Counselling for Anxiety

A Bit About Anxiety….

How do you know when counselling might be helpful – and what are the benefits of talking therapy anyway? 

Anxiety is interesting because ‘normal’ anxiety keeps us safe – in years gone by it made sense to be hypervigilant for potential predators and run like hell if we thought that sand coloured thing behind a bush might be a lion…… We are primed to be anxious because it’s what has kept us safe and ensured our survival and success on this planet. 

Anxiety is a mental health issue that often goes unrecognised – even by the person themselves – and so many people struggle along thinking that their abnormal anxiety is normal.

 So how do you know when ‘normal’ anxiety is no longer ‘normal’? How do you know if your anxiety is something you need to seek help to resolve? Have a look at the list below – if you recognise most of these it might be worth finding someone to talk to about it. 

• You might feel afraid for no reason; just the thought of going out might trigger an anxiety attack that stops you going out and doing normal everyday things – not all the time perhaps – maybe you are fine going to work every day but just going out to do something where you don’t have all the boundaries set out for you could be too hard.
• Trouble getting to sleep at night is another potential indicator of anxiety – especially if wake up in the night – or wake up feeling anxious as soon as you wake up with not logical reason.
• Do you often feel annoyed or irritable? This is pretty common for someone with an anxiety disorder – and you might think other people can see your anxiety – so you might become defensive if someone asks you if you are OK. This is often worse if you are not sleeping well because lack of sleep interferes with our ability to think well.
• Do you find yourself avoiding things that used to be fun such as meeting friends for lunch or going to the shops?
• Do you find yourself overthinking and catastrophising? Fearing what might happen – however unlikely.

 Anxiety can also be accompanied by physical symptoms such as trembling, tense muscles, churning stomach, nausea, headache, diarrhoea, and heart palpitations, and there are lots of techniques you can use to alleviate the symptoms. 

Here’s a link to a longer article about anxiety – https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/women-s-mental-health-matters/201603/how-do-you-know-if-your-anxiety-is-problem

And here’s a link to the NHS discussion of anxiety and talking therapy – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/benefits-of-talking-therapy/

Most importantly – don’t suffer alone – talk to a friend, talk to your GP, look up the NHS website above or see if there’s a local branch of Mind who can help.

Of course, you can also contact me if you think that I might be able to help. 

Just don’t leave it – it’s important to live your life without unfounded fears getting in your way.

Thanks for the photo to Pexels.com

sub-title

meditation has been in the press a lot lately due to its benefits in reducing stress and anxiety.

Meditation is something you can practice anywhere at any time, every day.

Mindfulness meditation is about being in the moment.