I have many clients who come to me with the effects of stress and anxiety. In fact I’d say the majority of clients I work with come to see me because of anxiety in some form or another.
Anxiety can manifest itself in many ways: nervousness; panic attacks; insomnia, overly worrying about something that may never happen, etc. It can have a crippling effect by bringing on range of symptoms such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), skin complaints or negative patterns such as over-eating, drinking etc. The list of how anxiety can present itself is pretty long.
Anxiety can build up over a long period of time without us even realising it, alternative it can come on suddenly as a result of something such as illness or a change of circumstances for instance.
At the extreme, people who’ve been fully in control of their lives suddenly find they can’t leave their own home; can’t work; can’t drive their car etc. For some it’s simply a matter of feeling negative or under-confident.
Case study:
Annie (name has been changed for confidentiality) arrived for sessions with me having had panic attacks over the previous couple of weeks. She’d been stressed at work with a heavy workload, plus her husband had just been posted overseas.
In the Initial Consultation, as I explained how the brain works, I could see she began to relax and then through a few tears she said “So this isn’t me, I’m not going mad”?
The brain is a funny and complex thing. It has its own way of ringing alarm bells when it’s had enough of dealing with stress or anxiety and can suddenly change its pattern of reaction. Previously we might have been able to deal with whatever life threw at us, but all of a sudden it all becomes too much.
By teaching my clients very basic relaxation and breathing techniques, we start the process of taking back control. The hypnotherapy allows guided relaxation showing a preferred future and because the subconscious part of the brain, the part that’s in charge of our reactions, doesn’t understand the difference between imagination and reality, the guided relaxation starts to bring calm and control back into our lives.
The number of people suffering stress and anxiety these days is staggering. However people rarely talk about the negative symptoms they’re suffering. Once you do start talking about it, you might be surprised how many other people have suffered the same!