Anxiety & Hypnotherapy
Do you have anxiety? If so, you’ll know how overwhelming it can feel.
It can seem like it’s taking over your life, leaving you nowhere else to turn.
Worries can grow and seem to be never-ending – in my last post I talked about ‘the worry mushroom syndrome’ which really is a good analogy for how it can feel.
Anxiety can make everyday activities feel almost impossible.
Read more about ‘the worry mushroom syndrome’ here - https://www.whitakerhypnotherapy.co.uk/post/what-anxiety-feels-like-what-to-do-about-it.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety can affect us in many different ways, causing us to feel worried, scared or uneasy. We can create anxiety by negatively forecasting the future, such as worrying about events which are coming up (e.g. we could be anxious about an upcoming social event or presentation that we have to give in work). We can also create anxiety by negatively ruminating on the past, regretting or feeling negative about memories and events which have happened in our lives.
How can Anxiety show itself?
Anxiety can affect us in so many different ways and so many conditions rely on anxiety to thrive, including:
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – when a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events
- Depersonalisation & Derealisation – a feeling of being outside of yourself or not feeling like the world around you is real
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder – persistent and excessive worrying (it could be about anything, e.g. money, health, family or work)
- Panic Disorder – when a person has regular, sudden panic attacks
- Social Anxiety Disorder – an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others
- Phobias – when someone has an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal
How is Anxiety caused?
It might be obvious to us why we’re anxious, but it might also be that we’re so used to feeling anxious that we don’t know why we feel this way any more. In hypnotherapy we use the analogy of a stress bucket – all of our stresses are put into an imaginary bucket, and if we don’t empty it then sooner or later it will overflow. This is when anxiety can hit us with full force, creating a vicious, negative cycle in our minds, leading to more negative thoughts, more anxiety and more problems.
The Effects of Anxiety
Anxiety can stop us from doing the things we really want to in life.
It can effect us in so many different ways from OCD to GAD.
GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) is thought to affect as much as 5% of the UK population, with slightly more women affected than men, and most common in those aged between 35 and 39 (NHS figures, as of May 2021). Those with GAD feel constantly anxious, unable to relax and trapped in a constant vicious cycle of negative thoughts.
Social anxiety is also commonly seen in those with high anxiety. You may feel overwhelmed and unable to attend social situations, scared to interact with new people or even with people you know well.
Anyone with high anxiety can experience panic attacks, characterised by a period of intense fear and physical reactions such as hyper-ventilating, increased heart rate and high blood pressure. It may feel like you’re losing control, having a heart attack or dying.
So, How can Hypnotherapy Help with Anxiety?
Hypnotherapy has been shown to be very effective in relieving anxiety. Hypnosis uses deep relaxation and visualisation to help you relax, breaking you out of that vicious cycle of negative thinking. This deep relaxation will assist in giving you more intellectual control, and allow you to clearly see the best way forward in your life.
If you’d like to find out how Whitaker Hypnotherapy can aid in relieving anxiety in your life, please go to https://www.whitakerhypnotherapy.co.uk/reduce-anxiety
If you know this is the step you want to take and want to get started, please book a free initial consultation by going to https://www.whitakerhypnotherapy.co.uk/free-initial-consultation
Thanks for reading this article and please share to anyone it may help.