ANXIETY IS A NORMAL EMOTION.

It is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an event that is about to happen or something with an uncertain outcome. In fact, it is considered a beneficial response in certain dangerous situations that trigger the fight-or-flight stress response like when walking through a dark and deserted parking lot to your car will cause you to be alert and cautious of your surroundings and the physical symptoms (e.g. palpitation, sweating) are coming from your autonomic nervous system response.

It is a normal human experience, something everyone has experienced at some points in time. As we journey through life, we experience good or bad things that may cause varying levels of anxiety. Examples may include the many “first experiences,” such as a first date, the first day of school, the first time away from home, and other events such as, taking a school exam, getting married, becoming a parent, getting separated, changing jobs, coping with illness and many others.

However, when a person regularly feels disproportionate levels of anxiety, it might become a medical disorder and no longer becomes beneficial.

So when does anxiety become a problem or a disorder?

The main difference between normal level of anxiety and an anxiety disorder is between the source, the frequency and the intensity of the experience.

Normal anxiety is intermittent and is expected based on certain events or situations. Anxiety disorder, on the other hand, tends to be chronic, irrational and interferes with many life functions. Avoidance behaviour including procrastination, incessant worry, restlessness, agitation, mental focus, and memory problems may stem from an anxiety disorder. There are also differences in the intensity or frequency of physical responses to the anxiety (such as feeling nervous, palpitations, headache, sweating, trembling, chest tightness, panic, and upset stomach). Distorted thoughts become a source of excessive worry and behavioural changes that affect one’s normal life and interaction with others.

These symptoms may be so intense that they cause family, work, and social difficulties.

So what can you do to support someone who has an anxiety disorder? Whatever you do, just don’t ask them to explain why they feel anxious because they can’t. They just feel it. Anxiety becomes a controlling emotion that whatever they say may become irrational to us. To deal with anxiety disorders, normally medical treatments may involve anti-depressant medications, lifestyle modifications and psychotherapy. Another viable therapeutic approach you may try is Hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy is a safe and effective therapeutic tool that can help create a sense of peace and harmony within the individual which involves an education-communication process to a person’s mind particularly the subconscious. The American Psychiatric Association and the British Medical Association approved hypnosis as a viable therapeutic tool.

Read more about Hypnotheraphy or know more about Barbara Young.