Anxiety & Stress

We all feel stressed and anxious from time to time. Stress is the bodies way of protecting you, it can be a great motivator when working well. However, if you experience too much stress it stops being helpful and can cause serious health issues and anxiety. You may experience symptoms such as rapid or irregular heartbeat, fast breathing, sweating, nausea, dizziness, trouble sleeping, feeling irritable, lack of concentration and panic attacks.

We can all be affected by stress, experiencing change such as having a baby, bereavement and serious illness are a few common reasons.  Another source of stress can be the ‘absence’ of change such as being unemployed, financial difficulties and relationship difficulties. Stress generally begins with a pressure from either ourselves or others, if we feel overwhelmed by pressure, we feel stressed, simple as that.

Anxiety typically incorporates both the emotional and physical sensations experienced when we feel worried or nervous.  It is related to the ‘flight or flight’ response that is an unpleasant but normal reaction when our body perceives a threat.

The feeling of butterflies in your stomach is often the first sign that the ‘fight or flight’ response has been activated.  The ‘fight or flight’ response acts as an internal alarm system which was designed to protect us from danger in the wild. 

However, moving forward a few million years, although really helpful if facing real danger, anxiety can cause the ‘fight or flight’ response to be activated at inappropriate or non-threatening moments, a little like your smoke alarm going off when the toast is burning!  This level of anxiety can make you imagine that things are worse than they are.

At Quiet Minds, we will work with you to break down the areas of your life that are causing you difficulties and support you in making changes where possible.  Alongside this, we will teach you relaxation techniques in order to lower your stress level and build manageable goals for the future.

NB Stressful events outside the norm of human experience, may lead to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)