emdr

Therapy for Anxiety In Woking & Guildford

What is anxiety?

Experiencing nervousness before a test or big event is completely normal, but if anxiety limits the way you live your life, then working with a professional to process and manage your anxiety may be beneficial.

Anxiety is a general term used to describe issues of nervousness, fear, worry or panic. Whilst these are common life experiences, they can become excessive for some people who become stuck in negative thoughts cycles, emotional overwhelm or negative anticipations of what is to come.

There are several characteristics associated with anxiety, some of which include:

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Feelings of panic or fear

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Sleep deprivation

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Shortness of breath

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Heart palpitations

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becoming easily fatigued

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difficulties in concentration

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muscle tension

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avoidance behaviours

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trembling

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Worrying & Negative Expectations

Experiencing Anxiety Beyond Your Control

Anxiety can often feel like it is beyond your control, and you may have been trying to control it for years but feel like it just won’t stop! It is often the case, that anxiety is not supposed to be controlled as such. Anxiety is there to tell us something. Counselling and Psychotherapy can help to process what the anxiety is trying to tell us.

Other times, however, the anxiety is more over-reactive, out of line with the current situations and extremely limits living the life you want to live. This can lead to an over sensitivity to triggers, low sense of self-worth or trust in one’s abilities and sense of security in the world.

There are strategies which can be used to challenge and direct thought and emotional processes to manage the anxiety and help bring it to lower levels so that processing and coping with it becomes much easier. Then you can start to overcome the anxiety and begin to live life more freely.

ANXIETY CAN AFFECT MANY AREAS OF LIFE, INCLUDING:

Working- performance and stress.
Relationship and social situation.
Going outside.
Going to unknown places.
Feeling unable to be yourself/fear of how others respond.
Making decisions-large small.

Learn to live life freely

Anxiety is restrictive. It can stop you from applying for a job, leaving the house, socialising, going to events, being able to be yourself in situations, make day to day decisions and lots more beside. Ultimately, I believe working through anxiety is about learning to live freely, with a clearer mind whilst learning how to stop wasting time with avoidance and protective behaviours and finding an inner sense of security. This in turn allows you to be more relaxed when you want to be and to find comfort in who you are as a person and in your abilities whilst also feeling safe in the world.

There are often past events and unmet needs which help give rise to Anxiety. These can be processed in counselling and worked through in a comfortable pace. Whether your Anxiety is primarily thought-based, or body-based (emotions and/or physical symptoms), the cycle of Anxiety does not have to continue.

Other types of anxiety

You do not have to have been diagnosed with a specific anxiety disorder to be able to get support for anxiety. Many people, who do not meet the criteria for a formal diagnosis, struggle with anxiety difficulties which can impact many areas of their life and well-being.

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Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder is characterised by having panic attacks on a regular basis. A panic attack recurs as a reaction to a situation that you might find stressful and can last up between five to ten minutes. Characteristics associated with panic attacks include heart palpitations, shortness of breath, trembling, sweating, chest pains and numbness, amongst others .

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Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Experiencing anxiety on most or all days. It is often caused by stress at work or at home although in many cases individuals do not know where it came from or can attribute it to any situation in their life- this often worries people as they feel they need to know the root of their difficulties in order to be able to overcome them. Traits include feeling easily tired, restless, irritable and suffering from sleep deprivation.

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD is characterised by obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. Thought processes often involve doubts and uncertainty, Thought/Action Fusion: the belief that thoughts equals prescribed behaviours, contamination: beliefs that you will be severely affected by relatively harmless situations, and incompleteness: obsessions around certain things needing to be symmetrical or done in systematic and correct way. Compulsions are often behaviours deemed to protect the individual from the dangers within obsessive thoughts.

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Social Anxiety

Social anxiety can make people avoid social situations, especially larger groups, through feelings of awkwardness and fears of embarrassment. Also, thoughts patterns such as: negative mind reading, being judged, and negative anticipations and self-questioning.