Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

What Triggers A Panic Attack?

by Dan Regan | Apr 21, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

What Triggers A Panic Attack?

The wave of fear races through you. You feel cold and hot at the same time. You’re frozen to the spot yet also have a restless urge to move. Your heart pounds in your chest and you can feel it beating in your ears. You breathe faster and faster yet still feel like you can’t breathe or get enough air. Your mind races, you can’t think straight, you may feel sick and you feel desperate. If it’s your first panic attack you probably have no idea what is going on and you might well call for an ambulance thinking it’s a heart attack or stroke.

If you’ve ever had a panic attack then you very likely remember it. You may be able to very vividly go back to that time in your mind and certain details will stick out clearly. It may be what you saw, what you heard, the feeling of panic or even a smell that was there at the time. The fear, discomfort and anxiety can loom large in your mind. Some people can recall panic attack details clearly yet don’t have any of the old feeling when they think back. For others, just thinking back on it is like going back in time and experiencing again some of the fear and panic.

I can vividly recall the panic attacks that I used to experience. The wave of panic and cold fear, the frantic feelings and struggle to function normally. There were times I was in tears as the panic took hold and I struggled to even leave the house.

Having experienced a panic attack you can then live in fear and dread of another one happening. It can lead to an ongoing sense of anxiety and worry that can filter into other aspects of your life. You feel anxious that you may have a panic attack, you struggle when one happens and then you feel drained and exhausted afterwards.

Having experienced one panic attack, you may get others that seem to come out of nowhere. This just adds to the uncertainty and fear as you can never be sure what might happen and when. So what triggers a panic attack?

How Long Do Hypnotherapy Results Last?

by Dan Regan | Apr 16, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks, Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

How Long Do Hypnotherapy Results Last?

If you are about to enter therapy then you are going to want to know how long do hypnotherapy results last.

You don’t want to just feel better for a bit, although that would be better than constantly struggling with anxiety. You want to feel better and stay feeling better.

When I work with someone to help them overcome their issue, I want them feeling better and able to stay that way. That’s why I always teach you strategies for managing and being in control over your own thoughts and feelings. That way, no matter what challenges may come your way in the future, you can feel equipped to handle, deal and cope with things rather than being thrown from one problem to another. There are many ways that you can learn that will help you to confidently and capably interrupt, dispute, challenge, amend and move on from unwanted thoughts and feelings.

Alongside these strategies, there are also many hypnosis audios, articles and resources that you can call upon as little, or as often, as you desire or need to after your sessions are completed.

Now, of course, none of us has a crystal ball to predict what our future may hold. Sometimes something so unexpected, upsetting, traumatic or anxiety provoking occurs that it knocks things off track again and you need a little more hypnotherapy help. Yet, in the usual course of things, once you are feeling better then that path of being calm, confident and in control continues consistently, habitually and automatically.

If you’ve looked through the hypnotherapy reviews on my website, you’ll have noticed some talk about how they are continuing feeling better quite some time after their hypnotherapy sessions came to end (because they had achieved their goals). Unlike some hypnotherapists, I don’t ask for feedback just right after a positive session when someone feels better in the moment, I ask after a period of time when their day to day life has been running in the usual way. It’s nice to feel positive and relaxed right after your hypnotherapy session but it’s even better to continue feeling positive and confident as you go through your normal daily life.

So, how long do hypnotherapy results last?

Hypnotherapy As A Treatment for Depression

by Dan Regan | Apr 16, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Hypnotherapy As A Treatment for Depression – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

In this article I’m talking about hypnotherapy as a treatment for depression. Depression, which is often experienced alongside anxiety, is one of the most common forms of mental health problems.

Recently I wrote about the evidence that supports the positive effect of exercise for helping with depression. A systematic review and network meta analysis of randomised controlled trials found that exercise is an effective treatment for depression, with walking or jogging, yoga, and strength training more effective than other exercises, particularly when intense. Yoga and strength training were well tolerated compared with other treatments. Exercise appeared equally effective for people with and without other issues and with different baseline levels of depression. There’s more on that here: Exercise For Depression

Of course, even thinking about exercising, let alone finding the energy and motivation for it, may seem overwhelming whilst in the grip of depression.

Depression can be debilitating and draining. You feel low, hopeless and unhappy. You may have lost interest in things and have become more and more insular. There can be periods of being tearful, tense or frantic. Your sleeping and eating can be adversely affected. And your mind is dominated with worry, catastrophe, anxiety, how bad you feel and the pointlessness of everything. Even more frustratingly, you may know that things in your life are fine and that you really should be happy. Yet you are not and you may not know why you feel the way you do.

