What is stress and what is anxiety?

The word stress is often used to describe the feelings we experience when the demands life makes on us is greater than their ability to cope. At such times people can often feel overloaded, under tremendous pressure and very tense or emotional. Anxiety and stress affects everyone, young and old and is a completely normal reaction that all human beings will experience from time to time when faced with situations that they feel under pressure in.

You may feel anxious towards a big exam, taking your driving test or public speaking to name a few. However, when people with anxiety begin to find it increasingly difficult to control their worries – this is when it can develop into Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). This feeling off anxiety becomes hard to shake off and will turn into a constant issue that can hinder your daily life. GAD affects around 1 in 20 adults in Britain and is a long-term condition that can have a snowball effect whereby the sufferer will feel anxious about a wide range of issues rather than just the one.

This problem can have both psychological and physical impact on your life, you will struggle to feel relaxed which could lead you to becoming irritable, disrupt your sleep affect your concentration and make you feel constantly worried. It is a normal, if unpleasant, part of life, and it can affect us all in different ways and at different times.

So when does it become a problem?

We are not designed to experience these feelings for very long. The hormonal changes we experience are dangerous over an extended period of time. There is not a single part of the body that cannot be damaged through stress hormones. There is hardly a disease or illness that doesn’t have a proven link to it. If you want to read more on the biology of stress, click the link. Or watch the National Geographic Documentary “Stress – the Portrait of a Killer” at the bottom of this page.

FACT: Hypnotherapy for stress and anxiety can help you lead a happier, healthier and longer life.

Some people have a very identifiable cause for their stress and anxiety; a traumatic incident, lots of smaller stressors or they are undergoing a significant life event (moving house, getting divorced, having surgery).

Some people don’t have an identifiable cause for their anxiety and it causes them some distress. One way of thinking about your anxiety is to imagine your stress levels as being like a tower of bricks. If we keep adding stressors to the tower (even tiny ones like the school run or commuting to work), over time it loses balance, until one day it topples. This can be a good way of looking at anxiety as it explains why sometimes it can seem to come out of the blue with no significant trigger. However, what has happened is that the trigger was just a very small stressor that tipped us over the edge and allowed our tower to topple over.

Internal stressors are the sources of stress and anxiety that are inside us and are often the most common sources of stress. They are the thoughts and feelings that pop into your head and cause you to feel unease, these can include unrealistic expectations, uncertainties, low self esteem and apprehensions. The work place is also known to be a key factor in stress and anxiety, resulting in many people taking time off sick. Common causes of stress and anxiety at work include; workloads, long hours, responsibilities, role expectations, bullying or harassment, lack of job security, poor working environment, the organisational structure, career development and lack of support.

Common symptoms of stress and anxiety

Stress and anxiety can manifest itself as many different symptoms, ranging from physical to psychological and behavioural, and people may experience these to varying degrees.

Psychological symptoms (the thoughts or altered perceptions we have) are:

• Thinking that you may lose control and/or go “mad”
• Thinking that you may have a heart attack/be sick/faint/have a brain tumour
• Feeling that people are looking at you and observing your anxiety
• Feeling detached from your environment and the people in it
• Feeling like wanting to run away/escape from the situation
• Feeling on edge and alert to everything around you

Behavioural symptoms There are many behavioural associated with stress and anxiety. The most common behavioural symptom (the things we do when we are anxious) is avoidance. Although avoiding an anxiety provoking situation produces immediate relief from the anxiety, it is only a short term solution. This means that whilst it may seem like avoiding is the best thing to do at the time, the anxiety often returns the next time that you face the situation and avoiding it will only psychologically reinforce the message that there is danger.

The problem with avoidance is that you fear the unknown. Other common symptoms include:

• Altered sleep patterns
• Use of drugs or alcohol
• Use Changes in appetite
• Changing habits such as nail biting, teeth grinding etc
• Neglect of physical appearance
• Lack of communication

Physical symptoms of stress and anxiety include:

• Increased heart rate and muscle tension
• Shaking, “Jelly legs” or tingling in the hands and feet
• Hyperventilation (over breathing) or difficulty breathing
• Dizziness and feeling sick
• Tight band across the chest area and palpitations
• Tension headaches
• Hot flushes and increased perspiration
• Dry mouth and choking sensations

How can hypnotherapy help with stress and anxiety? Our advanced hypnotherapy techniques immediately relax you and very quickly identify the root cause of your hidden fear or anxiety. By finding the connections that trigger this anxiety we help you to re-program the way that you think, connect, react and behave. So, the anxiety and signs of stress rapidly disappear and is replaced with a calm and relaxed outlook. Our versatile hypnotherapy methods enable us to ease your anxiety using a very simple and effective process, making a vast and rapid improvement to your state of mind and feelings of wellbeing.