Leave Anxiety Behind

 For some people anxiety can be debilitating and they may feel out of control. However, if you face whatever is causing you anxiety and think about it in a different way then you can take the control back. CBT and Counselling Kent’s help for anxiety Ashford can help you leave anxiety behind once and for all.

Most anxiety attacks are the result of your brain’s amygdala going in to fight-flight mode in response to an irrational thought.

So in order to overcome anxiety for the long term it’s important to do things differently next time your heart starts racing or you start to panic.

Counseling for anxiety Ashford will help you try the following steps: - 

1. Get in tune with the physical symptoms experience you when you become anxious. Common physiological responses might include a rapid heartbeat, tightening of the chest, difficulty breathing, dizziness and nausea. If you notice how your body is getting worked up your mind is less likely to run with it.  

2. Practice deep-breathing to stop anxiety in its tracks. The goal is to recognize that your mind and body are over-reacting – you are not actually in any danger it is just your mind sophisticating. Being present is crucial for getting out of panic mode and back in to your rational mind.

3. Be aware of sophisticating!  Watch out for dramatic, negative, unrealistic and unhealthy “what if” thoughts. Anxiety feeds on catastrophic thinking and over-attention “What if they think I’m boring, that would be terrible!” and worst-case scenarios: “Oh my god, what if my headache is actually a brain tumour?”

4. Replace any irrational, rigid thoughts with more rational adaptive thought processes - change the way you respond. “Here we go again, my anxiety wants to get the better of me. I’m sweating and my breathing is shallow, but I’m okay. I’m going to pull over to the side of the road and calm down. Being a few minutes late to work is not the end of the world.” Making it to this step means you’re thinking with your rational brain.

5. Behave differently. Because anxiety is rooted in the automatic fight-flight response, the brain can’t distinguish between a real threat and a perceived threat. It’s common to go into auto-pilot and either react impulsively (fight), or escape due to emotional flooding (flight). Sometimes the perceived threat is so intense, you may become immobile (freeze). Once you identify your patterns of unhealthy behavior, you can make informed decisions about what to do instead: “Rather than turn down an invitation to a night out and avoid it, I’m going to think through ‘what am I really worried about’ and despite maybe feeling a little uncomfortable before I, go anyway”

If you would like some help with your anxiety contact counseling for anxiety Ashford kent to make an appointment.

What Is A Panic Attack?

Summary–Our counsellors Ashford Kent understand what an overwhelming experience both emotionally and physiologically a panic attack can be. People who have panic attacks often believe that they are having a heart attack or are dying, as their body and mind feels completely out of control. Some people might experience one panic attack or a few but they go away on their own. However, for others, panic attacks become more frequent and whilst the first one may have been triggered by a stressful event, subsequent attacks can feel like they are coming out of nowhere adding to the terror the person experiences.

Panic attacks are fairly common and are not dangerous.

Many people will have panic attacks in their livesbut they don’t lead to the outcomes people often fear, such as attacks such as having a heart attack, dying, or going crazy.

Panic is your body’s natural reaction to extreme stress.

Panic is an evolutionarily mechanism that is designed to help you survive life-threatening danger by triggering your fight or flight response. However, the threat of a predator is much lower in the modern world and now panic attacks are often caused by a stressful non-life-threatening but it still triggers this ancient survival mechanism.

Panic attacks are over in minutes and won’t last forever!

Our counsellors Ashford Kent help our clients understand that panic attacks are self-limiting as your body cannot maintain high level anxiety for long. After a few minutes panic attacks stop on their own. People often believe their panic attack ended as a result of them fleeing a situation that caused panic and it would have lasted forever if they hadn’t fled. In reality, even if they stayed in the anxiety evoking situation, their panic symptoms will rapidly diminish.

Don’t try and avoid having a panic attack!

Panic attacks will continue causing problems if you change your behaviour in order to try to avoid them.

For example, you might stop going out in public because you are afraid you will have a panic attack. Fear and avoidance of situations communicate to your body that you are in danger and that you are only safe because of avoidance. This leads to a cycle of increasing panic attacks and avoidance.

People who experience panic attacks, tend to pay more attention to physiological symptoms (such as heart rate) Monitoring heart rate or other panic symptoms throughout the day communicates to your body that you are still in danger and increases the likelihood of additional attacks.

How to stop having panic attacks–Our counsellors Ashford Kent can help you challenge your thoughts.

If you are not afraid of panic attacks, they are much less likely to cause you problems. Using the informationabove, you can challenge and correctly identify panic for what it is - a false alarm of your survival mechanism.

Avoid avoidance.

Don’t avoid activities, places, or people because you have had a panic attack. Do the things that scare you as long as they aren’t harmful or dangerous. This will keep your panic in check and will lead your body and mind to recalibrate.

Stop focussing on your physical symptoms

If you notice yourself doing this, direct your attention externally to the outside. Perhaps imagine that you are talking to someone on the phone and trying to paint them a mental image of what you are seeing.

