There are many definitions of what anxiety actually is – one of the best I have come across is: “Anxiety is essentially a message from the unconscious mind to concentrate on the things you want to happen rather than the things that you really don’t want to happen.”
Generally speaking, many Anxiety disorders can lead to an irrational reaction by someone to a given situation. This can be either emotional or physical or even both. Sometimes the emotional or physical reactions are so bad that a person could be prevented from carrying out normal day to day activities and tasks that most of us would take for granted.
The conditions relating to Anxiety, sometimes simply appear “overnight” or could in other cases take many years before the symptoms actually appear.
Before talking about my recommended treatments for anxiety disorders it is important to differentiate between the different types of Anxiety disorder. Listed below are some of the more common ones:
1. A person suffering from Panic attacks also known as an Anxiety Attacks will normally feel intense anxiety, the symptoms of which are characterised by intense feelings of fear and can be accompanied by heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, excess sweating, trembling and sometimes in extreme cases muscle spasms and the inability to move.
2. A Phobia is an intense irrational fear of things and situations and not a rational fear. Now, it would be normal to be scared of a man-eating tiger if it was in front of you licking its lips! That’s a rational fear. An irrational fear is when you understand at a logical level that for instance, the small spider cannot really harm you or that you are bigger than it so could squash it easily, but the internal representation of that spider is out of proportion to the reality.
3. A person who has an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) will normally keep having unwanted and repetitive thoughts obsessively. These thoughts will often compel them to repeat a certain behavior, ritual or task again and again in an attempt to reduce the anxiety being felt.
4. Now, a Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) results in a general feeling of anxiety about nothing in particular. This can produce a number of symptoms such as feelings of tension, lightheadedness, excessive sweating and irritability amongst other things. One of the ways this differs from the other anxiety disorders is that symptoms may have been present for at least six months or more.
5. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is an anxiety disorder that is linked with any traumatic event and can produce symptoms such as “survivor guilt”, reliving the trauma in waking moments or in dreams, feelings of numbness and apathy, or thoughts and images that keep repeating especially when under stressful situations. Sometimes the short-term memory can be overloaded with these recurrent memories leading to a breakdown in the functioning of normal day to day tasks.
6. Social Anxiety Disorder also known as social phobia is a type of anxiety that manifests itself by causing distress and an inability to function normally in social situations or gatherings.
In nearly all cases, anxiety disorders can be resolved with treatment. Whilst some doctors may prescribe drugs for the alleviation of symptoms from my experience the user becomes dependent on the drugs – so now he/she has two problems: The Anxiety and the dependence on drugs!
In my opinion it is far better to seek treatment from a specialist therapist in alleviating the symptoms without the use of drugs.
It is recommended that you act sooner rather than later in seeking treatment as the symptoms can get much worse over time. As an example, I’m currently dealing with a 38 year old client who hasn’t left her house for 14 years as a result of suffering from panic attacks. She is on all kinds of medication and anti-depressants, has been seeing state funded doctors and councilors for a number of years. As a last resort she came to me seeking alternative therapy in the form of NLP, Hypnosis and Time Line Therapy©. After only three session she is now able to leave the house! She is still on prescribed medication at the moment but hopes to take less as the symptoms decrease (after discussing with her Doctor).
One of the best methods for overcoming Anxiety related issues, in my opinion, is to visit a Time Line Therapy(c) and NLP Practitioner or Master Practitioner. They will be able to work with the negative emotions that result in Anxiety, Phobias, Panic Attacks, OCD, PTSD and other related issues.
Many NLP practitioners offer Time Line Therapy© as well as Hypnotherapy to offer an all round solution.
This form of therapy differs from other talking therapies in that the client is not dragged though each situation that resulted in the issue. Instead, the client’s perception of the event is altered in a way that the emotions surrounding the first event disappear. This has a knock on effect of the negative emotions surrounding other similar events to disappear too.
Remember you should always consult with your doctor to ensure there are no contra-indication to using any alternative therapies such as Time Line Therapy©, Hypnosis and NLP. You should also continue taking any prescribed medication unless your doctor has advised you otherwise.