Further Information about Anxiety
Anxiety affects your whole being, on all levels - on a physiological (bodily) a behavioural level or psychological (mental/intelligence) reaction all at once.
On a physiological level, anxiety may include bodily reactions such as rapid heart beat, muscle tension, queasiness, dry mouth or sweating.
On the behavioural level, anxiety can sabotage your ability to act, express yourself, or deal with certain everyday situations.
Psychological, anxiety is a state of apprehension and uneasiness. This is its most extreme form, it can cause you to feel detached from yourself and even fearful of dying or feel as if you're going crazy.
The fact that anxiety can affect you on a Physiological, Behavioural, and Psychological has implications for you to recover.
A complete “Wellbeing Hypnotherapy Programme” of recovery from anxiety disorders must be looked at on all three levels to:
1. reduce physiological (bodily) responsiveness
2. eliminate avoidance behaviour
3. change personal explanations (or “self-talk”) which keeps you in a state of dread and worry
Anxiety can appear in different forms and different levels of intensity. It can range from a mere twinge of uneasiness to a full-blown panic attack marked by heart palpitations, disorientation, and terror.
Anxiety that is not connected to any particular situation, that just comes “out of the blue”, is called free-floating anxiety or, in more severe instances, a “spontaneous panic attack”.
The difference between an episode of fee-floating anxiety and a spontaneous panic attack, can be defined by whether you experience four or more of the following symptoms at the same time.
- Shortness of breath
- Heart palpitations (rapid or irregular heartbeat)
- Trembling – shaking or sweating
- Choking – nausea or abdominal distress
- Numbness – dizziness or unsteadiness
- Feeling of detachment or being out of touch with yourself
- Hot flushes – fear of dying – fear of going crazy or out of control
If your panic attack arises only in response to a specific situation, it is called – “situational anxiety” or “phobic anxiety”. Situational anxiety is different from everyday fear, in that it tends to be out of all proportion and unrealistic.
If you have a disproportionate apprehension about driving on the motorway, going to the doctors/dentist, or confronting your spouse altogether, this may be called a situational anxiety. Situational anxiety becomes phobic when you actually start to avoid situations. In other words – phobic anxiety is situational anxiety that includes persistent avoidance of the situation.
Often anxiety can be brought on by you thinking about a particular situation. When you feel distressed about what might happen when or if you have to face one of your phobic situations, you are experiencing what is called “anticipatory anxiety”. (i.e. When you have to visit your dentist because of a broken tooth, etc.)
In its milder form anticipatory anxiety is not so different from ordinary everyday worrying, but sometimes, this type of anxiety can become intense enough to be called “anticipatory panic”.
There is an important difference between spontaneous anxiety (or panic), and anticipatory anxiety (or panic). Spontaneous anxiety tends to “come out of the blue” and peaks to a high level very rapidly, then subsides very gradually. The peak is usually reached within five-minutes followed by a gradual tapering-off period of one hour or more.
Anticipatory anxiety on the other hand, tends to build-up more gradually in response to encountering - or simply thinking about – a threatening situation and then usually quickly falls away. You may “worry yourself into a frenzy” about something for about an hour or more, and then just let go of the worry as you find something else to occupy your mind.
Anxiety is inevitably part of today's society. It's important to realize that there are many situations that come up in ever-day life in which it is appropriate and reasonable to react with some anxiety.
If you didn't feel any anxiety in response to everyday challenges involving possible loss or failure, something would be wrong.
Go back to the Using Hypnosis to Stop Anxiety homepage.