Why Do I Feel Anxious?

I often get asked, why do I feel anxious?  In my work as an anxiety therapist in Ely, this is one of the most common questions people ask when they first come for support.

Someone will be sitting in my office for a free initial consultation or at their first hypnotherapy session. They’ll tell me about their racing, negative thoughts and how they always think the worst. They’ll tell me about the fast breathing, heart palpitations, sweating and other physical symptoms of anxiety. And they’ll then tell me that they don’t know why they feel anxious.

Often life is good and there is not an actual, factual reason for the anxiety. It’s frustrating. The same old thoughts and feelings going around and around. You know you don’t have anything to feel anxious about but it still happens. You may have spent hour after hour racking your brain to try and understand why you feel the way you do.

Logically there is probably no reason for you to feel anxious. Sometimes someone has experienced something, after which they started struggling with anxiety. In those sort of cases we can point to what started it.

Yet, for most people, the anxiety sort of starts and you don’t realise it is a problem until it is already a problem. Then you are stuck with the same habitual pattern of anxious thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions. Your brain is seeking to keep you safe but is overprotecting you because you already know there is no threat. This is where hypnotherapy can help. You can take back control over what is going on inside of your own head. You can start to feel more calm, confident and in control.

 

Why do I feel anxious for no reason?

Many people feel anxious even when there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason. Anxiety often develops as a pattern of thinking and feeling where the brain becomes focused on potential threats. Over time the mind and body can become used to reacting this way, which means anxious thoughts and physical sensations continue even when there is no real danger.

If you are experiencing anxiety in Ely, it can sometimes feel confusing when anxious thoughts and feelings appear without an obvious cause.

 

Changing Anxiety Patterns

Your anxiety may have started a long time ago, perhaps even in childhood. At that time you only had limited knowledge and experience of the world. Something may have been seen or heard that starts the process off. You could spend a long time going back over the past trying to find the cause. However, you can’t undo everything you have learnt and experienced since so you can never truly put yourself back there. Even if you did think you discovered the cause of why you feel anxious, you’d still only be guessing. Even when you think you know what started it, that doesn’t change anything about your anxious thoughts and feelings right now. The pattern of anxiety would rumble on regardless.

For other people, a build up of stress and worry from multiple things may have built up to a sort of psychological tipping point. Your brain then attaches the anxiety to whatever was going on at the final point. Everything that went before can be forgotten, yet the anxious pattern has developed. Again, even if you thought you knew what had contributed to your anxiety starting, it wouldn’t change anything now.

That’s why, through hypnotherapy, we take a look at what you do now. We delve into your anxious thoughts, feelings and behaviours as they are happening now so that we can work together to help you to change that habitual pattern. You can move from what you do and how you do it, to something that is all about being calm, confident and in control. When you are getting on with things how you want to in your life, why you used to feel the way you used to feel becomes redundant. When you are feeling good and getting on with life, you will be looking forwards and not backwards.

Anxiety can also create a range of physical anxiety symptoms, such as racing thoughts, a tight chest, dizziness or difficulty relaxing.

Why you feel anxious now is not really about some event in your past. You feel anxious because of your patterns of thinking and feeling that you (inadvertently) developed at some point in your life. As creatures of habit, your anxious thoughts and feelings continue to repeat. Your brain constantly searches for whatever the threat is that is making you anxious. It always finds something for you to feel anxious about. Your anxiety drives your imagination. And your imagination starts to scare you even more. You can even feel anxious that you might feel anxious.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety

• Why do I feel anxious even when nothing is wrong?

Anxiety often develops as a pattern in the mind and body. The brain’s natural role is to look for potential threats to keep you safe. Sometimes this protective system becomes overactive, meaning anxious thoughts and sensations appear even when there is no real danger.

• Can anxiety happen for no reason?

It can sometimes feel as though anxiety appears without a reason. Often there may not be a single clear cause. Instead anxiety may develop gradually through patterns of worry, stress or overthinking.

• Why does anxiety keep coming back?

Anxiety can continue when the mind and body become used to reacting in a particular way. Repeated patterns of thinking, imagining worst-case scenarios or focusing on possible threats can keep anxiety active.

• Can therapy help anxiety?

Many people find therapy helpful for understanding anxiety and learning ways to change patterns of thinking and feeling. Approaches such as hypnotherapy can help calm the nervous system and reduce anxious thinking patterns.

If anxiety is becoming more frequent or starting to affect everyday life, it may help to recognise some of the signs your anxiety is getting worse.

 

Anxiety Help and Support

Rather than focus on why you feel anxious, it is more helpful to focus on how you feel anxious. What are you imagining or saying to yourself in your head? Hypnotherapy for anxiety helps you to be able to interrupt, challenge, change and replace those negative thoughts. You can also ask what you are doing in your body. And then you can do things that help you to change how you feel.

You could spend a long time searching and searching for the why of anxiety. It is much easier to change a thought or to positively influence a feeling. And, of course, you can do things differently too.

You may also find it helpful to understand when you should seek help for anxiety if it begins affecting sleep, confidence or daily life.

And if you need some help to overcome anxiety and to feel more calm, confident and in control, then do get in touch, We can meet for a chat about how you can soon move from what you are doing now onto what you want to be doing. As all my reviews show (as does the science), you can soon start feeling better quickly and successfully.

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Anxiety Therapist in Ely & Newmarket

 

Could use some help to calm your anxiety? Struggling with anxiety, stress, worry and fear and need some help? Find out how I can help with a Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Learn more here: Appointments

Find out what hundreds of other people have said after their anxiety hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Testimonials

And check out these popular and powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you right away with anxiety, confidence and more: Hypnosis Downloads