Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Anxiety and stress are closely related.

Stress related ill health is on the increase and leads to loss of working days. In 2004/5 a total of 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety (dept health 1995).

The numbers of people affected by stress and particularly anxiety and panic attacks are reflected in the number of people that consult me. I see more people suffering from anxiety and panic attacks than anything else. It is very common.

Happily, I have a great deal of experience dealing with these problems and can help very effectively and in most cases very rapidly.

I help my clients to understand the problem and why they behave and feel as they do when rational thought tells them that the fear is unwarranted, unreasonable and totally out of proportion to the situation. If you suffer from any of the anxieties and panic attacks, you feel unable to control it and it begins to erode your life, preventing you from doing things and making life miserable.

Medical treatment for anxiety, panic attacks etc, is anti- depressants and beta-blockers. Medication can be helpful in an emergency but drugs offer no long term answer. The therapy that I deliver will help you to learn how to get back on track and make real, long lasting changes.

You will learn at a biological and neuro-psychological level what is happening to you that makes you feel as you do. You will learn how to cope with panic attacks and social phobias and learn how to relax.

What is a Phobia?

A phobia is an irrational fear that is so strong that it induces enormous anxiety or panic / panic attack. I t is so awful that people try at all costs to avoid the feared creature, circumstance or substance.

What is a Panic Attack?

If you have suffered a full blown panic attack you might describe it as the highest level of fear you could ever experience. It is terrifying and some people have been convinced that they were dying, have a heart problem or life threatening illness. Being given a clean bill of health and told everything is fine from the doctor doesn’t help - it doesn’t make sense because you know you have experienced something that tells you that it is not ‘fine.’

Being told that it is a panic attack doesn’t always help either as some people may then think that there is something mentally wrong with them because something happened for no good reason at all.

Some of the conditions that come under this category:

• stress
• panic attacks
• anxiety
• poor sleep and depression
• post traumatic stress
• agoraphobia
• social phobias
• public speaking/performance anxiety/ presentation anxiety etc.
• obsessive compulsive disorder
• other common phobias – just a few
  • eating in public
  • blushing
  • choking
  • animals / small creatures / reptiles etc.
  • blood
  • heights
  • claustrophobia
  • flying

Talking therapies do not help with these problems and in some cases makes it worse. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is often prescribed but it is a lengthy process and does not always work. I had a client who had been receiving CBT for one year and was no better. He came to see me for two session of treatment and on the third visit he told me that he was fine. No further treatment was necessary and he did not have to return for more help. He could not believe that he had therapy every week for a whole year without any improvement and in just a couple of sessions he had resolved the problem.

My work as a therapist involves using the talking therapies and CBT at times, but it is knowing when to use what therapy that is important. Your treatment will be informative which helps you to understand it, include relaxation techniques, and include guided imagery or hypnosis.

I understand how much distress these conditions cause and I can help people overcome them and gain control over their lives.