Dan’s Blog

How Horror Films Help Anxiety

by Dan Regan | Oct 30, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

How Horror Films Help Anxiety

Today I’m talking about how horror films can help your anxiety.

Halloween is upon us again and there are spooky decorations on houses on every street. Skeletons, ghosts, witches and the like have been put up by many people in anticipation of the children trick or treating. Cinemas and TV channels are again running horror movie seasons. And it reminded me about an article I wrote a few years ago that explored research looking into how horror films could help make you more psychologically resilient.

Now, that particular research looked at resilience in the context of the covid pandemic. The research found that fans of horror films exhibited greater resilience during the pandemic, a time of uncertainty, distress and anxiety. In addition, fans of films that contain imagined worlds of chaos, such as zombie and post-apocalyptic genres, also exhibited greater resilience and preparedness. It seems that exposure to frightening fictional scenarios allows you to practice effective coping strategies that can be beneficial in real world situations. This then helps with experiencing less anxiety and distress when something happens in the real world.

You go to be entertained and you end up learning useful coping strategies. That’s a good result.

Now, I don’t claim to be the biggest fan of horror movies, although I’ve seen quite a few recently at my local cinema (some better than others!). There was The Long Walk that covered a kind of dystopian future. And there was The Conjuring: Last Rites which I think jump scared me a couple of times. There have been others but they seem to have blended into a sort of mediocre sameness inside my mind.

Yet it seems that in this Halloween season (and the rest of the year too!), horror movies can help you to manage your anxiety and develop effective coping skills.

5 Everyday Habits That Could Be Fuelling Your Anxiety

by Dan Regan | Oct 29, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

5 Everyday Habits That Could Be Fuelling Your Anxiety

In this article I’m covering 5 everyday habits that could be fuelling your anxiety.

We all know that anxiety can make you feel like rubbish. Your mind races over and over all sorts of worst case scenarios. You feel tense, agitated and restless. You struggle to think clearly and make decisions. You might feel sick and struggle to eat. You go to bed exhausted from all the thoughts and feelings yet you struggle to drift off. You are so tired that you struggle to get up in the morning. Everything starts to feel much harder than it should. Even when you feel a bit better, you find yourself worrying that you might feel anxious again later.

Anxiety starts to ripple and ripple. You feel more and more tired so you want to do less. You worry about making plans and going out because of how you might feel. You don’t want to embarrass yourself or let others down. You don’t feel like seeing people, being active or pursuing your usual hobbies and interests. The less you do the more time you have to overthink. Life can feel like it is shrinking more and more. Some people I’ve worked with only get some temporary relief when they are at home, away from the outside world and with a screen for distraction.

Some everyday habits can fuel anxiety. These may be things that you were always doing but when anxiety strikes, they exacerbate it. Others may be things that have become habitual because of how you have tried to cope with those anxious thoughts and feelings.

Habits are just thoughts, feelings and behaviours that you have repeated over and over in a particular situation. The good news is that if some of your everyday habits are fuelling anxiety then there are practical steps you can take to help you with feeling better.

Anxiety in Ely Help and Support

by Dan Regan | Oct 26, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety in Ely Help and Support

If you are in Ely or Newmarket, and struggling with anxiety, then help and support is available. You can start feeling better.

In my last article, I wrote about the Ely Standard covering my fifteen year milestone as an anxiety therapist in Ely. I’ve been blown away by all the positive feedback I’ve received through messages and on social media. It’s been really lovely to hear from some of my early clients about how well they are continuing to get on after their sessions. Thanks so much for all the positivity and support, I really appreciate it.

This is just a quick article as a reminder that if you are currently struggling with anxiety then help is available. Having been there myself, I know how bad it feels with all those unwanted anxious thoughts and feelings. Yet, however bad it feels right now, you can start feeling better and break that cycle of unwanted thoughts and feelings. No matter how far off it may seem to you right now, you can get to a place where you consistently feel more calm, confident and in control.

That’s what I love helping my clients to achieve and many of them have gone on to leave positive reviews after their sessions. You can find all of these in the review section on this website.

And, if you are struggling right now, do get in touch and ask to book your free initial consultation. You can tell me a bit about how things are for you right now, and I’ll explain how I work and how I can help you. There will also be plenty of time for you to ask me anything you want to know before you decide to go ahead with sessions.

