Anxiety and Panic Attacks

“Warren really helped me deal with my stress, anxiety and grief,fully recomend this guy and wonderful work he is doing.” -Kasia

“Wow Warren…..thank you so much for an amazing session. Couldn’t recommend it highly enough!” -Polly

“I visited Warren last week after him being recommended by several work colleagues. I have been struggling with anxiety for some time now and have tried many other avenues to help with it with no success. After just one session I felt like a new person, I can’t thank him enough and would highly recommend Warren York Hypnotherapy to anyone.” -Chris

Have you ever felt like your going to have a heart attack? Anxiety or panic attacks as they are better known are nasty, terrifying times in a sufferers life. Many people are rushed to hospital each year with suspected heart attacks which actually turn out to be caused by anxiety. This can lead to a fear of being scared, which in turn leads to a vicious cycle of creating more fear therefore more anxiety. However, you can learn to beat these feelings and get that control back. Hypnosis for anxiety and panic is extremely effective at helping in these cases.

Fear

The fear response is something we have inherirted from our ancestors. All animals have some kind of fear response, to ensure survival of the species. This is anxiety on a base level. The fear response is a primal instinct and therefore very strong. As humans though we may still be animals on the inside, but on the outside we are in a modern world full of other strange feelings, like worry. Worry must be a pretty new emotion, in terms of evolution anyway. No longer do we need to kill food with our bare hands, or fight animals for survival- but on the inside we still respond as if we do. Society evolves way too fast for our bodies to keep up. In the last 500 years we have achived amazing feats like walking on the moon or flying; our bodies just cannot evolve that fast so we still keep that same fear response we had 1000′s of years ago.

Panic Attack Help

Anxiety attacks occur when we worry about a given situation for a certain time, then sooner or later our bodies will initiate the fear response. This is just designed to get us out of immediate danger. A  quick shot of adrenaline into the body is to help us say jump out of the way of a car for instance. These  normal physiological changes such as breathing fast, heart rate speeding up are just designed to help us run away from something or to fight it. The increase in heart rate is to help heal potential wounds quicker, the breathing speeding up is to help us run faster. But people wrongly perceive this a bad thing, and feel they are losing control of themselves.

A panic attack is basically your body responding to a perceived danger or threat- these days this is more likely to be a worry rather than an actual real danger. However when triggered the fear is the same as for a real threat as opposed to a worry. We only have 1 fear response, not 1 for a worry and 1 for real danger- just 1 for the lot. Your autonomic nervous system does not know the difference between you being attacked by a tiger or you worrying about your work dutes for instance. The physiological repsonse is exactly the same. This shows why we get problems, on some conscious level we know there is no imminent danger, but sub-consciously (inside) we are feeling real fear which leads to anxiety/panic.

Anxiety Symptoms

The symptoms of anxiety attacks can be quite severe. Anxiety is linked with many other conditions such as phobias, stress and depression. Some of the most common sypmtoms according to DSM IV(1) are:

• a need to escape
• intense fear
• dizziness
• increased breathing rate
• inability to think straight – the list is endless! However, what most people dont realise is that almost all of these feelings are attributable to chemical reactions in our body. But the psychological imput makes it seems like were spinning out of control

The longer the sufferer is in a state of anxiety, the more the effects compound to make life more and more difficult. Stress is interlinked with anxiety, and this leads to a vicious circle where the more anxious a person gets the more stressed they get. Stress releases cortisol which weakens the immune system if excess amounts are not used by the body. Cortisol is meant to enable us to respond well to an emergency situation (i.e to enable us to flee life threatening danger immediately) but in todays society it is more likely to respond to us being late for work. When excess cortisol is not used up as it should be, this can lead to burnout and physical exhaustion.

Anxiety Causes

There are 2 camps on this matter, some say we have a genetic predisposition to anxiety others say we learn it. There is probably truth in both, but the overall key is that we can learn to control this fear response. I see clients with anxiety every day and I help them to overcome these attacks quickly and easily. Yes our parents may have always been worriers but that doesnt mean we have to be!

General Anxiety Disorder

If you dont suffer from panic attacks but have a general feeling of anxiousness, this may be generalised anxiety disorder. This is one of the most prevalent health issues in the world, so you are not alone. It often helps to distinguish between what is acceptable and what is an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can help us sometimes but it can also get to a point where if it causes significant interference with our daily lives then it is considered a problem. If your regularly losing sleep, constantly worrying about anything and everything and its affecting your life too much, then ask your doctor for a diagnosis.

They may prescribe anti anxiety pills, and for some people these work even if only for a short while. Tablets can of course bring their own side effects so are not an ideal solution to a problem.  If you dont deal with the root cause of your anxiety then tablets will only mask the symptoms, the underlying issues should still need treating.

Hypnosis for Anxiety

Hypnosis for anxiety is the best form of therapy as it works on the inside level where the problems come from. On some level some aprt of your brain knows what the anxiety is a response to. Hypnosis bypasses all the conscious material that clouds our judgements and helps pinpoint what is causing the problems. Hypnosis is safe and natural and is by far the quickest form of therapy for anxiety and panic disorders.

“I have struggled with depression for the last 17 years. I’ve tried everything(or so i thought) but nothing even made a dent. In fact, much of it made me worse. Medication clashed with my body and left me in hospital, counselling heightened my anxiety. I did what I could with the techniques I had but even they were overwhelmed by the depression and eventually I decided that more alternative measures were needed. I found Warren’s website online and made an appointment. Sceptically I sat in the clinic that first day while we calmly talked through my issues before a brief hypnotherapy session. That was the day I became strong enough to face life again. Warren helped me detach from all the previous traumas and experiences that held me under and left me ready to face and process anything that came at me from that point on. It was extraordinary. I dont know why this isnt recommended more by GPs for depression. I “attended the clinic weekly for a time and every time, Warren channelled in on exactly what I needed that day and focused on working through it, even if it meant going over our allocated time. I would say that if youre considering hypnotherapy that its important to research and choose the right therapist, and I would also say that in terms of training, knowledge, care and professionalism-Warren York comes highly recommended. It changed how I lived my life, and though I am taking a short break from therapy to deal with some physical health issues, I look forward to returning shortly to continue the care and maintenance of my mental health and wellbeing.” – Nichola