Anxiety and Panic Attacks can be extremely debilitating
You might be experiencing frequent overthinking, worries or fear about everyday situations. Or perhaps you feel your heart racing, trembling, your palms sweating, or you struggle with concentration even when everything seems to be OK.
What is anxiety?
Experiencing anxiety from time to time is normal, and everyone feels anxious at some moments in their life, such as during an exam, when moving house or when going through separation.
It is estimated that more than 3 million people have an anxiety disorder in the UK alone, and it is likely that this figure is inaccurately low, as many people never speak to a doctor or a specialist about their mental health and wellbeing.
Anxiety is extremely common and despite the severe and alarming symptoms, it is a perfectly treatable condition.
Left unchallenged though, anxiety and panic attacks can lead to, or worsen, other mental and physical conditions, such as:
Depression
Substance misuse
Insomnia
Digestive problems
Headache/chronic pain
Social isolation
Problems functioning at school or work
Poor quality of life
Suicidal feelings
When anxiety is interfering with the quality of your life, with feelings of fear, anxiety and even panic starting to restrict your freedom, it is time to start to seek counselling, therapy or other treatment.
What can cause anxiety?
In people with severe anxiety, the mechanism in the brain that controls response to threats becomes too sensitive.
At the heart of this function is the part of the brain called the amygdala, a structure that interprets incoming signals for threats and relays messages to other structures in the brain to ready the body for fight-or-flight.
Early life events such as childhood trauma, can affect the function of the amygdala so that it is oversensitive and sends out alarms too frequently.
While the unaffected human brain perceives threats normally in order to survive, those suffering from anxiety see threats where there are none, their perceptions affected by emotional memories.
What are the symptoms?
If you are suffering from anxiety you may be experiencing some of the following symptoms.
Feeling nervous, restless, agitated or tense, unable to control emotions
Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
Having an increased heart rate
Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
Sweating
Trembling
Feeling weak or tired
Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
Insomnia, sleeplessness or waking up at night
Indigestion, experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
Having difficulty controlling worry, overthinking
Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
Frequent visits to the toilet
How can it be treated?
Anxiety can be treated in several ways, depending on what kind of anxiety you have and how severe it is.
EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy) or IEMT (integral eye movement therapy)
Wellbeing Centre London Practitioners who can help you with Anxiety & Panic Attacks
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you overcome Anxiety & Panic Attacks, simply contact us to arrange a Free initial 15-minute consultation.
We will recommend a therapy that will suit you and a trusted, professional therapist or coach to work with you, constructing a bespoke treatment package designed to help you achieve your goals.
Take a positive step toward a happier you, today.