Anxiety and Me

One in Five Women Suffer from Anxiety

In the month we watched the documentary about Nadiya Hussain and her battle with anxiety, fascinating new figures show that one in five women suffer from anxiety most of the time, which is double what it was five years ago.

The Mental Health Foundation charity's 'Living with Anxiety' report reveals that some 22% admit being preoccupied with everyday worries such as the welfare of loved ones and money.

This is not just a female problem, the YouGov poll recently revealed that 19% of people across both sexes get anxious a lot or all the time with money, finance and debt amongst the top concerns.

Anxiety although a natural emotion can lead onto more complex disorders such as panic, phobias and obsessive behaviours. This can lead onto potentially harmful coping strategies with many seeking comfort from eating and drinking or worse other compulsive addictions and behaviours. The recent survey revealed that one in five will 'hide away from the world'. More than a quarter think anxiety is a sign of not being able to cope and 29 per cent say they would be embarrassed to admit to anxiety.

Suprisingly only 7 per cent go to their G.P for help and even less would go to a therapist. In my experience clients will come to a hypnotherapist as a last resort usually when the problem has got out of hand and the coping strategies aren't working. I also tend to get alot of clients that have been through the NHS support which either consists of medication or a short course of CBT (Cognitive BehaviouralTherapy) which is usually either masking the problem in the case of medication or is too little too late in the case of CBT therapy.

I have specialised with working with clients with anxiety for over 20 years and there is usually a pattern of thinking that isn't vey helpful that has been learned and becomes the automatic thinking response to a variety of everday triggers or problems, the thinking then becomes catastrophic as it is exaggerated and blown out of proportion which then often leads to more complex problems in terms of comfort strategies or unhelful behaviours.

Over the years, I have helped hundreds of clients overcome anxiety and having worked with a variety of leading therapeutic interventions have been able to identify the 20% of methods that get 80% of the results which I have now integrated into my 5 session one to one Freedom Formula programme. When you work with me one to one confidentially, in a supportive non judgemental environment, it avoids any need to be embarrassed and can nip the problem in the bud before it escalates into something more complex.

For more information about my Freedom Formula programme, check out this website.

By John Plester: Specialist Hypnotherapist for helping people overcome anxiety in Norwich, Norfolk.