If you would like some help on how to manage panic attacks then contact our counsellors Ashford Kent at CBT and Counselling Kent today.

Five Steps To Leave Anxiety Behind!

 For some people anxiety can be debilitating and they may feel out of control. However, if you face whatever is causing you anxiety and think about it in a different way then you can take the control back. CBT and Counselling Kent’s help for anxiety Ashford can help you leave anxiety behind once and for all.

Most anxiety attacks are the result of your brain’s amygdala going in to fight-flight mode in response to an irrational thought.

So in order to overcome anxiety for the long term it’s important to do things differently next time your heart starts racing or you start to panic.

Counselling for anxiety Ashford will help you try the following steps: - 

1. Get in tune with the physical symptoms experience you when you become anxious. Common physiological responses might include a rapid heartbeat, tightening of the chest, difficulty breathing, dizziness and nausea. If you notice how your body is getting worked up your mind is less likely to run with it.  

2. Practice deep-breathing to stop anxiety in its tracks. The goal is to recognise that your mind and body are over-reacting – you are not actually in any danger it is just your mind catastrophising. Being present is crucial for getting out of panic mode and back in to your rational mind. 

3. Be aware of catastrophising!  Watch out for dramatic, negative, unrealistic and unhealthy “what if” thoughts. Anxiety feeds on catastrophic thinking and over-attention “What if they think I’m boring, that would be terrible!” and worst-case scenarios: “Oh my god, what if my headache is actually a brain tumour?”

4. Replace any irrational, rigid thoughts with more rational adaptive thought processes - change the way you respond. “Here we go again, my anxiety wants to get the better of me. I’m sweating and my breathing is shallow, but I’m okay. I’m going to pull over to the side of the road and calm down. Being a few minutes late to work is not the end of the world.” Making it to this step means you’re thinking with your rational brain.

5. Behave differently. Because anxiety is rooted in the automatic fight-flight response, the brain can’t distinguish between a real threat and a perceived threat. It’s common to go into auto-pilot and either react impulsively (fight), or escape due to emotional flooding (flight). Sometimes the perceived threat is so intense, you may become immobile (freeze). Once you identify your patterns of unhealthy behaviour, you can make informed decisions about what to do instead: “Rather than turn down an invitation to a night out and avoid it, I’m going to think through ‘what am I really worried about’ and despite maybe feeling a little uncomfortable before I, go anyway”

If you would like some help with your anxiety contact counselling for anxiety Ashford kent to make an appointment.

Don’t let Anxiety Define You!

Anxiety is a normal, although perhaps, an unpleasant human emotion, which can affect us all in different ways and at different times. Whereas stress is something that will come and go as the external factor causing it (such as work, relationship or money problems, etc.) comes and goes, anxiety is something that can persist whether or not the cause is clear to the sufferer. Here at CBT and Counselling Kent our CBT therapists or counsellor will give you help for Anxiety Ashford by guiding you to understand how it’s your unhelpful thought patterns and behaviour that is driving your anxiety.

Anxiety is the body's way of responding to being in danger. Adrenaline is rushed into our bloodstream to enable us to run away or fight. This happens whether the danger is real, or whether we believe the danger is there when actually there is none. It is the body's alarm and survival mechanism. Primitive man wouldn't have survived for long without this life-saving response. It works so well, that it often kicks in when it's not needed - when the danger is in our heads rather than in reality. We think we're in danger, so that's enough to trigger the system to go, go, go! People who get anxious tend to get into scanning mode - where they're constantly on the lookout for danger, hyper-alert to any of the signals, and make it more likely that the alarm system will be activated.

Common physiological responses might include a rapid heartbeat, tightening of the chest, difficulty breathing, dizziness and nausea. 

Be aware of catastrophising!  Watch out for dramatic, negative, unrealistic and unhealthy “what if” thoughts. Anxiety feeds on catastrophic thinking and over-attention “What if they think I’m boring, that would be terrible!” and worst-case scenarios: “Oh my god, what if my headache is actually a brain tumour?” CBT and Counselling Kent offers help for anxiety helping you make sense of those irrational thoughts.

We will help you replace any irrational, rigid thoughts with more rational adaptive thought processes - change the way you respond. “Here we go again, my anxiety wants to get the better of me. I’m sweating and my breathing is shallow, but I’m okay. I’m going to pull over to the side of the road and calm down. Being a few minutes late to work is not the end of the world.” Making it to this step means you’re thinking with your rational brain.

 Because anxiety is rooted in the automatic fight-flight response, the brain can’t distinguish between a real threat and a perceived threat. It’s common to go into auto-pilot and either react impulsively (fight), or escape due to emotional flooding (flight). Sometimes the perceived threat is so intense; you may become immobile (freeze).  

Repeat steps 1-5 as often as necessary. Sometimes this process with take a few minutes, other times you're in it for the long haul. 

The help for anxiety we offer at CBT and Counselling Kent works with you to identify your patterns of unhealthy behaviour so you can make informed decisions about what to do instead