In our post-COVID world, anxiety has become an all too familiar companion to many of us. It can vary from a slight fluttering of unease to a full blown panic attack and all sorts of sensations in between.  It can significantly affect our daily lives, rendering us unable to function to the best of our ability, giving us sleepless nights and intrusive thoughts on an eternal loop from which we can’t escape. 

In this blog post, we explore that we all experience anxiety from time to time, however, in more and more of us it is becoming more long term.  We look at when anxiety is caused by a medical condition and when it is classed as a disorder, and how it can be overcome.  Whether you are experiencing anxiety personally or seeking knowledge to help support a loved one, this article serves as a beacon of hope. All is not lost, there is a way out…

According to the Mental Health Foundation “The UK population is experiencing wide levels of stress, anxiety and hopelessness”.  In a survey in March 2023, it found that ‘nearly three-quarters of the population (73%) had felt anxious at least sometimes in the previous three weeks, with one in five people (20%) anxious most or all of the time’

It is normal to feel anxious from time to time, after all, it’s how our body responds if we feel threatened, under pressure, or stressed, and it isn’t always a bad thing. Feeling anxious can motivate us, help us stay alert, or spur us on to change something, but when it is prolonged it can start to impact our daily lives and can be called anxiety.

‘Chronic or recurring anxiety can be caused by specific medical conditions such as hyperthyroidism, carcinoid syndrome, pheochromocytoma, certain neurological disorders, or by medications or drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, beta-blockers, alcohol, and excessive caffeine intake’ according to Dr Howard Schubiner in his book “unlearn your anxiety and depression”.  Once these conditions have been ruled out by a medical professional, the vast majority of people have what a condition we call anxiety disorder, a condition that is now epidemic among people in the 21st century (Whitaker 2010). 

When I refer to “Anxiety” in this article, I am referring to this condition (not the medically induced).  See my blog post here about the different types of anxiety disorders not caused by a medical condition.

Although Anxiety is often an overwhelming experience and in the case of panic attacks, it can even feel life-threatening, this is an illusion.  Panic attacks can be very frightening and intense, but they are not dangerous. Anxiety feels different to different people, but common symptoms are a pounding or fast beating heart, breathlessness, pins and needles, some people even experience something like an electric shock, other strange body sensations, nausea, feeling faint, dizziness and sweating.  These physical sensations are usually the effects of adrenalin and they often come in waves. Anxiety can play havoc with your emotions too, with intrusive thoughts.

Anxiety can start to impact daily life if left untreated. It can feel scary and can become particularly isolating.  One of the main problems with anxiety is that because it feels scary, we become frightened of it and it is the fear of anxiety that keeps it alive.  We become trapped in the “anxiety cycle”.  You can download my anxiety cycle pdf for free here. The anxiety cycle is a vicious loop, and the more we struggle, the deeper we sink. The more we fear the bodily sensations, the more fear we feel, and so it goes on until our lives get more and more restricted, the anxiety gets worse and worse, we do less and less, we lose our freedom, our friends, our self-esteem and it can feel as though we are losing our minds…

Anxiety as I said earlier, is normal, you are not alone and it is entirely curable.  The problem with most solutions for anxiety is that they manage it, rather than heal it.  Anxiety keeps you stuck in fear and it is fuelled by the way we respond to that fear. If we can change our response to the fear, and shatter the illusion of fear (because in reality we are not in a life-threatening situation, merely one that is making us uncomfortable), we can start to break that cycle.

We are the cure, we just need to find a better response to that fear, rather than default to the one our subconscious mind is giving us.  I am not saying that it is easy, but it is possible. 

There are many ways to overcome anxiety without medication (I am not saying medication doesn’t have its place). If you have anxiety you should always consult your doctor first to rule out any medically induced anxiety.  Once your doctor has established that it is not medically induced anxiety you can take the step to overcome it, either alone using a self-help method, or seek the help of a therapist. 

When helping my clients overcome their anxiety the first thing I get them to do is to think about what their life would be like without the anxiety.  In order for recovery to begin we must start thinking about how we want to feel, rather than how we don’t want to feel. Recovery from anxiety does not come from a place of avoidance, avoidance is a symptom of anxiety!

Acceptance is key. We accept where we are, without judgment, and we work towards the next best thing, one day at a time, one step at a time, and if we feel we have had a ‘bad day’, that we’ve gone backward, not forwards, we accept that too. We are where we are.

We also start looking at the language we are using around anxiety.  We do not want to own it, it is not ours, it is not who we are, rather it is a disorder that we move through.

The next step is understanding the science behind anxiety and what causes it and why. This leads us to the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the key to overcoming anxiety.

We then take a deeper dive into why you have developed an anxiety disorder, which gives you an understanding of why you are where you are today.  Your biggest problems today were your childhood solutions.  The blocks, the subconscious habits that are your coping strategies, which in this case is your anxiety, were the coping mechanisms of a toddler with no life experience that has been ‘saved’ in your subconscious mind. We tease these out and update your subconscious mind with strategies that serve you as an adult, using hypnosis.

I teach my clients to self-hypnotize and then give them a bespoke recording to listen to while self-hypnotized, which you can think of as a software update.  It installs new, updated, supportive, empowering beliefs to come out the other side of anxiety.

I am not saying you will never feel anxious again, but what I do is give my clients the tools, so that if they are in a situation where they start to feel anxious, they know what to do to prevent themselves from going into the anxiety cycle again. They listen to the message that their body is giving them and they respond in a better way because they have got rid of the fear of anxiety.

If you would like to find out more about my overcoming anxiety program you can schedule a chat with me here https://calendly.com/stellapattersontherapy/freediscoverycall