Anxiety

Anxiety can manifest as: worry, apprehension, trepidation, fretting, dreading and obsessing. It can manifest in either a generalised or a specific form.

Generalised anxiety occurs when the underlying cause generating the anxiety is not known, so the anxiety seems to come out of the blue for no reason. In such cases, a person might experience 'anxiety' attacks (panic attacks are severe anxiety attacks often accompanied by hyperventilation). However, there will always be a reason or cause fuelling the anxiety. In such cases it's possible to use 'content free' approaches to work with the part of the mind running this anxiety approach and get it to process what needs to be processed.

Specific anxiety is generated by specific fears, worries, phobias and traumas about a person,animal, thing or experience. A simple anxiety is when there is a straightforward association between the feared stimulus and the symptoms due to some kind of trauma from the past. For instance, if one of your parents was phobic about spiders, then you would have associated spiders with fear. Simple anxiety can usually be resolved in a single session with certain techniques.

A complex anxiety is when there is an indirect link between the stimulus and the symptoms. For instance, there might be an underlying problem with self-esteem or security that has been masked by the symptoms. For instance, some people may not actually be phobic of spiders per se but feel unable to cope by themselves, or spiders provide a means of reassurance and attention, which is the real underlying unmet need. Complex anxiety can take several sessions to resolve as it may frequently require some work on self-esteem as well.

See also: panic attacks; phobias & traumas, performance anxiety.

Therapists Working With Anxiety: - all therapists will have training in working with some or all forms of anxiety.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

© 2011 – Felix Economakis, Heath Mind Body Therapies

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