What is the difference between anxiety, anxiety disorders and panic attacks? Quite simply, Anxiety is a feeling of fear, uneasiness, and worry that is usually an overemotional or somewhat irrational physical reaction towards various differing situations or events that may be perceived by the person involved to be quite scary or threatening. There are some common types of anxiety, such as stage fright anxiety, test anxiety, social anxiety, and stranger anxiety. A person suffering from anxiety will often have various symptoms such as body overheating, muscle tension, restlessness, fatigue, and loss of concentration.

Now with regards to anxiety disorders which can only be described as having feelings of anxiety and fear, where anxiety is a worry about future events and fear is a reaction to current events. There are number of different anxiety disorders such as, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias like agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and panic disorder just to name just a few. Persons suffering from anxiety disorders often experience various symptoms such as a racing heart, shakiness, body overheating, muscle tension, restlessness, fatigue and loss of concentration.

Panic attacks however are periods of intense fear or apprehension brought on quite suddenly and accompanied by at least four or more bodily or cognitive symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, or feelings of unreality that can last from minutes to hours.

You may have noticed that with anxiety, anxiety disorders and panic attacks all have a common theme going back to how people perceive of and then react to feelings of FEAR. It is our nervous system that provides us with reactions to these feelings and emotions because of FEAR with many differing but similar symptoms. Have you ever wondered why that is and what makes our bodies react in such a way? The answer has to do with our fight, flight or freeze response mechanism within our bodies.

Put very simply, our sympathetic nervous system automatically sets into motion our adrenalin to respond by discharging a cascading hormonal secretion of catecholamines which are specifically designed to immediately cause many physiological changes within your body to prepare you for a fight, flight or freeze response. You may have already noticed this yourself whenever you have had a feeling of fear that your heart would suddenly beat faster, your blood pumps harder, your muscles are suddenly tighter, and even your digestive system gets prepared for whatever is about to happen so that your whole body is on the alert and ready to make a quick decision to either fight this opponent or to run away and take flight or just remain frozen and unmovable.

So, if you think about this carefully your body and mind may be reacting constantly to these perceived feelings of fear that are either from remembered traumatic events or they are about fears and worry of what is about to come. So how can hypnotherapy help?

Hypnotherapy can help you to:

1. Learn the difference between what is a real threat or a perceived one.
2. Help you to get back to that calm, comfortable, ‘in control’ state once again so that you can think clearly and efficiently.
3. Help to guide you through hypnotic imagery to release any negative memories that may be holding you back from living a light and free life today.
4. Give you the tools needed to help you with remaining calm even during stressful circumstances.
5. Show you how to continue practicing these new thinking patterns (by self-hypnosis) so you no longer have a dependence on drugs, alcohol, or any other addictive substances.
6. Learn how to go into a relaxed state completely and use the power of your own mind to create the outcome that you genuinely want in your life through positive imagery.

The benefits of living life without anxiety are numerous. Just being able to function freely and comfortably in any circumstance can open doors to being more adventurous, spontaneous, creative, and communicative. Do you desire to learn how you can feel more calm, comfortable and ‘in control’ during your normal daily life?

Then please feel free to call today and make an appointment for a consultation with Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist Tracy Thompson to learn how to function without anxiety in your life.