Some people develop a phobia following a traumatic event – usually a phobia of something around the circumstances of that event. It then becomes a struggle to walk away from it.
Follow this link to read my full article on the topic.
If you have a phobia, or any other form of anxiety, please Contact Me for a chat to explore what hypnotherapy can do to help. I work from my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire as well as online.
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Are you visited by periods of anxiety? Or maybe you suffer from anxiety most of the time? Here is a little psychological trick that may just help. It’s a way of fooling those negative emotions into separating themselves from the rest of you.
Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister who led the United Kingdom through most of the second World War, had mental health issues. What those issues were is the subject of debate among historians. Views range from mild depression and anxiety to bi-polar disorder. What we do know is that there were times when it affected him more than others.
Churchill developed ways of coping with these mental health issues. One of these was to tell himself, “We must just keep buggering on.” Another way of dealing with it was to name the dark moods he had. He called them the “Black Dog”. His daughter explained that the Black Dog was usually kenneled – but came out to visit sometimes.
Naming the dark emotions he had was one way that Churchill had of coping with them.
When anxiety strikes or depression overwhelms you, ask yourself, “If this emotion were to have a name, what would it be?” I am not talking about the clinical name, like “Generalised Anxiety Disorder” or “Emetophobia”. Give it your own personal nickname, like “The Worry Monster” or “The Blue Meanie”.
Having got a name for it, use that name when you talk to others about your mood, or for you own self-talk. Remind yourself that what that you have just named is not you – it is just visiting.
Naming a negative emotion is a psychological trick that you can play on the primitive part of your brain that is generating all those negative emotions. By naming an emotion, it externalises it. That is, it helps you start to think of that emotion, not as part of you, but as a separate entity.
For some people, naming the emotion might not get rid of it, but it makes it easier to cope with. For others, they may find that it visits less and less frequently and with less power each time it visits.
If you are struggling to cope with anxiety or anything related, you might want to give hypnotherapy a try. It is not the only solution, but if you want to give it a go, you are welcome to see me in my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire or online. Contact Me if you would like a chat.
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It’s a tough ask, but plunging your face, your head or maybe your whole body into cold water may help relieve anxiety.
Tim suffered from severe anxiety, which included panic attacks every week – sometimes even every day. That was until he met Mark Harper, who had been involved in some research into the use of cold water immersion as a potential treatment for depression. As anxiety and depression often go hand-in-hand, Tim decided to have a go.
Of the many forms of cold water immersion that are possible, Tim chose wild swimming, and so one autumn day he found himself in the River Wensum in Norfolk, UK. I imagine that lowering himself into a river on a cold autumn day must have taken some nerve.
“After a minute of my first swim, my feet felt as if I’d crushed them with a breeze block. This was not some glorious communion with Gaia. I was an idiot in a very cold river.”
Nevertheless, despite the pain of the cold water, Tim persisted. And the result … the panic attacks stopped completely.
There is something about immersing ourselves in cold water that appears to have a positive impact on our mental health. The shock of the cold water on our skin, our face or our whole body somehow seems to relieve the anxiety.
The science behind this appears sketchy at the moment. Some small trials have taken place that give us positive hope that cold water can be used as a treatment for anxiety and/or depression. Hopefully, larger scale studies will be conducted in the future, studies that will give a clearer scientific understanding of this phenomenon.
Of course, the lack of large scale studies shouldn’t stop us trying it for ourselves. If it works for you – it works for you … and if it doesn’t – it doesn’t. If you are brave enough to give it a try, then you can discover for yourself if it is a valuable tool to combat anxiety that you can keep in your toolkit.
We do not all have to be as brave as Tim, plunging ourselves into icy rivers. There are less dramatic means.
Before you read on, remember to be sensible about this. Here are the obvious caveats:
So, bearing in mind the above caveats, here are a few ideas:
Is cold water immersion a one-off benefit when you are having a particularly anxiety-ridden period or a panic attack, or does it have long-term benefits? It is not possible (yet) to answer this question. There has been insufficient research to determine the optimal methods. So you need to try and see what works for you.
