About the 60 Minutes Australia The Age of Anxiety

On Sunday the 12th of March Peter Overton reported on 60 Minutes about the Age of Anxiety.  In this report her described the increasing incident of Anxiety in Australia with 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men now reported to suffer from Anxiety.

The symptoms described by those interviewed were fairly typical of the symptoms described by my clients when they first come to see me; heaviness on the chest, restricted feelings in the chest and throat, beating hearts, wakeful nights and the list goes on.

Anxiety and Panic attacks are incredibly difficult things to experience with the people suffering often convinced they are experiencing a heart attack or other potentially deadly incident.  People that don't experience  it don't understand what is going on for those that do, and can consequently be very dismissive often telling friends and loved ones to "pull themselves together", they have "nothing to worry about" etc.  As a result people learn to avoid talking about it because they don't want to have to deal with criticism and judgment about something they don't feel any control over.  This criticism  is similar to telling someone with Diabetes that they should just produce and respond to insulin correctly.  It's just not that simple!

The good news is that I've seen my clients transformed from being slaves to their Anxiety to being able to interrupt and halt it before it gets out of control after just a few sessions.  Usually they feel a lot better after the first session and walk out with a deeper understanding of what is going on when the Anxiety is triggered and how they can regulate it.  The subsequent sessions are about enabling the brain to process the fear that has been running in a loop in the background.  If you think of the brain as a computer, anxiety is a process that for some people is running constantly, when the computer has too many operations happening it 'hang's but the anxiety process keeps running and becomes dominant; this can also happen when trying to sleep as all the other processes go into standby mode anxiety is stuck running and this makes it difficult to get to sleep or stay asleep. Anxiety triggers the body's fight and flight response, hence all the physical symptoms mentioned above.

Anxiety is part of our survival mechanism but it doesn't need to be stuck in the on position all the time, it is only really useful when there is a threat present.  In my sessions I create opportunities for the sub conscious to stop the anxiety process running and instead have it available to be called upon only when needed e.g. if tiger does ever appear out of the blue!  The mind responds to exercises and techniques that I go through with my clients during the session which are  create new associations and neural pathways, the imagination plays the role of shifting the perception so that the sense of threat is brought down to a safe and comfortable level.  Hypnotherapy enables my clients to achieve their desired results faster than simply using talking therapy.  EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique or Tapping)  is also used in my sessions to trigger the relaxation response while processing unwanted feelings and emotions.

If you'd like to learn more about how I can help you or a loved one give me a call on 0435 923 817 or use this contact form
If you'd like to make any comment about  your experience with Anxiety please feel free to comment below.


​

---