Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety Disorders – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jan 5, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Anxiety Disorders – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

The level of anxiety disorders that are recognised and diagnosed seems to continue to rise and rise. More and more people are sadly struggling with anxiety, and within the plethora of possible treatments and ways forward, it can be tough to be sure that you are making the best decision that you can. Luckily, we have an increasing body of scientific research and evidence that can point you in the direction of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders.

Rather than having to endure all of those never ending anxious thoughts that race through your mind, and having to struggle with all of those uncomfortable anxious feelings, it is possible to learn how to take back control over your thoughts, feelings, action and reactions. In fact, you can come out of the other side of your treatment even better equipped with tools, strategies and the self-belief you need to handle, deal and cope with any future challenges you may face too.

Cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnosis grew out of a shared therapeutic background so it is unsurprising if I call upon aspects of each when helping people with their anxiety. By drawing up the most helpful approaches that are tailored to your own needs, you can move forwards past anxiety and start feeling better again.

As I describe below, hypnotherapy has strong evidence to support its effectiveness as a treatment for anxiety, and adding hypnosis to your cognitive behavioural therapy has been demonstrated to increase positive outcomes.

And here I’m taking a quick look at research into the long term effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety related disorders.

Hypnosis During Pregnancy and Childbirth – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jan 5, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Hypnosis During Pregnancy and Childbirth – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

With my eldest just turning fifteen and with both of my kids now at college, the pregnancy and childbirth for both of them should feel like a long time ago (they grow up so fast as we like to say!). Yet, I can still remember the entire experience of pregnancy and childbirth like it was just a few days ago.

There was the worry, anxiety, stress and hope that all would be ok and that they would be born healthy and well (especially as we had sadly suffered a miscarriage along our journey to parenthood). There was the whole birthing process and the tiredness and anticipation of waiting for the little one to come along. And then the turmoil as you try and work out what to do with a new baby in the house and how to try and stay on top of everything as you build new routines and try to cope with interrupted sleep, feeding and nappies whilst also managing work and life at the same time.

I often work with women during pregnancy and through childbirth and throughout the adjustment to parenthood stages. They may be struggling with anxiety and a sense of overwhelm. There may be anxiety about health, about being in hospital and coping with the birthing process, and about how well they think they will cope with having the responsibility of a new born to look after. There is no doubt that there are a lot of demands, challenges and things to learn through pregnancy and into parenthood (as well as a lot of love, happiness and joy, of course!!). And, of course, the change in roles and routines can equally have an impact upon fathers too as they also need to adjust through the pregnancy process and into being a new father.

A Quick Strategy For Anxious Overthinking – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Dec 22, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

A Quick Strategy For Anxious Overthinking – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

If you struggle with anxiety then you’ll be all too familiar with the overthinking that takes over your thinking and that leads to you feeling more and more tense and on edge. All of that anxious overthinking drives your focus and attention towards all sorts of possible worst case scenarios and other catastrophic outcomes.

And even though you know that a lot of those thoughts aren’t rational or logical, that doesn’t stop them from going around and around inside of your head.

There are many, many strategies for calming anxious feelings and interrupting unwanted anxious thoughts. In this short video I share one strategy that you can all upon to bring your focus back to the present moment and to move your time, focus and energy away from all those imagined future possibilities.

Anxiety and Worrying What Other People Think – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 29, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety and Worrying What Other People Think – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

When I used to struggle with social anxiety, my life was dominated by the overarching, and ever present, worry about what other people think.

Anxious thoughts and feelings about being judged negatively, making an idiot of myself or somehow failing in the eyes of others, would lead to overthinking, anxiety and avoidance. I would worry about everything, from how I looked and dressed, to how I moved and to what I said and did.

At school, I would get out of anything in the limelight if I could in any way do so, I would hesitate at speaking up, or giving an opinion, and I would struggle in groups. It dogged me through my teens and well into my thirties. There were even periods when I struggled to force myself out of the house, and, when out, I would be almost paranoid that people were looking at me, mocking me and judging me.

Somehow I made it through education and into the work place and into management despite my worry, anxiety and fear. Yet it was never a smooth journey or an entirely comfortable one. Certain tasks, people and places were fine, others left me feeling awkward, uncomfortable, unable to think clearly and wanting to just escape to somewhere more comfortable for me.

And although that anxiety is now long gone, that same anxiety and worry about what other people think is a regular theme that comes up time and time again when I’m working with people.

Controlling Unwanted Thoughts – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 22, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Controlling Unwanted Thoughts – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

As well as all of the uncomfortable feelings of anxiety, worry and stress, it is often the constant stream of anxious thoughts that causes the most distress.

You may find your thoughts racing off in all sorts of negative directions. You find yourself thinking the worst, catastrophising and overthinking everything. You feel mentally exhausted, making it even harder to deal and cope with your thoughts. They follow you around inside of your head, turning everything into anxiety, dread, fear and worry.

