxietycare.org.uk
www.ntw.nhs.uk
www.sheffieldmind.co.uk