Some people suggest putting your face into cold water when you are particularly anxious, just to help you calm down in the moment. Others suggest you should have a cold shower on a regular basis.
What you need to do is experiment on yourself to find what works best for you. Pick out one or more of the ideas listed and try them. Note what happens if you are in a highly anxious state. Does the anxiety change immediately, or over time – indeed, does it work for you at all? The important thing is to have a go.
Again, the jury is out on this one. Different sources suggest different reasons for how cold water immersion impacts anxiety. Those ideas include:
It is a tough ask. Plunging your face, your head or your whole body into cold, even icy water is not the sort of thing that you do lightly. What is more, there is only a little scientific evidence that it works. But if you are brave enough to face it, I think it must be worth trying.
If you want help with your anxiety you might want to have a go at hypnotherapy. I help people with all sorts of anxiety-related issues, using hypnotherapy to help them get back in control of their lives. I work from my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire, as well as online, and would be happy to have a chat if you want to Contact Me.
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/cold-shower-for-anxiety
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/6-cold-shower-benefits-consider
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The “What If” worry cycle is an anxiety-related problem that most people will have experienced at sometime in their lives. It starts with worrying about something going wrong, and the consequences of what happens next. It is a constant cycle of asking ourselves, “… and then what if …”. This is known as “catastrophising”.
Alison arrived home from work one day, sat down, and tried to calm down the stream of thoughts going through her head. As she had left work, her boss had looked towards her in a strange way, and he had not said, “See you tomorrow” as he usually did …
Maybe she had done something wrong … She’d soon know if he asked her to see him tomorrow … Or maybe he was just noting it down to confront her with it at a later date … She tried to think of what she had done that day that might have been wrong … What if she was sacked? … What if she couldn’t find another job? … The rent would go overdue and she’d be kicked out … Maybe Joan would let her sleep on her sofa … But she couldn’t stay there forever …
After a sleepless night, Alison arrived at work the next day, only to find that her boss had been so preoccupied with something else, he had not even see her leave work.
The pattern of thinking where we anticipate something bad happening to us, and then anticipate something worse that could happen as a consequence, and then something worse that that, and so on – this is called “catastrophising”. Some people seem to learn how to think catastrophically and catastrophise about something almost every day.
Catastrophising is a threat to our mental health. Every time we go through the process of catastrophic thinking, we add more stress to our lives, which in turn increases the activity of the amygdala – the fight or flight centre of our brain. This is like pouring fuel on the fire of other problems we might have:
Most people have worries about the future, at least on occasions. Worrying about the future is not an issue, provided that it is kept under control. If we anticipate what might go wrong, we might be able to do something about it, or prepare for it.
Of course, there are some things that people worry about that they can’t do anything about. They might worry about the dreadful things reported on the news. They might worry about the results of a medical test that they are not going to hear about until next week. These are wasted worries. If you cannot do anything about it, then worrying about it will not change the outcome.
Worrying only becomes a problem when it becomes our default way of thinking. If we are constantly worrying or catastrophising, then it impacts our mental and physical health. This is when we need to do something about it.
The last step is to turn it around. Ask yourself what will happen if everything goes right – what if you do pass the exam? What if that spot just turns out to be a benign mole? What if your partner simply forgot to turn their phone on?
The first step is to recognise that we are catastrophising. Ask yourself if these sort of “what if … what if” worry-cycle thoughts go through your head quite often.
Next, see how good you are at catching yourself doing it. You might start by just noting that you have had some catastrophising thoughts – but only after you have had them. Eventually, you will find that you can spot them mid-flow; you will realise that the same cycle of thinking of worse and worse scenarios is actually happening while you are doing it.