How your depression affects you can vary by person. Some people continue to function and, despite their thoughts and feelings, can continue with some usual activities such as work. For others, it leads to feeling unable to function in their usual way. They can be very sedentary and caught up in all the negative thinking. Some people just want to stay in bed or sleep because they can’t face the outside world and normal day to day life. You may drink or smoke more and eat unhealthily, all of which lower your mood further and can impact upon your health.

You feel low in mood, struggle to find pleasure and interest in things and life is dominated by feelings of worthlessness and worry.

You have hopefully been to see your doctor and you may have been prescribed anti-depressants. This may help a little or a lot. Yet the same depressive thinking patterns and troublesome feelings and emotions continue to lurk unabated.

Does Hypnotherapy Work For Anxiety?

by Dan Regan | Apr 15, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Does Hypnotherapy Work For Anxiety?

Does hypnotherapy work for anxiety? If you are struggling with anxiety right now then you will desperately want to find a way to help you to feel better. All of those anxious thoughts and feelings dominate your life and you crave some sense of relief from it all.

You may have tried all sorts of things already. You may have cut down on caffeine, increased your exercise, tried some over the counter herbal supplements and listened to dozens of podcasts and videos about anxiety on the internet. For others, their anxiety is just so overwhelming and all consuming that even trying to think about doing anything is too much. Yet no matter what you may have tried, those anxious thoughts continue to spiral and those anxious feelings make you feel worse and worse.

Anxiety has a way of growing and growing. The more anxious you feel, the more those worst case and catastrophic scenarios race through your mind. And the more those anxious thoughts fill your mind, the worse your anxious feelings get. Anxiety can tightly take a firm hold of you, squeeze the joy out of your life and escalate your negative sensations. You start to dread feeling anxious because of how bad it makes you feel and you worry about being anxious. And the whole while, your anxiety makes you feel worse and worse.

There are many misconceptions about hypnotherapy out there and if you’ve never been to a hypnotherapist you may have only a vague idea of what is involved (which is why I offer a free consultation so we can meet and chat through things). Sadly, much of the information on the internet is confusing and incomplete too.

In essence, hypnotherapy is about learning how to take back control over your thoughts and feelings using normal psychological processes to achieve positive results. We all work on habit, pattern and repetition and right now that anxiety cycle is just running and running. You feel anxious in certain places and situations which is unpleasant enough. You then start to feel anxious and dread those thoughts and feelings happening again. After situations in which you feel anxious, you may ruminate and dwell upon things and feel bad. The whole time the cycle of anxiety grows stronger and it becomes harder and harder to try and find some relief from it all. You may very well just want to stay safe at home, lock the door and close the curtains.

Overcome Anxiety By Occupying Your Brain

by Dan Regan | Apr 6, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Overcome Anxiety By Occupying Your Brain

A problematic aspect of anxiety is how one initial anxious thought can soon spiral into a whole string of worst case scenarios. An anxious thought gains momentum inside your head and soon you are absorbed with negative outcomes and consequences. And the more time you spend thinking anxiously, the more those anxious feelings increase. This then feeds and powers even more anxious thinking as your mind scans for all the potential threats and dangers that may await you.

Very quickly you can feel very bad, filled with dread and all you can focus upon is the anxiety running away inside your mind. Anxious thoughts lead to anxious feelings and anxious feelings lead to more anxious thoughts. Very quickly your anxiety can engulf you and dominate your mind.

Anything that can break, or even just interrupt, this spiral is going to be very helpful as part of how you manage and seek to overcome your anxiety.

The other day I was watching a repeat episode of the old TV series Outnumbered. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a couple trying to raise their three children and all the trials, tribulations and chaos that can come with trying to manage work and family life. It is pretty funny and even more so when you can point at the TV and tell your teenage daughter how she used to do some similar things to the young children in the show (like endlessly delaying bedtime and trying to get out of eating vegetables!).

During one dinner table scene, to try and distract the kids who are getting restless, the mother starts a game of fortunately/unfortunately. As far as I can work out the first person starts a sentence with ‘fortunately’ and describes something good in a made up story and the next person starts their sentence with ‘unfortunately’ and describes something problematic linked to what has been said previously (e.g. Fortunately there was a chair for me to sit down on, unfortunately the chair was actually a monster from outer space who started chasing me etc).

This was one way of occupying children that I hadn’t come across before or used with my kids when they were younger. And it reminded me of the value of having effective ways of occupying your mind as part of overcoming anxiety.

