Anxiety is an overwhelming sensation of worry or fear that is sometimes a normal response to a range of different situations but at other times can be debilitating for sufferers when it occurs for prolonged periods. It can affect a person’s mental health when they feel anxious every day and can’t feel relaxed for a prolonged period of time.
Anxiety counselling attempts to help people to explore the cause of these feelings, understand why they are occurring and provide techniques for dealings with situations when they occur. A trained counsellor can help a person to manage and cope with their anxiety.
Anxiety comes from a deeply rooted attitude in our brains called the ‘flight or fight’ response which occurs when the brain thinks that the body is in danger according to psychologists. This response is an automatic reaction that a person has no control over and results in the release of hormones, such as adrenaline, that causes people to be more tense and alert to perceived dangers.
Once the perceived threat has dissipated, the body releases different chemicals to help people relax and to calm down from the adrenaline in their body. However, in the case of anxiety this response to fight or flight tends not to happen and a person constantly regards potentially fearful situations as if they are imminently dangerous. Affected people think there is danger but where there is not and this is what leads to debilitating feelings of anxiety.
Talking to a counsellor can help a person to understand why certain situations in their life are causing a response that leads to anxiety. People can actually start to become anxious about their anxieties in a vicious circle. They may, for example, feel anxiety about having to travel on a train at rush hour, because they know that being on a crowded train will make them anxious.
Anxiety manifests in a range of physical symptoms including increased heart rate, dizziness, muscle tension and hyperventilation which are caused by the hormones released by the body.
Anxiety counselling helps sufferers to understand the cause of their anxiety so that they can take steps to address it. There are a variety of techniques that counsellors can use to help people break out of a cycle of negative thoughts that are leading to anxiety. Sometimes simple techniques such as breathing exercises can help to relax the body and the mind to overcome severe anxiety events. Sometimes behavioural therapy is used to help change thought patterns leading to anxiety while in severe cases medication can also be prescribed.
