Feeling Anxious or Stressed

Most people at some time in their lives may feel that they cannot cope with the demands and expectations being placed upon them, at such times it is normally for us to feel anxious, stressed or worried. The root cause of these feelings is often the assumption (that we may hold unconsciously) that we do not have the abilities or strengths to cope with the demands we experience.

Anxiety is the normal emotional and physiological response to feeling threatened or overwhelmed. People differ as to how vulnerable they feel in different situations: this can be influenced by past experiences as well as by the beliefs and attitudes they hold about these situations.

The experience of anxiety can range from mild uneasiness and worry to severe panic. At a reasonable level, short bursts of anxiety can motivate us and enhance our performance, but if anxiety becomes too severe or chronic, however, it can become debilitating.

If you feel that your experience of anxiety has become severe and is preventing you carrying out everyday tasks or requirements you may want to discuss with your family doctor or GP whether it would be helpful to discuss your difficulties with a professional mental health worker (psychologist or psychiatrist) who has experience of working with people who experience severe anxiety.

For those experiencing mild to moderate degrees of anxiety it is often difficult to arrange to see a professional to discuss your emotional difficulties with given the scarcity of trained therapists and the difficulty convincing your family doctor or general practitioner that you would benefit from seeing somebody. Increasingly self-help materials are available for people experiencing mild to moderate anxiety to help them help themselves to feel less anxious or stressed.

The Thinkwell Programme has the ability to help people help themselves and overcome their feelings of anxiety. It is based upon the well validated techniques of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion that people feel when they feel they are under threat or are going to be overwhelmed with demands for which they do not have the resources to cope with.

When we are in situations that we perceive as anxiety provoking our Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in to help us prepare physically for possible danger. Physically, adrenaline begins to cascade through our bloodstream causing our digestive system to close down, our heart to beat faster, our liver to release stored sugar into our bloodstream; we also experience increased sweating and the sensation of our pupils dilating.

Anxiety is regarded as a vicious cycle of thoughts, sensations and behaviours. The origins of an perceived anxiety lie in your thoughts, some of which we may not even be aware of! These thoughts subsequently lead to reactions in our body, causing physical sensations and ultimately affecting our behaviour.

On the whole an anxious person tends to think more distressed thoughts thereby promoting a greater range and number of anxiety symptoms and feelings.

There would therefore seem to be three components to the feeling of being anxious:

1. Physical or bodily changes. There are many of these but the most common reported are: shortness of breath, dizziness, increased heart rate, trembling, muscle tension, sweating, numbness, tingling sensations, dry mouth, abdominal discomfort and nausea. Tiredness, inability to concentrate, feeling of irritability and insomnia are also common.
2. Thoughts. Different anxiety problems are associated with different anxious thoughts. For example, someone who is afraid of social situations might think "Everybody is watching me" whereas someone else might think, "I'm having a heart attack". In general, anxious thoughts involve the perception of some kind of threat or danger which the person feels unable to cope with.
3. Behaviour. This refers to the action taken as a result of the thoughts. One of the most common reactions to anxiety provoking thoughts or situations is avoidance. For example, if a person becomes anxious surrounded by groups of people, they may avoid going to concert or plays.

The Thinkwell Programme helps individuals tackle their feeling of anxiety by helping them deal with all three of the above components - physical symptoms, thoughts and behaviour.

So sign up today to begin benefiting from Thinkwell. Membership is only £19.99.