A bit about Stress, Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Anxiety is not an illness

Whether it shows as Stress, Phobias or Panic Attacks, Anxiety is not a weakness nor is it something wrong with

you.

It is a very natural, healthy and essential response, just at the wrong time. It is your body going into

overdrive to deal with danger.

It is only a problem when it is at an excessive level and in inappropriate situations.

Anxiety affects more people than you would imagine

Almost half of people believe they are more anxious today than they were 5 years ago and that it has stopped

them doing things

Almost 1 in 5 feel anxious all or a lot of the time.

Mixed Anxiety and Depression is the most common problem, reported by 1 in 10 people and Generalised

Anxiety Disorder accounts for 30% of mental health problems seen by GPs.

Agoraphobia affects up to 1 in 8 people. And Phobias and OCD are more common than people think.

So you are not alone. But because people don’t talk about it, it may seem that way.

Anxiety makes you feel terrible

Anxiety has uncomfortable and often frightening symptoms - pounding heart, palpitations, difficult breathing, sweating, shaking limbs and dizziness.

We feel out of control. And often, because we can’t believe that such terrifying symptoms can just be down to

Anxiety, we are convinced that we must have a serious physical illness such as a heart problem and even in

extreme situations that we are going to die.

So often these feelings can seem illogical and part of our brain knows there is no need to be anxious, but we

feel powerless to stop it. So we can end up thinking we are weak and unable to control ourselves. We can

even fear we are going mad.

Anxiety is only likely to get worse the longer we leave it

What may begin as stress or mild anxiety can so easily grow and become Panic Attacks or other life-limiting

feelings.

It is very rare that anxiety will just go away or even remain at the same level if we don’t do anything about it.

It is likely to get more intense or affect more aspects of our life.

Another problem is that what may seem obvious coping strategies not only don’t work but usually make it

even worse. Avoidance of situations is common, a quarter of individuals turn to comfort eating and/or alcohol.

Anxiety can be resolved

Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks are always easier to resolve the earlier we take steps to deal with them.

And when we do it in ways that will Resolve Your Anxiety rather than just coping with the symptoms.