What is...
Anxiety
“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” (Kahlil Gibran)
Anxiety Symptoms
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality" (Seneca)
Anxiety works similarly to a smoke alarm, it gives us early warning signs to situations which may be unfamiliar, risky or stressful.
Like all good smoke alarms, when it works, it alerts us to a problem in the here and now and can be useful in terms of supporting us to be alert or 'on top of our game'. When our smoke alarms are faulty, they may react to the smallest piece of dust or go off without any particular reason, this can happen in our brains too and if the alarm system is permanently going off then it can feel overwhelming and affect daily life
Symptoms may include:
- Rapid heartbeat
- Fast shallow breathing
- Tense muscles or feeling achy
- Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- Fatigue
- Racing thoughts or constant worry
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling on edge or overwhelmed
- Fear something bad will happen
- Irritability
- Avoiding situations
- Withdrawing from people and activities
How Counselling Can Help
There are many self-help techniques which can support you with the symptoms of anxiety such as meditation, challenging your thoughts and acceptance. Within counselling we will explore what options work for you.
Key to my counselling approach is to support you to look at how your anxious thoughts may have been created whether it's exploring past experiences, current stress or firmly held beliefs and work with the root cause, to make way for longer lasting change and an ability to cope with uncertainty.