Calm Your Brain in the Evening – Hypnosis Download

by Dan Regan | Apr 2, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Calm Your Brain in the Evening – Hypnosis Download

Do you struggle to calm your brain in the evening? After a busy day it can be hard to switch off from all of that thinking and the mental buzz so that you can just relax.

You may have thoughts and emotions from work that persist long after you’ve clocked off. Perhaps issues with the kids cause you to overthink and ruminate long into the night. Or it could be any range of other thoughts and feelings that continue to occupy your mind when you just don’t want, or don’t need, to be thinking about them. It can get frustrating and stressful in its own right because you just want to unwind, relax and enjoy your evening more peacefully.

Instead of being able to calm your brain and relax, you carry around the effects and impacts of the day. You can go over things that happened, or that might happen. You can replay, ruminate and relive certain situations and interactions. You can start giving meaning to things, over analysing, overthinking and becoming more and more wound up. Maybe you even find yourself telling others all about your day and extending those unwanted thoughts and feelings long into the evening.

Maybe it just spoils your evening and the time you have for yourself or with significant others. Maybe your brain is so crowded you don’t get things done that you’d planned to accomplish. It can take the enjoyment out of the time you have for yourself. And it could be that your sleep is affected as you lie there in bed still internally regurgitating your day and the next day to come.

If you struggle with anxiety, stress or overthinking late into the day, and you just want to calm your brain, then my Evening Calmness hypnosis download may be just what you need.

Anxiety At Work – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Apr 1, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety At Work – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

If you struggle with anxiety at work it can have a massive detrimental impact upon your mental health. Given how much time you spend at work, that anxiety can lead to dread before work and anxious thoughts and feelings when working (if you can make it in). You can be gripped by a sense of fear and worry that spreads into every aspect of your life.

Only recently there have been many stories in the press about people who struggle with occupational stress and anxiety. This can lead to missing work along with all the anxiety that comes with not working. Yet the anxiety about work can be so overwhelming that you just can’t face it. And if you do go in then it becomes an emotional and draining battle.

Those unwanted thoughts and feelings may be related to specific people, situations and tasks in your work. Or it may be that your anxiety has completely taken over all of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours associated with your work. You struggle to focus and you can feel agitated and tense, with your mind racing through all sorts of worst case scenarios. You can struggle to switch off and that then filters into your relationships and ability to enjoy things you usually do. Your appetite gets affected, you withdraw and you can struggle with sleep. Everything just get harder and harder.

When you are anxious you struggle to think clearly and it may feel like quitting your job is the only option available to you. Yet even that brings worry because you would need to find something else and you may worry about feeling well enough to tackle that challenge, especially as your confidence has diminished. Or you may love your job and want to stay yet the anxiety is stopping you from being productive and doing what you know you really want to be doing.

I’ve helped people who struggle with anxiety in relation to a particular colleague and their dealings with them. It’s also certainly possible to overcome anxiety issues around meetings and presenting. And many people have found that they can come out of more general anxiety about work. Sometimes that anxiety just creeps in and grows, there may have been a specific incident or issues from outside of work may have taken over into all of your life.

However those anxious thoughts and feelings are negatively impacting upon your work and your life, it is very possible to overcome your anxiety.

Are You Using Alcohol To Cope With Anxiety?

by Dan Regan | Mar 30, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Are You Using Alcohol To Cope With Anxiety?

Has alcohol become the way you try to cope with your anxiety? What may have started out as a way to try and relax or to numb the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can soon start to create more and more problems in your life.

It’s definitely not uncommon with people I work with, and in the wider community, for alcohol to be used as a way of trying to switch off from thinking and to try and quieten your mind for a bit. Many people have a drink or two in the evening just for this purpose. Having used this external means to change how they feel for so long, without that drink, all the stress, anxiety and overthinking can soon take over.

Alcohol can have this sort of calming effect but it can come at a cost. The quality of your sleep can diminish making it harder to deal with things the next day. Those empty calories can also have an impact on your health and your waist line. And, of course, that crutch to reply on means you never find effective ways to be able to manage your own thoughts and feelings successfully.

As happens with most substances, that need for a drink can creep up and up. To try and get the same effect of switching off from anxious thoughts and feelings you can find yourself consuming more alcohol. You can find that you reach for that drink to cope with any other difficult feelings too, such as any feelings of lowness and stress. Sometimes, even after your anxiety has calmed, the drinking habit persists. You know it’s a depressant, you know that it can exacerbate anxiety and you know it doesn’t help solve any problems yet that pattern still happens whether you want it to or not. And still you may not have found the healthier and more beneficial coping strategies that you need when you don’t or can’t drink for some reason.