Celebrating 15 Years as an Anxiety Therapist in Ely

by Dan Regan | Oct 22, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Celebrating 15 Years as an Anxiety Therapist in Ely and Newmarket

This month I’m celebrating a business milestone. I’ve reached 15 years as an anxiety therapist in Ely and Newmarket!

It’s hard to believe that it’s now fifteen years! So much has happened yet it also feels like it has just flown by. Apart from a few grey hairs I’ve barely aged at all (there’s no need to reply to that!!).

I’ve been fortunate to have worked with so many amazing people over that time. Having struggled with anxiety in the past (before hypnotherapy helped me), I love helping others to start feeling better. A massive thank you to everyone who has put their trust in me to help them and to everyone who has supported me and left positive reviews afterwards.

The Ely Standard very kindly covered this and you can find a link to that article below.

I’m going to keep on helping people and doing all I can to raise awareness about anxiety and how to take back control over their thoughts and feelings. Whether you struggle with anxiety or something different, you can make positive changes and start feeling better and better in yourself.

Anxiety and Squirrels

by Dan Regan | Oct 20, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety and Squirrels

In this article I’ve got a short video for you. It’s about anxiety and how a squirrel reminded me about a particular aspect of it.

While I was out on my run around Ely the other morning, I had a little encounter with a squirrel. It was a beautiful Autumn morning and I was running through Ely Country Park. All of a sudden there was a whole cacophony of noise and rustling and commotion going on next to me. I didn’t know what was going on!

When faced with a sudden disturbance, it’s no surprise that your mind and body hone in on it and prepare you for action. In the absence of knowing what is going on and what is going to happen, you want to be ready to do something if you need to. These moments can happen now and again. There’s some uncertainty or confusion. You take in a breath, your heart speeds up a bit and you can feel that little bit of adrenaline go through you.

And sometimes when I’m working with people for anxiety in Ely, they tell me how draining, limiting and exhausting their anxiety is. All that overthinking and tension tires you out. It can interfere with your daily life. The little moments of this that come and go aren’t the problem with anxiety. It’s when that spiral of anxious thoughts and feelings seems to go on and on. You think the worst, feel anxious sensations and probably turn to avoiding things.

I’m often asked by an anxiety client about how they can switch off their anxiety and never experience it again. Some tell me they never want to have anxiety, worry or fear about anything ever again, full stop.

The 3-3-3 Rule For Anxiety

by Dan Regan | Oct 19, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

The 3-3-3 Rule For Anxiety

If you struggle with anxiety then you already know how overwhelming it can feel at times. You want some simple strategies to help you to calm your mind and body. That’s where the 3-3-3 rule for anxiety can become part of how you interrupt anxiety and regain focus.

When anxiety takes over, your mind starts to race. You struggle to think clearly. Everything is filled with negativity, thinking the worst and catastrophe. Your chest feels tight, your heart may pound and you feel hot, restless and tense. It can feel like you’ve lost control over your own mind and body. You start to panic even more. You think there may be something seriously wrong with you. Even in calmer moments you find yourself worrying about becoming anxious again.

You get caught up in the cycle of anxiety. You don’t know what to do with yourself or how to think more clearly and calm yourself down. I know how bad it feels because I’ve been there myself. However, as my anxiety clients soon discover, it is possible to calm your mind and body.

Rather than getting caught up in anxiety, you can calm your mind and body. That’s where the 3-3-3- rule for anxiety can become part of your strategy for interrupting anxious thoughts and calming yourself down physically. It’s a simple, grounding technique that can make a difference. It’s effective and easy to remember and apply. You can use it anywhere and at any time.

Why Do You Feel Anxious?

by Dan Regan | Oct 14, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Why Do You Feel Anxious?

Why do you feel anxious?

If you’ve been feeling anxious for no reason then this question may have been going around and around inside your mind. You go over and over past events to try and find an explanation for how anxious you feel right now. Yet you still can’t work out why you feel anxious. It’s frustrating and can make you feel even more stressed and tense.

No matter how much you dwell and overthink, you still feel anxious and it still makes no sense.

Sometimes there is a past event that kick-started your anxiety. Yet more often, your anxiety took hold and became a habit. It could have been a general tendency to worry and think the worst that intensified for some reason. Or maybe a whole series of stressful things were going on and you reach a point that spills over into problematic ways of anxious thinking and feeling.

The problem with trying to work out why you feel anxious is that anxiety isn’t logical and rational. Anxiety is purposeful. Your brain is looking for possible threats to try and keep you safe. Trying to use logic to work it out often just leads to frustration.

