About Anxiety

When surfing the net many years ago I found a list of points about what it means to have anxiety;  the list had been put together based on frequently asked questions by Dr’s working in a frantic environment in a Chicago Hospital and was intended to assist people unable to attend treatment to understand what they were experiencing.

The points are intended to help sufferers understand at a rational level what they are experiencing.  Understanding at a Rational Level does help a lot; reframing the experience can reduce the symptoms significantly. 

In my experience, as anxiety is not a rational experience a rational approach will not provide the whole answer.  Some triggers for anxiety lie deep in the subconscious, so deep in fact that the conscious mind doesn’t recall them.   Triggers are normally the result of the subconscious mind trying to match current circumstances to the closest match it can find in the subconscious memory bank.  This can result in mismatches, for example if someone had the experience of being criticised and humiliated about an outfit they wore to school in Grade 1, and 40 years later someone makes a thoughtless remark about something they’re wearing,  before they can blink, their mind may go back and matches the current event to the Grade 1 event, resulting in old feelings of fear and panic surfacing in spite of being completely out of proportion with what is currently being experienced.  Rationally they know what someone else may think of their shirt is not life threatening, but their fight and flight response is triggered anyway, because of a previous often forgotten experience. Then the negative thoughts kick in.

Hypnotherapy is extremely effective in combating anxiety because it allows the person to address the anxiety at their subconscious level in a safe and controlled environment.

If  Anxiety, Panic Attacks or Phobias are affecting your life, I highly recommend that you see an accredited Hypnotherapist.  In my Practice I see people’s lives transformed when they are able to address issues at a subconscious level.   This doesn’t have to involve revisiting past events, the subconscious can be taught to turn down or turn off a response that isn’t serving a client’s best interest.  All behaviours come from positive intention, the subconscious is trying to protect you at all times,  however sometimes when it’s mis-matching events to determine the appropriate response  it can need a little help getting on to the right track.

So without further ado, here is the list I referred to earlier in this post.

 Answers to FAQ's about Anxiety compiled by Dr's.

 1. What is it? It’s a massive outpouring of adrenaline, the most powerful chemical in your body and you were born sensitive to all chemicals.

2. What kind of people do Anxiety?  Basically all kinds, although if do anxiety really well you were most likely born highly intelligent, creative and imaginative with a genetic predisposition to be anxious.  It is not a lack of courage, a character defect or poor parenting.

3. Why do we secrete adrenaline? It’s triggered by thoughts, beliefs, dreams and statements.

4. Anxiety is what you experience when you secrete adrenaline.

5. Flight or fight: The body secretes adrenaline when it prepares for mortal combat. Anxiety is simply preparation to fight a sabre tooth tiger.

 6. NO NORMAL BODY FUNCTION (i.e. secretion of adrenaline) ever leads to death or disease. It's no more of a threat than dropping marshmallows on your bare feet, BIG MARSHMALLOWS.

7.  Panic attacks NEVER lead to heart attacks, strokes or going crazy. They are just uncomfortable, sometimes acutely so

8. ALL panic attacks go away. You always get enough oxygen, no matter how tight your chest feels.

9. Fatigue after panic results from wrestling sabre tooth tigers all day.

10. We perpetuate anxiety and panic by scaring ourselves. We use our intelligence and creativity to create imagined disasters.

11. STOP drinking alcohol and you stop being drunk. Stop squirting adrenaline and you stop feeling anxious.

12. The brain doesn't want to die or be embarrassed. If you perceive a threat to life or limb or your ego, you will squirt adrenaline.

13. We all have a scare voice. Our scare voice always lies, exaggerates and catastrophises.

14. Our scare voice is a consummate bully whose only two tools are the "what if's" (imagined catastrophes) and the WPT's (what will people think)

15. Our scare voice's only weapon is adrenaline and you know now, adrenaline cannot harm you....

16. Stop scaring yourself and you stop secreting adrenaline and your anxiety will fade.

17. Recognize and accept your scare voice. It cannot predict the future events, it cannot predict disease. All it can do is lie, exaggerate and catastrophize.

18. Thought stoppage and calmative breathe immediately and EVERY time you feel anxious.

19. You cure phobias and obsessions with victories. Learn how to get those victories.

20. Treat your scare voice as if it had terminal Alzheimer's. Patronize, cajole but don't react emotionally

 21. "So What" I will handle it! A most powerful answer to your scare voice's threats.

22. The three myths of all anxious people are I’m the only one, I'm crazy or will go crazy and I’m incurable! NOT NOT NOT

23. You cure panic and phobias with education, cognitive behavioural and exposure therapy.
* ** In my experience Hypnotherapy is the most effective response.  Anxiety is not rational, talking sense to it won’t work long term, and going beyond the rational mind to the subconscious using Hypnotherapy based on information gathered during counselling will have long lasting results.

Medications alone won't do it. Medicine helps people help themselves but you must learn and master the tools to combat anxiety.

24. All phobias and panic and obsessive compulsive disorders are curable.

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