Julie Leatherland Clinical Therapist

Telephone: 01604 712 809 or 0777 603 1332

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Anxiety, Fears & Phobias and Panic

              
 
 
 The word anxiety is derived from the Latin word 'angere' meaning to choke, or strangle.
 
 Anxiety is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, worry and panic. These disorders affect how we feel and behave, and they can manifest real physical symptoms. Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, while severe anxiety can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life.

People often experience a general state of worry or fear before confronting something challenging such as a test, examination, recital, or interview. These feelings are easily justified and considered normal. Anxiety is considered a problem when symptoms interfere with a person's ability to sleep or otherwise function. Generally speaking, anxiety occurs when a reaction is out of proportion with what might be normally expected in a situation.

 

Anxiety Disorders can be classified into several more specific types.
The most common are briefly described below.
 
  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
  • Seperation Anxiety Disorder.
  • Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD).
  • Social Anxiety Disorder.
  • Specific Phobias.
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Agoraphobia.
  • Panic Disorder 

  

What are common symptoms of anxiety?

People with anxiety disorders present a variety of physical symptoms in addition to non-physical symptoms that characterise the disorders such as excessive, unrealistic worrying.  Many of these symptoms are similar to those exhibited by a person suffering general illness, heart attack, or stroke, and this tends to further increase anxiety, by thinking they are seriously ill.

 

The following is a list of physical symptoms associated with anxiety disorders:

  • Trembling
  • Churning stomach / "Butterflies" in stomach
  • Nausea
  • Diarrhea
  • Headache
  • Backache
  • Heart palpitations
  • Numbness or "pins and needles" in arms, hands or legs
  • Sweating/flushing
  • Restlessness
  • Easily tired
  • Trouble concentrating
  • Confusion
  • Irritability
  • Muscle tension
  • Frequent urination
  • Trouble falling or staying asleep
  • Being easily startled
     
     

 

Help is on hand!
Clinical Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, EFT and the Bach Flower Remedies are all excellent tools for helping clients overcome their anxiety, panic, fears and phobias.
 
We start by helping you to explore and find the "root cause"  or the Initial Sensiting Event 
(the the thing, situation or event that started it all off in the first place),  which drives or triggers  your anxiety, panic, fear or phobia. 
Once we have found what the "root cause" is, and where it stems from, this will allow you to view it and experience it from a different perspective.  This in turn will make you respond in a different way, and this will take away the anxiety and fear provoking responses of the past once and for all. 
 
If you think about it: if we take away the thing that makes you feel anxious or scared, and you see it for what it is, you then have nothing to feel anxious or scared about anymore.
 
Tools in the box
Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy are excellent tools for exploring the past in a very gentle but powerful way, and are great tools  for finding out the "root cause" of where your anxiety, panic and fear stems from.
 
You will also learn effective relaxation rechniques. These techniques will teach you  how to manage your stress levels more effectively. This in turn will increase your sense of wellbeing, and bring feelings of calm and a sense of balance into your life.
 
You will also learn under Pycho-Education, about the body's archiac "fight and flight " response which is the primary physical reactor in anxiety, panic and fear. By understanding your body's responses during an anxiey or panic attack will take away the fear and thinking that you are ill, going mad or having a heart attack! 
 
You will learn and practice distraction techniques in order for you to focus your mind on something other than your symptoms and what’s going on inside.
 
You will practice positive mental attitude, and to explore your life when you have overcome your anxiety, fear or panic.
 
EFT is an excellent technique for releasing "blocked" negative thoughts, feelings and emotions in a very gentle, but powerful way.
 
The Bach Flower Remedies are particularly good for dealing with negative mental and emotional states such as: grief, loss, change, bereavement, loneliness, despair, shyness, anxiety, panic, lack of confidence, known & unknown fears, phobias, anger, sadness just to name a few. 
 
All these tried and tested positive and beneficial techniques will enable you to have new emotional responses and outlook on life.   These will help YOU  'update'  the brain with a new, more realistic responses and will help you to move on forward. 

 

 

 

Contact Julie today to book your 30 minute, FREE no obligation consultation

 

What is a fear or phobia?

Fantasy  Envisaged   As    Real

 

Fears and phobias are common - over 10% of people experience a simple phobia at some time or another. From elevators, spiders and birds, to heights, dentists and being in enclosed spaces, there is nothing we can't develop anxiety or phobias about. 

We feel fearful when we believe we do not have the ability to cope with something.  This fear may be grounded in reality, as when we fear being knocked down by a car when trying to cross a busy road. Or the fear may be irrational as when we fear a tiny harmless spider.  Many of our fears are a mix of reality and misinterpretation of our ability to cope. When there is a large degree of of misinterpretation it is likely that it is a phobia rather than a fear.

What is a phobia?

A phobia is a mainly irrational fear of something.  It is not an illness. It is not a mental disorder. Nor is it a lack of will-power, or 'moral fibre', or determination. 

A phobia can make one's life miserable, cause embarrassment, and undermine self confidence and self esteem. 

A common phobic response is ... "I know I am being stupid / silly / mad but I can't ...." 

 The types of phobias

  • Simple Phobias: fear of a single stimulus such as fear of heights, ladders, frogs, enclosed places, etc.
  • Complex Phobias: a fear of a number of stimuli. In fear of flying, for example, the person may be afraid of crashing, being enclosed in the plane, losing self control etc.
  • Social Phobias: simply put, this means you are afraid of what might occur when in the company of other people, for example, fear of blushing, losing self control, forgetting what you are about to say, fear of trembling, etc.
  • Panic attacks: a panic attack can be a quite terrifying ordeal unless you understand what is going on and why it is going on. Panics are very common and appear to mainly affect people who normally give the impression of being confident, reliable and dependable.
  • Agoraphobia: Literally 'fear of the market place' and, up to a decade or so ago, the term was used to describe people who were afraid of open spaces. 'Agoraphobia' is now used to describe those who experience increasing nervousness the further they travel from their own home. In severe cases they may not venture from home at all.

 

There are well over 350 documented phobias, and the list is growing all the time. 

Listed below are some of the most common phobias:

  • Acrophobia, fear of heights.
  • Aerophobia, fear of flying
  • Arachnophobia, fear of spiders.
  • Brontophobia, fear of thunderstorms
  • Claustrophobia, fear of closed spaces.
  • Dentophobia, fear of dentists
  • Emetophobia, fear of vomit and all aspects around  vomit/ing.
  • Enochlophobia, fear of crowds.
  • Glossophobia, fear of public speaking.
  • Trypanophobia, fear of injections.
  • Mysophobia, fear of germs or dirt.
  • Thanatophobia, fear of death or dying


    For a comprehensive list of phobias, please visit an excellent website

    called the PHOBIA LIST:   www.phobialist.com