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Are you too anxious?

Treating Anxiety

We all know what it is to feel anxious but some people feel excessively anxious a lot of the time. Sometimes, this is referred to as having Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

 

Everyone feels anxious at times, but people with this condition feel tense and stressed most days and for most of the day. The anxiety can take over their lives and can lead to depression and be the pre-cursor for panic attacks and phobias.

 

Anxiety is thought to be abnormal if it:

 - Is excessive or out of proportion to the source of the anxiety (e.g. sufferers might worry about the same things as everyone else like money etc. but take it to a much higher level than most people), or, 

 - Persists when whatever has cause the anxious response  has gone, or it, 

 - Appears for no apparent reason when there is no specific situation that is causing anxiety (for example, over-reacting to a simple event such as someone not responding to a text – imagining something terrible has happened to them),

 - Is almost constant and/or, 

 - It is debilitating i.e. it effects and interferes with normal daily life.

Anxiety can be treated with medication or psychological therapy or, in some cases, both. The psychological therapy of choices for anxiety is usually Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and this is what we offer at The MindTraining Clinic.

 

However, if the anxiety is caused by an event or events in the past, we might instead use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) - sometimes we will use EMDR even when there is no obvious event that has caused the anxiety. 

What to expect from therapy

When we do CBT we will talk to you about your anxiety and what triggers it. We might ask you to keep special diaries and do 'homework'. We will start gently challenging your thoughts and help you to identify and change any unhelpful thinking patterns. We may also teach you some lovely relaxation techniques!

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