And you may very well find yourself stuck in the negative spiral and cycle where your anxious thoughts lead to anxious feelings increasing. And all of those anxious feelings lead your thinking towards the source of all the worry and dread and you find yourself imagining and thinking about things getting worse and worse. That cycle of thoughts increasing feelings, and feelings increasing thoughts can start to become more and more habitual, persistent and distressing. Your anxiety can start to pervade into all areas of your life as you worry about things going badly or wrong in some way.

There are many ways you may try to deal with your unwanted anxious thoughts. You may try and distract yourself and aim to avoid thinking about those things (although you probably find they still come into your head again in quieter moments). You may go through a gruelling battle inside your own mind as you battle with the anxiety generated thoughts. Or you may simply find yourself lost in the never ending flow of anxious thoughts as they spiral from one thing to another and one worst case to another catastrophe of some kind.

As well as many of the strategies I’ve covered before for dealing with anxiety and anxious thoughts, an approach that is quite common within hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy is to start to learn how to challenge, dispute and undermine those thoughts and, in so doing, to calm your anxiety and take back control over what goes on inside of your own head.

Mindfulness For Anxiety and Depression – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 14, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Mindfulness For Anxiety and Depression – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Anxiety and depression are two of the main things that people come to see me for help with. All of those unhelpful thoughts and feelings can feel overwhelming, impact upon all areas of your life and leave you feeling stuck, low and full of distress.

In conjunction with other coping mechanisms and strategies, hypnotherapy has an excellent track record and body of evidence to support it’s effectiveness for helping you with anxiety and depression. By learning how to take control over your own thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions, you can start to alleviate your symptoms and feel more comfortable inside of your own mind.

Alongside hypnotherapy, mindfulness can also be very effective for anxiety and depression. Something that certainly exacerbates how bad you feel are all the negative and worrying thoughts that seem to dominate your mind. It’s like your brain always finds something to feel anxious, low or fearful about. And all of the ceaseless negative thinking can feel more and more draining and exhausting for you, leading you to withdraw from the things you might usually do and enjoy. In some cases, you might even start to fear the thoughts that go through your own mind and wonder if you will ever be able to feel better.

Yet, by developing your skills, through hypnotherapy and mindfulness, you can start to feel more calm and comfortable in yourself. You can learn how to feel more at peace inside of your own mind and how to notice your thoughts without engaging with them or responding negatively to them. By doing so, not only will you start to reduce the volume of problematic thoughts you experience, you will also be more and more able to let thoughts come and go and manage what goes on side of your own mind.

Self Compassion and Social Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 8, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Self Compassion and Social Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

When I used to struggle with social anxiety, perhaps one of the most detrimental things I used to do came from the excessive level to which I would be hard, negative and harsh upon myself. Never mind what anyone else was thinking (probably nothing if we are honest), I would chastise, criticise and berate myself over any slight perceived failing or embarrassment. If I felt I’d said something stupid, done something not quite perfectly, or if I missed the opportunity to do something positive, then that self-critical inner voice would be there.

And, swith social anxiety, that inner voice and the way we communicate with ourselves, probably won’t stop with just the current perceived self-failing. In my case, it will probably then also drag out a whole load of the other past mistakes and other justifications for considering myself to be a failure, stupid or an idiot in some way. A lack of self compassion, self encouragement and support can easily exacerbate and consolidate that social anxiety and the worries about failing or being judged negatively by others.

A lack of self compassion and kindness to yourself, and a habitual tendency towards self-criticism and negative self judgements, can feed your ongoing social anxiety and contribute to more generalised anxiety, lowness, perfectionism and low self esteem.

Yet, of course, just because your social anxiety patterns of thinking and feeling currently lead to worry, negativity and lowness, doesn’t mean that you are stuck that way. It is possible to learn how to be more balanced and rational in your own thoughts and feelings towards yourself, to even encourage yourself sometimes, to recognise that sometimes things do go awry and to to feel more comfortable in your own skin so that you can be more relaxed around other people.

Information Needs Among People with Depression and Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Aug 5, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Information Needs Among People with Depression and Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Perhaps one of the challenging things about struggling with anxiety and depression comes from the uncertainty, the unknown and the fear that something is wrong with you. On top of that, there is the worry and dread that all of those unwanted thoughts and feelings may be things that endure and that you will have to always struggle with.

Anxiety and depression can fill your head with all sorts of worrying, fearful and stressful thoughts. These exacerbate all of the bad, uncomfortable and unwanted feelings you are experiencing, and in turn, those feelings add to even more of those unwanted thoughts that crowd your head. Even things that might ordinarily seem like little things, can get magnified and amplified inside your head until they seem like great battles to face and challenges to try and overcome.

To compound matters, you may find yourself withdrawing from your usual activities and from your friends, giving you yet more time to think and less to be distracted by. You may find your appetite is affected, that you drink more alcohol or caffeine and that you struggle to sleep. These things mean you are more stressed, agitated and tired, making everything seem much harder and burdensome (which adds even more unwanted and troublesome thoughts and feelings to the mass of things you are struggling with).