Back when I struggled with anxiety and low self-esteem, alcohol would be my way of seeking to calm down the anxiety so I could try and relax and enjoy myself socially.

Anxiety and The Jekyll and Hyde Effect

by Dan Regan | Mar 26, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety and The Jekyll and Hyde Effect – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

You are more than likely already familiar with the story of Jekyll and Hyde. In many ways the theme of the story can mirror the experience of anxiety. Certainly when I used to struggle with anxiety and social anxiety, I often felt like I was split into two people, like I could be two seemingly contrasting personalities in the situations I encountered. Sometimes I would be calm, relaxed and comfortable in myself. And yet in other situations I would seemingly transform into a tense, withdrawn, anxious shadow of how I perceived myself.

In the famous novel, which is certainly worth a read, Dr Jekyll is a successful and well respected man. Through his experiments he produces a concoction that transforms him into the evil, unscrupulous Mr Hyde. Ultimately, the Mr Hyde aspect of his personality becomes the stronger and more powerful aspect of his personality. It’s a theme and story line that has been repeated many, many times in various movies and books.

Now, with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde there is a battle between good and evil, right and wrong. With anxiety, the battle comes between the calmer, clear thinking side of you and the anxious side of you that can overwhelm how you feel.

When you are in a place or situation where you feel comfortable, you can be calm, relaxed and positive as you think clearly and logically. And then, sometimes predictably and sometimes unexpectedly, your anxiety takes over and you may try to avoid or escape the situation along with experiencing all sorts of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. You can start to worry about your anxiety happening again and you may dwell upon how bad you feel in those moments when you are anxious and uncomfortable. Because anxiety feels so bad, you can start thinking about what if it happens again, perhaps especially during important moments or when around others.

Anxiety works upon habit, pattern and repetition. When you go into a place or situation where you have been anxious before, your brain tends to repeat the thoughts and feelings that you had the last time you were in that similar situation. Sometimes this is helpful, other times less so. With anxiety, your mind becomes primed for your anxious thoughts and feelings to kick back in. And because your mind works on patterns, anything that is perceived to be anything like a previous anxious occasion or thing, will lead to your anxiety striking again. You logically know you are safe and okay yet your ability to think clearly gets swamped by your physical feelings and urge to get away.

Your anxiety can seem to spread into more and more areas of your life as all the worry, anxiety and stress become attached to more and more people, places, environments and situations.

IBS: Reducing The Risk of IBS Symptoms

by Dan Regan | Mar 5, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks, Dan's Blog

IBS: Reducing The Risk of IBS Symptoms

IBS symptoms can be totally frustrating. If you’ve been diagnosed with IBS then you’ve probably had all sorts of tests that have ruled everything else out. You may have had to struggle on with your symptoms for month after month and one intrusive test after another only to be told that it’s probably IBS. You may have tried restrictive food regimes to try and work out triggers, and you may know many food triggers, yet there is always the risk of IBS symptoms occurring at other times too.

It can all start to take over your life. I’ve worked with clients who won’t eat before they go out or while out in case their IBS strikes. You may find yourself worrying about where there are toilets and even limiting the places you will go to those you can be sure have adequate and clean toilets. Or maybe you end up cancelling plans because the stress and risk of the embarrassment from an episode is too great. You might be able to recall a few near miss occasions in the past and these loom large in your mind as a warning of future risks.

All this stress and anxiety around the risk of IBS symptoms striking is even before you deal with the discomfort and pain when your IBS is at its worst. I’ve known of sufferers who have to get up early to allow for time on the toilet, who can spend such a long time on the toilet or who have to habitually make many repeat visits to the toilet. All the discomfort, stress, anxiety and worry limits your life and leads to worrying about potential worst case scenarios. And, because stress and anxiety can trigger IBS, you can easily get caught in a loop of worry, discomfort and pain and then more anxiety.

Only recently I was working with an IBS client who would get anxious before going to work and who needed to spend ages sitting on the toilet. There was constant anxiety that the IBS may strike when at work and that disaster would ensue. Another client would look online for toilet information before agreeing to go anywhere with friends and who would worry about going away on holiday.

The positive news is that hypnotherapy has a strong evidence base for helping with both the IBS symptoms themselves, and the anxiety and stress that goes with IBS. IBS can’t be cured but you can manage it effectively in a way where you are able to be happy and enjoy life. You can reduce the stress and anxiety about the risk of IBS symptoms arising that can contribute to a greater likelihood of that then happening.

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