Anxiety Disorders and how to deal with anxiety
According to a review led by the University of Cambridge into anxiety disorders, women and people under the age of 35 are at greatest risk of anxiety.
In fact, the review found that women are more than twice as likely as men to experience anxiety disorders.
The review also estimates that four in every one hundred people have anxiety – with more than 60 million people across the EU affected by anxiety disorders every year.
So what does this really tell us? It certainly doesn’t tell us more research is needed (as I’m sure will be suggested) and it certainly does imply, as I’ve suggested before, that relying on the current approach of dishing out anti-depressants and formulaic CBT therapy is unlikely to ever make inroads into the modern day epidemic of anxiety disorders.
And the research is pretty meaningless if you are one of the thousands of people struggling with anxiety. So what can you do to deal with your anxiety effectively?
How To Overcome Anxiety Disorders
People with anxiety disorders struggle with worry, dread, fear and panic. This could be around specific situations, such as social situations, or it could be a constant stream of never ending worry, worst case scenarios, tension, dread and fear.
It may affect your relationships, friendships, career and self esteem. Your anxiety may keep you awake at night, may exhaust you and you may just want to stay at home for fear of all that unpleasant anxiety striking you.
The University of Cambridge report just indicates yet again what most of us know – that anxiety disorders are common and cause misery. Whether you are a man or woman, young or old and whatever your background, anxiety can still take over your life and stop you moving forward and enjoying things.
BUT, however hopeless it may feel right now, and however many things you have already tried, there are things you can start doing from today that will start to diminish that anxiety and start to carve a wedge of well-being into the gloom of anxiety.
5 Ways To Deal With Anxiety
1) Find Some Mental Space
Anxiety has a way of feeling any vacuum in your thoughts with thoughts or disaster, dread and gloom. You may be able to distract yourself for a while yet soon enough back come those thoughts.
So start finding a way to take a little bit of time off from the anxiety.
An anxious mind is one that is on edge, on alert and ready for action so use mindfulness techniques or self hypnosis to calm your mind down and relearn calmness and control.
To help you with this I’ve recorded a free Rapid Relaxation hypnosis audio that you can download for free right now.
2) Respond To The Signal
Anxiety is a state of alert where your body gets ready for action – all those symptoms of getting hot, sweaty, feeling on edge and shakey etc are your body responding to perceived threats by preparing to fight or flee.
So give your body an outlet for all that adrenaline and tension by getting out for a ten minute brisk walk every day.
Or maybe you used to enjoy some other sort of exercise such as going to the gym or a fitness class before anxiety made you stop. If so, push yourself back into it. Usually it is the thought of ‘what if this or that?’ beforehand that causes the problems and once you get exercising and back into it you’ll feel much better for it.
3) Challenge Those Thoughts
Often people who come to me for help with anxiety disorders tell me that their brain never switches off and goes flying from one worst case scenarios to another. Using the hypnosis audio and walking more (points 1 and 2 above) will help shed some light into those thoughts.
Yet you can also challenge those thoughts yourself. Just because anxiety creates them in your head, it doesn’t mean you have to listen to them or buy into them.
So start noticing exactly what you are imagining – how likely is it really? What evidence do you have for it actually? What else might happen that wouldn’t be so bad or would be ok? Are you just making it up in your head?
4) The Anxiety Reliever
For many the best ‘in the moment anxiety-reliever is learning how to control their breathing.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Just make sure your out breath is longer than your in breath and repeat a few times. This will start up your natural relaxation response and quickly calm you down in the space of a few breaths.
5) Shift Your Focus
Anxiety can lead you to focus on everything that is wrong or that could go wrong.
To start to weaken this thinking habit, take time every day to focus on what is going well, what is going ok or just things you are grateful for in your life. An effective way to do this is to think of three things first thing in the morning that you are looking forward to that day and then, every night, look back on three things that went well.
To strengthen this, use the free Rapid Relaxation download and while you feel relaxed, play back things that went well or look ahead, whilst feeling calm, to what you do want to happen and how you do want to feel.
Help To Overcome Anxiety Disorders
If you would like to learn more about how I can help you overcome your anxiety disorder then get in touch today and ask to book your free consultation. Your free consultation is a chance for both of us to learn more about and work out an effective way to help you get freedom from your anxiety.
To your success
Dan Regan
Anxiety Help Ely, Newmarket, Skype
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 dozens of other people have said after their hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Testimonials
And check out these powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you right away with anxiety, confidence and more: Hypnosis Downloads
Reference:
A systematic review of reviews on the prevalence of anxiety disorders in adult populations
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