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Anxiety
Anxiety disorders refer to a high prevalence group of problems which include excessive levels of fear and anxiety. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress, threat, or danger and often serves us well. It enables us deal with threatening situations by triggering the fight/flight response so that we can take evasive action. However, it is when this response is persistent, excessive and interferes with our functioning in daily life that it is referred to as an anxiety disorder.
If anxiety in any of it’s forms (see below) is getting in the way of your happiness it is important for you to find a successful treatment and take the first step to recovery.
The counseling methods we typically use to work with anxiety disorders are groundbreaking and scientifically researched. In the process of resolving your experience of anxiety our methods aim to equip you with lasting skills and tools that promote emotional health, resilience and wellbeing.
Anxiety is commonly experienced in the following ways:
Excessive Worry/Generalised Anxiety:
is characterised by excessive anxiety and worry lasting six months or more. It is accompanied by central nervous system problems, including bodily tension, restlessness, irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, and sleep disturbance. Worries usually relate to education, work, finances, safety, social issues and often minor issues like being on time.
Worrying can be useful to enable us to plan ahead and solve problems, however, with ”excessive” worry we find ourselves distracted from the act of living.
Social Phobia/Anxiety:
refers to persistent fear of situations in which we are exposed to possible scrutiny of others, such as public speaking engagements, social gatherings or communication with the opposite sex. The problem elicits fear of intense panic in such situations and avoidance of or escape from social environments.
Panic Attacks:
involve sudden, intense and unprovoked feelings of terror and dread, often manifesting in heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, and an out of control or terribly frightening feeling. When we suffer from this disorder we generally develop strong fears about when and where the next panic attack will occur, and often avoid places where we might have a panic attack or where escape may be difficult such as movie theatres, shopping malls, or social gatherings.
Specific Phobias:
This related disorder involves marked, persistent and intense fears, about certain objects or situations. Specific phobias may include things such as enclosed spaces, encountering certain animals or flying in airplanes. Exposure to the feared situation or object usually elicits a panic attack leading to a tendency to avoid of the feared object.
Obsessions and Compulsions:
are characterized by persistent, uncontrollable and unwanted feelings, thoughts or images (obsessions) and routines or repeated behaviours (compulsions) in which individuals engage to try to prevent or rid themselves of anxiety provoked by the obsessions. Common themes for compulsions may include repeated actions such as; washing hands or cleaning house excessively for fear of germs, or checking over something repeatedly for errors. When we are caught in the cycle of obsession and ritual our lives are constrained and our time otherwise used for living is consumed.
Post Traumatic Stress:
Witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event including, severe physical or emotional trauma such as a natural disaster or serious accident or crime, may expose us to the risk of post-traumatic stress. Thoughts, feelings and behavior patterns can become seriously affected by reminders of events, recurring nightmares and/or flashbacks, avoidance of trauma related stimuli, and chronically elevated bodily arousal. These reactions may arise weeks or even years after the event.
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