Relieve
Anxiety
ANXIETY
– HYPNOTHERAPEUTIC MANAGEMENT
Anxiety
is a normal emotion experienced by all people
It is
not a problem unless it causes destruction to normal
daily life
It
does have a cause and more frequently of the future
concern or worry than of past baggage.
WHAT
ARE SYMPTOMS
Many
and varied – generally my people have been
examined medically to exclude physical complaint.
Whether
other therapists have described it as generalized
anxiety, phobic anxiety, panic, performance anxiety
or Posttraumatic stress – not so important to me
as I’m dealing with the whole person and working
through your symptoms to reach a solution. Tags and
labels cause you to feel a victim whereas I’m
aiming to get past this mentally and restore the
power we all have within to help ourselves.
Rather than list about thirty
different inner feeling, please go along with me and
agree that you are just feeling unwell, uneasy,
insecure or inadequate and maybe palpitations or
difficulty in establishing an easy natural breathing
pattern. If you feel the increased need to use
alcohol or other drug – isn’t that a sign
that something is wrong?
Quite
often the reason given to me that you attached to it
is not necessarily so.
When
a client presents claiming to suffer from this
condition it must be explored to obtain the reasons
and work towards a resolution where life can go on
more smoothly and comfortably. It is no use saying
the buzzword “stress” because what is a
stressor to you may not be to another. In other words
we must have specific rather than vague reasons.
Often
my clients present with a number of interconnecting
issues and we must somehow prioritize the importance
– often the removal of one issue can have a
snowballing effect and lessen the effectiveness of
other concerns.
It is
not a matter of sitting the client in a chair,
hypnotizing and then presenting verbally a
motivational script by repetition, as so many people
think hypnosis can be just this, unreasonably
expecting results.
The
same goes for any other presenting problem –
causes and effects, exploring and analyzing are all
necessary.
Please
do not be put off – it is not hard work –
really life is very simple, especially our primitive
functioning.
In
this modern somewhat high-pressure world the in lies
the main reason – coping with inevitable change
with the speed at which things happen. This is where
I can help, having learned to cope myself and feel
good about our present day world and all its
imperfections.
My
aim is to help you and to educate you in the true
nature of hypnosis and what its values and
limitations can be.
It
may be that we have to look back into earlier life by
hypnotic regression (please don’t be put off by
the utter simplicity of this experience) that can
release a lot of pressure and weight off the
shoulders.
These
notes can be read in conjunction with the page on
Fear I this website.
I
always encourage ongoing counseling, but still my aim
in therapy is to “get you out of therapy”
I
could give you many relaxation exercises but assume
you have already tried to no avail various breathing
and bodily relaxation techniques as well as
meditative experiences. Frequently those slow
breathing techniques read well, but difficult to
achieve when in the fearful, panic, over reactive
state. It is best to actually talk to the therapist
you decide to consult and then if you get that
intuititive feeling of warmth, okay ness, “I’m
in the right place” it may well be they are to
one to help. I often say to an enquirer “if my
image keeps coming up in your screen, then that is a
positive sign for you”
These
thoughts may prove helpful to you – look at them
frequently.
A
Simple Breathing Technique
The aim is to slow down respiration
temporarily to about 10 breaths per minute, or less.
When over breathing with
anxiety or panic, try this Slow Breathing Technique.
With the tongue on the roof of the mouth,
imagine the inspired air going through the whole body
and on breathing out, imagine the tensions going out
with the breath. The body relaxes much more on the
out breath.
To break out of the cycle of over
breathing when anxious, you need to do two
things.
First you need to increase the
level of carbon dioxide in the blood. This will allow
the available oxygen to be released into the body's cells,
slowly restoring you to normal. To achieve this goal,
at the first sign of anxiety, your should:
1. Stop what
you are doing and stay where you are. Do not flee!
2. Hold your
breath for 10 seconds (use a watch because time seems
to go faster when anxious).
3.
After 10 seconds, breath out and say the word "Relax"
to yourself. Second, you need to decrease your
breathing rate. Doing so will keep oxygen and carbon
dioxide balanced. To achieve this goal, after you
have breathed out, you should:
4.
Breath in and out (through your nose) slowly in a six
second cycle. Breath in for three seconds and out
for three seconds, saying "Relax" to
yourself on every breath out. This produces a breathing
rate of 10 breaths per minute.
5. At the
end of each minute (after 10 breaths), hold your
breath again for 10 seconds and then breathe on a
six second cycle.
6. Continue
breath holding and slow breathing until all the
symptoms of over breathing have gone.
Because the slow breathing
technique first restores and then maintains a balance
between oxygen and carbon dioxide, it is necessary
that it be done at the first sign that anxiety
is rising. If you do these things at the first sign
of over breathing, anxiety will not spiral into panic.
Secondly, the more you practice, the slower your
normal breathing rate will become.
This is somewhat a "re-training"
technique. If you don't feel comfortable with this at
first, persevere for a time and I'm sure it will come
to you.