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Fear and anxiety have crucial roles in your very survival:-
Fear of dangerous circumstances (such as fast traffic, fire, for example) makes you able to avoid them and not get harmed. Your body gets ready for 'fight or flight', with an adrenaline surge that ensures your heart, lungs and legs are ready to get you out of the way.
Anxiety about what might happen in the future will help you take steps to avoid unpleasant consequences and think of alternative ways of doing things.
Both have their place. But too much anxiety and fear, or anxiety and fear in situations that you can do little about, lead your body to build up adrenaline and cortisol, and cause you stress.
there are three elements to anxiety:
- physical sensations (such as fast breathing, flutters in the stomach, palpitations).
- emotions you have while feeling these physical sensations (fear, dread, helplessness for example).
- thoughts going through your mind.
Sometimes anxiety comes dressed as generalised fear and apprehension, with life being full of threats round every corner. Or it can come as sudden and unpredicted panic. It can show itself as an overwhelming fear of a imagined event or circumstance, or it might be the result of experiencing a traumatic event that you can’t seem to put to the back of your mind.
Whatever the cause, and however it shows itself, your anxiety was originally trying to keep you safe. But once it has outgrown that usefulness, you can learn to get yourself back in control of that anxiety so it serves you when you want it to, rather than it being your master.
hypnotherapy can help you deal with your anxiety by:-
- helping you learn ways of dealing with attacks of panic.
- working with your brain to unscramble patterns laid down in times of trauma.
- getting rid of rituals and compulsive behaviour that are used as an attempt to keep you safe, but which hinder the way you lead your life.
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A panic attack is very frightening, particularly the first time it happens, as it seems to arrive out of nowhere and you may fear that you are dying. Because it is so frightening, your brain lays down instant neural pathways, and these may make faulty pattern matches to similar circumstances to where the first attack occurred. So if it first happened in a shop, the brain may generalise that to anywhere where it is enclosed and where there are lots of people, such as a theatre or market place.
All of the physical symptoms of a panic attack are normal to the 'fight or flight' response you get when you feel you are under threat.
- quickened and shallow breathing (so you can run away)
- pounding heart
- trembling in the limbs (ready to run)
- feelings of nausea (as your digestive system starts to close down)
- dry mouth
- dizziness and faintness
This is so your body is ready to run.
But in a panic attack you do not run away, and so the extra oxygen you are breathing in does not get used up, and the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body changes. Too much oxygen in the blood affects every part of your body, and until your breathing rebalances this, you may feel these physical symptoms.
The good news is that these always pass : your body always rights itself, so no-one ever dies of a panic attack.
there are some simple steps you can take to deal with a panic attack:-
- think positively – say to yourself “I know this will pass soon when I calm down”; or “I will count my breathing : out to a count of three and in to a count of one”; or “I have got through this before so I can get through this now”.
- distract yourself – by walking more quickly if you are outside (yes, this does work!); counting tins or packets on a shelf if you are in a supermarket; noticing the colour of people’s ties and scarves if you are in a bus or train; going through the alphabet to yourself.
This helps your thinking mind get control over your emotions and physical sensations and quickly stops the panic. And when it is all over, don’t forget to congratulate your self on how well you coped!
hypnotherapy can help you prevent panic attacks as well as deal with them by:-
- helping you deal with stress that will make a panic attack less likely to happen.
- enabling you to relax.
- giving you a technique to use if a panic attack does occur.
- changing your pattern of thinking to more optimistic ways.
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A phobia is a persistent irrational fear that is so powerful that it induces great anxiety or feelings of panic, and a wish to avoid the feared situation (such as flying, coming across a spider, closed spaces etc.)
This may be because a panic attack occurred in that situation, and the emotional (limbic) part of the brain then “pattern-matched” ths attack to a wider range of similar situations. For example a person may have been ‘dive-bombed’ by a pigeon in a square and experienced a feeling of fear and panic which the brain then extended to fear of similar panic in any open space or to all birds.
Getting rid of a phobia is very similar to coping with a panic attack.
hypnotherapy can help you deal with a phobia by:-
- unscrambling the patterns in the brain so they are no longer able to generate anxiety and dread.
- helping you to relax at will.
- enabling you to visualise dreaded situations in a calm way and regain control over your feelings.
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Fears may arise for many reasons, and most people have something they are fearful of. This may be flying, public speaking, going to the dentist, or having an injection for example. All these fears have a rational base - it is when this fear gets out of proportion and leads to avoidance that it may become an issue.
When you think of your fear, the familiar feelings associated with panic may start to arise, and perhaps become so strong that you avoid the situation no matter how high the personal cost is to you. Some people avoid going to the dentist for so long that their teeth give them severe pain which they live with; other people miss out on holidays because they cannot bear the thought of getting into a plane; or do not get promotion because they feel unable to give a presentation.
hypnotherapy can help you get rid of your fear by:-
- unscrambling the brain patterns that caused it in the first place and helping you to create new and positive brain patterns.
- teaching you how to deal with your fear at a conscious and unconscious level.
- helping you to deal with stress
- enabling you to relax whenever you want to
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