One of the most common early steps when you are struggling with your thoughts and feelings is to turn to the internet and try and work out what it is that you are experiencing. You just want to understand what is happening to you and what you can do to try and feel a bit better. You are worried that something is seriously wrong with you so it’s only natural to try and work out what it could be and how serious it is.

Unfortunately, within the mix of anxiety and depression information online, there are also many potential pitfalls, filled with inaccuracy and misleading information, that can exacerbate your worry, anxiety and stress. And there are many types of information about your anxiety and depression that you may seek out.

Using Music to Help With Anxiety and Stress – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jul 21, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Using Music to Help With Anxiety and Stress – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Can music help you to be able to better handle, deal and cope with your anxiety and stress? We all encounter music of some kind every day, whether it’s on TV, a film soundtrack, listening to the radio, playing your playlist, hearing someone sing, overhearing someone else’s music, or some other form of music that you encounter during your day.

Several days a week my day starts with exercise and listening to the accompanying music selected by the trainer (much of which is of a dubious quality in my opinion!). I use music through the day to support the hypnosis work I do with people and there will probably be some sort of music going on when I get home, whether that’s from the TV or one of my children singing.

As it happens, only recently one of my girls was part of a choir that put on a celebratory musical performance at a local theatre. I love the way that kids just sing with a smile of their faces and a real sense of positivity and enjoyment. Throughout the various acts and songs at the show you could sense the fun, energy and excitement coming from each and every person involved, which added to the enjoyment of us watching them. Certainly my daughter is always buzzing from the experience afterwards. One of the songs they performed was ‘Happy Together’ by the Turtles, and now if anyone in our house says the word ‘imagine’ (the first word in the song) they can expect to person they are talking to to break out into a rendition of the song.

Before the performance started there was a video on loop showing interviews with some of the kids where they described how important music was to them. And one of the key themes was about how music can help you to deal with stress, to feel better after a bad day and how it can help lift your mood. I know from my own music listening, as well as playing the guitar, that when you get engrossed in music then you are often just there in that moment and other thoughts and other mental noise fades away and can diminish.

When someone is anxious, stressed or depressed they often describe to me how they have lost their love of music or have stopped listening to the things they used to enjoy. They are focused on the negative and unwanted thoughts and feelings, and in doing so, often get caught in an increasing spiral of worry and negativity. And sometimes if we do listen to music then we match it to our mood so that when you are happy then you will likely play happy, upbeat tracks and when you feel sad you play slower, sadder songs. Again, this can magnify, reinforce and amplify how you are feeling (helpfully or less helpfully).

So what is the impact of music if you want to alleviate your symptoms of stress and anxiety?

Health Anxiety and Online Health Information Seeking – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jul 4, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Health Anxiety and Online Health Information Seeking – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Health anxiety has always been a common type of anxiety that I help people with. In these days where things like heart issues and cancer are likely to have affected someone you know, and where our media is full of warnings about symptoms and requests for donations from health charities describing their work, someone with health anxiety can find that their worries and fears are never far from the forefront of their mind.

People with health anxiety describe to me how any physical symptom can start an anxious spiral that takes over and leads to excessive anxiety and worry about their health, along with fears about the impacts that would be there if they couldn’t work or needed care, or about how their family and others would cope if they died. That health anxiety can attach to any ache or pain, can be fired off by hearing of someone else’s health condition, or can be a sense of fear of dread about what if something was to happen.

And, of course, the physical symptoms you experience from health anxiety and worry can lead to heart palpitations, aches from being tense, a tight chest and other anxious symptoms. These physical sensations then in turn add more fuel to your anxiety as you worry that these are the signs of something being seriously wrong with you. That can then lead to you feeling even more anxious, experiencing even more anxious overthinking and feeling even worse.

The excessive worry from health anxiety can be about the likelihood of possibility of illness or a negative health issue, a heightened awareness and worry about bodily sensations and a sense of catastrophising that a physical sensation (even a normal bodily sensation) is something threatening and dangerous.

The pandemic with all of it’s warnings, uncertainty, fear and information (as well as mis-information) certainly exacerbated health anxiety for many people. Particularly in the early days when everything was unclear and there were pictures of hospital beds full of sick people and daily reports of high levels of illness and death. Now, of course, there can still be worry about covid and long covid, what could happen if you got ill and a worry about any physical symptoms you may notice. And alongside this, there are the ever present risks and dread of cancer, heart disease, heart attacks and so on that for someone with health anxiety can surface and be triggered by anything health related.

And these days, someone with health anxiety is likely to head over to the internet to search out information about what they are feeling and experiencing. Now the internet can be a fantastic resource for finding out about all sorts of things, yet, as anyone who has ever done it knows, relying on ‘Dr Google’ and trying to self diagnose online can easily become problematic and counter productive.

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