What is it?
Anxiety is a natural reaction to a stressful situation, the fight or flight response. It may help a person to successfully deal with a difficult situation, for example at work or at school.
Only when anxiety becomes excessive and chronic, difficulties can begin. Chronic anxiety is a psychological state characterised by unpleasant feelings of uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry. Anxiety affects the life style, job performance, self-confidence and relationships of many people. This can make it difficult to deal with stressful situations, which can create anxiety in itself. This may then lead to a vicious cycle of anxiety about anxiety.
Anxiety includes some the following conditions:
- panic attacks
- nervousness
- fear of
- failure
- competition
- conflict
- rejection
- decision-making
- social situations
- Phobias like for example
- social phobia
- claustrophobia
- agoraphobia
These conditions can be extremely alienating. Fear of social interactions with others is often to do with feeling evaluated by others. This can become a difficult and painful problem which is sometimes chronic in nature and may cause people to withdraw or isolate themselves.
Someone who suffers from excessive anxiety might also experience it as a sense of dread or panic. Although panic attacks are not experienced by every person who has anxiety, they are a common symptom. Panic attacks can come without warning, and although the fear is generally irrational, the perception of danger is very real. A person experiencing a panic attack will often feel as if they are about to die or pass out.
Anxiety is often a future-oriented mood state in which one is ready or prepared to attempt to cope with upcoming negative events. This may suggest that there is a distinction between future vs. present dangers that divides anxiety and fear. General existential anxiety is also common.
Physical symptoms can include palpitations, chest pains, faintness, sweating, shortness of breath, hyperventilation, choking and nausea.
What can help?
Coping with anxiety can be a lonely and isolating experience. I have worked with many clients who have suffered from debilitating anxiety. With anxiety, counselling and psychotherapy needs to explore and address the underlying issues before coping strategies are put in place, otherwise improvement is only temporary or incomplete. This may include some of the following interventions:
- Providing you with a secure attachment base and emotional support through the therapeutic relationship, which provides containment.
- Helping you explore and understand your condition based on your own unique situation and history.
- Helping you explore and understand your symptoms.
- Helping you explore and understand why your condition developed.
- Helping you to face and tolerate your fears.
- Helping you to manage and understand panic attacks.
- Helping you to develop assertiveness skills, to manage your life better.
Counselling and psychotherapy can then help you to develop your own coping mechanisms in order to deal with your anxiety and strategies to overcome negative thinking patterns.
