What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a term that covers a range of symptoms which can affect how we behave, feel, and think. Anxiety is part of our body’s way of managing threats or distress, through our “fight or flight” system. Our bodies release hormones when we feel stress, such as adrenaline. This is normal and healthy reaction to threat which our bodies must help protect us as it gives us the energy to react quicky to the imminent threat. Typically, after the threat is gone, then our body relaxes. However, when our bodies don’t go back to the state of relaxation, then we suffer from anxiety. Approximately 25% of the UK have mental health difficulties and anxiety, along with depression, is one of the most common causes of mental health issues. Anxiety is also one of the top reasons why people seek counselling and psychotherapy.
Symptoms of anxiety can generally include feeling worried, panicked, or stressed. It can make us feel nervous, restless, tense, and worried. We can also feel a sense of doom or have panic attacks. Anxiety can also disrupt our ability to concentrate on a task.
Also, anxiety can cause difficulty with negative and intrusive thoughts, causing us to look control of them, leading them to race through our heads. This can then lead to feeling even more stress and worry.
Anxiety can also cause hyperactivity, so we become unable to sit still or settle down. On the other hand, it can also cause us to lose energy, making us feel sluggish.
Here are the most common symptoms of anxiety:
- Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
- Feeling nervous, restless or tense
- Feeling tired or weak
- Having a sense of doom, impending danger, or panic
- Having an increased heart rate
- Having difficulty controlling worry
- Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
- Having trouble sleeping
- Rapid Breathing (hyperventilation)
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
How can Counselling help anxiety?
Anxiety can often come from core beliefs which we may not be aware of that we’ve earned throughout our lives. Working with a professional can help find where our anxiety comes from, bringing these core beliefs into our awareness. Then we can learn and manage our triggers of anxiety. This can help us both reduce anxiety and gain some control over it.
Check out my next blog post where I go tips to cope with anxiety or my blog post on how to prevent the onset of anxiety. If you have any further questions, or want to know more about counselling for anxiety, please feel free to get in touch.