Are you suffering from anxiety?

Feeling anxious from time to time can be quite usual particularly in the uncertain and demanding times in which we all live, but if you feel anxious more than once or twice a week, particularly if it is a persistent feeling you are trying to live with each day it could be helpful to talk to a professional to gain some support and understanding of what may be causing it.

Symptoms of anxiety include:

• feeling afraid
• not being able to concentrate well
• being unable to make decisions or make choices
• panic attacks
• difficulties falling asleep or staying asleep
• becoming easily annoyed or irritated with other people or yourself
• constantly worrying and finding it difficult to be ‘in the moment’ with friends and family

Sometimes you may only be aware of the symptoms but unaware of the anxiety which is at the root of them and which has been unconsciously buried as a way of dealing with it, but hasn’t really gone away. Or, you may have suffered something frightening in the past you are very aware of - an accident, abuse, bereavement, physical injury or illness which you seem to have coped with but which is still affecting you.  

How can therapy help?

Sometimes there seem to be plausible reasons for anxiety, perhaps to do with a recent change or loss, but if you feel over-whelmed there may be more to it than this.

A therapist’s  particular skill in listening to your very personal experience of anxiety is in both providing some relief to your everyday struggle of managing this alone and also throwing some light on where this anxiety might have first arisen, often in very early childhood experiences when you may have felt quite helpless. This will be very personal to you. Talking and thinking about it – as tempting as it is to run away from it or bury it – may lessen its grip on you so that you can begin to live your life without it.

What does a life less governed by anxiety look like?

A life with fewer feelings of anxiety might allow you to: take up opportunities that come your way, enjoy life’s everyday pleasures, form closer relationships more easily and feel more at peace with yourself.

Click here to read about how therapy can help with depression.

Clues that you might be coping with significant anxiety

As adults , we can't always address, or even recognise how we are feeling in our daily lives: holding down jobs, building careers and caring for others. At times like these, we might fall back on ways of coping with the anxiety inside in ways which tend to limit, distract or numb our feelings. 

• you feel the need to withdraw from people or situations
• you need to make life more manageable by sticking to routines, micro-managing or controlling
• you need to keep busy and don’t like an empty weekend or any time alone
• you feel a compulsion to drink, take drugs or exercise excessively 

If you'd like to make an appointment to talk about anxiety or any other problems please feel free to make contact below