What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a very normal human emotion that we all experience when our brain detects some kind of ‘threat’. Often, the threat takes the form of a worrying thought our mind such as ‘what if they don’t like me?’ ‘what if I get it wrong?’

Do I have anxiety?

You may have anxiety if you quite regularly experience the below symptoms:

Symptoms of anxiety:

• Feeling nervous or ‘on edge’
• Worrying too much about different things
• Worries feel uncontrollable
• Trouble relaxing
• Thinking / worrying that something bad will happen
• Being so restless it’s hard to stay still
• Heart palpitations
• Shortness of breath
• Tension in different areas of the body
• An urge to go to the toilet
• Sweating or feeling hot or clammy
• Feeling irritable

Sometimes, some of the above physical symptoms in themselves can be very distressing, and when we notice them, we can become even more anxious. However, there is a very good reason for us having them known as the fight or flight response.

The fight or flight response:

From an evolutionary perspective, experiencing these physical sensations would have been crucial in our survival. Threats that our brain detected would have been from dangerous situations, such as being chased by a sabor toothed tiger. We would have needed a physical change to allow us to either ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ (runaway from) the threat. Nowadays, our threats take other forms, such as possible failure and social rejection, but our mind and bodies haven’t yet adapted to the fact that we no longer require these physical changes to survive.

Online therapy and treatment for anxiety:

The good news is that anxiety is something that can be managed. As well as medication, there are several types of talking therapies that research has been found to be helpful in managing anxiety, including CBT, IPT, CFT, EMDR, and ACT.

At Counselling Psychology Online, our online therapists are trained in these approaches and have several years’ experience in helping people manage their anxiety. Please contact us if you would like to arrange an initial assessment session.

You may also wish to look at our resources page for further ideas of getting help to manage your anxiety.

FAQs

We’ve answered below some of our most frequently asked questions regarding our anxiety therapy.  For any extra information about our psychological therapy or counselling for anxiety, or to find out anything more about Counselling Psychology Online, please email [email protected] or telephone 07584 328192.