As I tell my anxiety hypnotherapy clients, even if you thought you had discovered what caused your anxiety, it doesn’t change how you are feeling right now. That’s why you want to shift your focus from the past and on to the present. By looking at how you are doing your anxiety, and what you are doing, you identify what is driving it. That’s when you can start to intervene by changing your thinking or altering how you feel.

In my short video further down the page, I talk about the question of why you feel anxious. And I cover shifting that focus to what you are doing now that means that your anxiety continues to rumble on and on.

Guided Self Hypnosis For Calm and Confidence

by Dan Regan | Oct 13, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Guided Self Hypnosis For Calm and Confidence

Today I’m sharing a short guided self hypnosis technique for calm and confidence. This fits nicely alongside the strategies I covered in my last article about Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy for anxiety (go check that out if you haven’t already).

Problematic anxiety may be something you’ve always struggled with, or perhaps it is something relatively new. Either way, you struggle with the racing thoughts and overthinking. And with all the uncomfortable feelings that come with it.

You feel stressed and uncertain and your mind and body slip into a pattern of tension, worry and overthinking. The more anxious you feel, the more your thoughts race from one negative thing to another. Those thoughts then worry you even more and create more tension. The more anxious you feel, the harder it becomes to switch off from it.

An effective way to calm anxiety and support your confidence is through self hypnosis. I’ve covered a brief guided self hypnosis script for calm and confidence further down this page. You can use this alongside the other strategies I cover in my articles to start to direct your thoughts and feelings so that you feel better in yourself. Self hypnosis is a natural way to physically relax, quieten your mind and draw upon your capability to reprogramme your mind for positive change.

With regular practice, you can prime your mind to respond to challenges with calmness and confidence instead of stress and tension.

Tackling Anxiety with Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy

by Dan Regan | Oct 12, 2025 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Tackling Anxiety with Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy

In this article, I cover tackling anxiety with Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy.

For some people, it can seem as though their anxiety creeps in when they least expect it. For others, anxiety has been a way of life for too long. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, yet always present.

You know that there is no real, actual danger and nothing for you to actually feel anxious about. Yet your heart races, your mind races faster and your body can feel as if it on high alert. It’s exhausting, and it can leave you feeling as though you’re stuck in an endless loop of tension and worry.

Anxiety isn’t a sign of weakness, failure or something being wrong with you. It’s a learned response that has become habitual. Those patterns of thoughts, feelings and reactions have become automatic through repetition. No matter how long you have struggled with anxiety, there is good news. You can change those patterns and replace them with something more calm and helpful.

This is exactly where my cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy comes in to help you to tackle your anxiety. We will combine the practical tools of cognitive behavioural therapy, helping you challenge and reframe unhelpful thinking, with the relaxation, focused imagination and skills of hypnosis. You can create lasting change that helps you feel better and better. You can calm your mind and body and direct your own thoughts and feelings.

Below, I’ve covered five simple action points that you can start using today to help you relax, refocus, reset and feel calmer.

Take Control Over Alcohol

by Dan Regan | Oct 11, 2025 | Excessive Drinking and Binge Drinking

Take Control Over Alcohol

Is alcohol running your life and ruining your life? Do you find it too hard to cut back and stop when you want to? Do you need to take back control over your alcohol consumption and habits?

I work with so many people who enjoy a drink yet know they need to cut down. Although, in fact, many no longer even enjoy more than the first few sips or that initial first taste. The rest is just habit.

Alcohol impacts upon your health and can help you pile on the pounds. After a couple, you probably don’t want to do anything very productive or worthwhile. You might say or do things you regret and that you then feel guilty for, and apologetic about, afterwards. You fall asleep easily but your sleep quality is poor. You can wake up the next morning feeling a bit lethargic. And you may have found yourself caught on the ceaseless treadmill of habitually drinking in the evenings and weekends.

For many people, alcohol starts to take over their routine. You find yourself looking forward to a drink at the end of the day. Whether it is a stressful day, positive day or somewhere in-between, you easily find a reason to drink. One drink can then lead to another and you may struggle to find the off switch. You fall asleep easily but you know it isn’t good quality sleep. You wake up and feel the effects and get through the day. You probably already know you’ll drink again that evening. It becomes a habit of drinking too much and you struggle to make yourself stop for any length of time.

Whether you want to cut down your alcohol consumption, or you want to quit drinking completely, hypnotherapy can help you find the focus, motivation, persistence and control that you need to put you back in charge of what you drink, when you drink and how much you drink.

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