Once you can spot the cycle, while it is happening, don’t beat yourself up about it, just tell yourself, “That’s interesting, I am doing it again.”
Gradually, over a period of time, the cycle of catastrophising will lessen. Don’t be disappointed if it takes a while. You need patience. You are retraining your brain to think in a different way. If you are the worrying kind, your brain will be very experienced and very quick to worry. So practice, practice practice. Eventually, it will calm down and you will be able to get on with life as normal without the constant cycle of worry in your mind.
If you find you cannot manage to calm down the worry cycle on your own, you may want to seek help from a therapist. There are a lot of types of therapy available to help, among which are CBT and hypnotherapy.
I help worriers as well as those with other forms of anxiety. I use hypnotherapy to help them get back to their normal, calmer selves. I work out of my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire and also online. Do Contact Me if you want to have a chat.
Other articles that may be of interest include:
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/catastrophizing
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320844
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It’s a problem I hear again and again in my hypnotherapy clinic. It comes in a variety of forms, but it is always the same basic structure. “My future is uncertain, and that stresses me out.” The future my clients talk about could be a failing relationship, potential redundancy from their job, or simply the world situation – which is far from certain at the moment. They do not know what is coming round the corner.
It is a natural human reaction – to be stressed by uncertainty. When you don’t know what’s coming, you don’t know how to prepare. When the future is uncertain, you cannot be sure if you will be better off or if something will go drastically wrong. Our brains are often tuned to anticipate the worst case scenario, and so we become stressed and anxious.
What goes on in our brains is then a bit of a vicious circle. We get anxious about the future, so we think of all the things that could go wrong, and that makes us more stressed, and so on.
Of course, we could choose to ignore the uncertain future and carry on as if life were normal. But we must be careful not to kid ourselves. If there is a chance that something could go wrong, we need to take reasonable steps to prepare for it. We can think about what could go wrong, but we shouldn’t dwell on it.
If the future is uncertain, if you don’t know what is round the next corner:
I help people who are struggling to cope with stress and anxiety. I use hypnotherapy to help them get their lives back in order again and able to cope with the uncertainties of the world. If you would like to Contact Me, I would be happy to have a chat, and if you are interested, book you in for hypnotherapy either at my clinic here in Fleet, Hampshire or online.
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There are those who are just scared of becoming ill – whether this is an anxiety about coming down with something, or just being anxious about throwing up. It is not as uncommon as you might think. For some, this worry dominates their lives, especially if they have young children.
When someone’s mind is filled with worry about becoming ill, it can become all-consuming. They don’t want to mix with others in case they catch something; they are always hyper-sensitive to every little cough or sneeze. It can dominate their lives, and this can lead to a miserable life for themselves and their family.
Of course, it is quite natural to be wary about disease. It is unpleasant to be ill – we can’t get on with our lives, we get bored staying in bed, and it is generally an uncomfortable experience. Fortunately, our bodies are very resilient and we are usually able to get over most diseases given time.
But some people are so anxious about picking up a bug that it almost overwhelms them. Maybe their parents were over-wary about “germs”; maybe they had a particularly bad experience in their past; or maybe they simply watched the constant reminders about Covid during one of the lockdowns. It doesn’t matter where the anxiety came from – if it is dominating your life you need to do something about it.
One of the common consequences of this is a fear of vomiting (or someone close to them vomiting). This is particularly difficult for parents, as they have to deal with the aftermath of their children throwing up. For some, the anxiety of vomit is completely overwhelming. Fear of vomiting is so common, that it has a name – Emetophobia.
If health anxiety or emetophobia is spoiling your life, you need to do something about it. There are a variety of psychological ways to help. Your doctor will likely suggest CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). For myself, I prefer the hypnotherapy approach.
If you would like to experience hypnotherapy for yourself, for health anxiety, emetophobia or another issue, you might like to consider Contacting Me. I offer hypnotherapy services from my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire as well as online.
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/health-anxiety
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