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Stress and Anxiety

The words “Stress” and “Anxiety”, originally described the literal feelings of choking and tightness (in the chest). There are no formally agreed medical or scientific definition of the words stress and anxiety. Anxiety tends to describe the underlying state of nervous stimulation which does not have a healthy manner of expression. Stress tends to refer to the longer-term or chronic manifestations of anxiety. Anxiety tends to be so habitual it can become no longer obvious to the person suffering; it has become a way of life.

Does that sound familiar, and more importantly why does it matter? What’s so bad about stress?

“95% of all illnesses and disease is caused because of stress”. Dr Bruce Lipton.

Now you can start to understand why stress is a concern to you. A good definition of Stress is:- “Stress occurs when the pressure upon us exceeds our resources to cope with those pressures”.

The different Categories of Stressors are:

Frustrations: obstacles that prevent you from meeting your needs or achieving personal goals; these can be either:-

External: Discrimination, unsatisfying job, divorce, moving home, death of a loved one.
Internal: Lack of ability or traits, or perceived personal limitations.

Conflicts: 2 or more incompatible needs or goals, i.e. working parents, or deciding between 2 equally appealing offers.

Pressures: Expectations from others or the demands that you place on yourself.

Any of this sounds familiar yet?

There are 3 Forms of Medically Recognised Stress:

Acute Stress: A stressful incident or temporary situation that eases with time. This is the most common form of stress, caused by demands/pressures of recent past events or anticipated events of the near future, it can be exciting in small doses, too much is exhausting. It’s usually short term and WILL crop up in everyone’s life. The good news it this is highly treatable and manageable. What matters is achieving a balance between activity and rest. E.g. if your training for a big event. Giving an important presentation, taking an exam and even working shifts, your rest periods are equally important part of the preparation.

Episodic Acute Stress: People who seem prone to stress symptoms on a regular basis. Generally speaking you may always be in a rush but always late, tend to take on too much You may frequently be abrupt, feel uptight and irritable. Possibly highly resistant to change, and typically a Type A personality. (Driven to succeed, can’t sit still for 2 minutes, always on the go etc).

Chronic Stress: People living in stressful circumstances with little or no relief and little prospect of it improvement. You may be feeling trapped, with no way out, or being bullyed or harassed. If you have financial worries, or you are caring for the ill. If you have a need for perfectionism that you can’t maintain. If you’re physical and mental resources have become depleted through long term attrition. The feeling of stress tends to become normality after awhile. This tends to be difficult to treat, with a possible need for medical treatment and certainly behavioural therapy, hypnosis being an excellent option.

“It’s not what happens to you that a count, what matters is how you choose to react”.

Below is a quick list of simple ways that you can help to manage Stress:-

A. Learn good time management. Don’t take on too much.
B. Just say No!
C. Ask for help, learn to delegate effectively
D. Physical exercise, something you enjoy – could be belly dancing or jogging!
E. Relaxation Techniques – Hypnotherapy or EFT, this will help you to change your reaction to events, enabling you to become more resourceful. (Often when your stressed it feels impossible to relax, which is why hypnosis is so valuable to you).
F. Social networks are really important either at work or home, over time we seem to have become very isolated, re-establish contact with family and friends.
G. Have a sensible diet, one that is maintainable. If you depend on coffee to keep you going – look out!
H. Include things in your life that make you feel good, have a massage, see a funny film, visit friends. Whatever it is, most importantly, bring laughter back into you life!

The problem with stress is, it is cumulative…. A seemingly small issue/addition to a persons workload or life, can serve as the straw that broke the camels back.

Anxiety:

Below is a list covering anxiety disorders:-

Agoraphobia – fear of crowded situations.
Claustrophobia – fear of confined spaces.
Panic attacks – acute anxiety which begins suddenly and rapidly peaks.
Specific Phobias:

Social Phobia – related to performance anxiety or public speaking.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – Ritualistic, thoughts or behaviours, seemingly irrational recurrent thoughts. Fear of contamination often leading to repeated hand-washing and compulsive “checking behaviour”
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTS) – Often a delayed reaction following a traumatic situation, with various anxiety related symptoms that last more than one month. Divided into 3 categories:

Again, if any of these sound familiar to you, or are affecting your life, then 2 – 6 sessions of Advanced Structured Hypnosis can help to free you from these very uncomfortable, and limiting feelings. Both Stress and Anxiety trigger the body to react in the same way. The body basically has 2 parts to the nervous system the Parasympathetic system, which we should spend 95% to 98% of our time, feeling calm, relaxed and in control. The Sympathetic system, we should only dip into this for 2% to 5%. When we come across a situation that we perceive as a ‘threat’ we go into Fight or Flight, this is the bodies ancient defence to physical or psychological situations. Unfortunately we tend to have less physical and more psychological events that trigger this. The bad news is: - the more it’s activated then the harder it is to shut off. This in turn suppresses the immune system, which then leaves you more vulnerable to everyday pressure.

“95% of all illnesses and disease is caused because of stress”. Dr Bruce Lipton.

A certain amount of stress in our life’s inevitable, even required, what is most important is how you choose to deal with it, how do you discharge that energy? If you leave it pent up – one day you’re going to blow!

Make an investment in your future, don’t carry on thinking that you have to suffer. Telephone 02078 719 937or email to arrange for an appointment. Warning hypnosis can change your life!

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