Anxiety

Home>Anxiety

Anxiety is a state of nervousness or fear; it is often experienced as persistent worrying, feeling on edge or apprehensive. Anxiety can be mild and easy to control, but when it is severe it can be debilitating. Anxiety can also take slightly different forms, ranging from specific phobias, to social anxieties, excessive worrying or obsessive behaviours. In its acute state anxiety can be experienced as Panic Attacks. Anxiety can impact on a person’s ability to engage in their daily activities, relationships and study/work. Psychological therapy is very effective in the treatment of anxiety. In severe cases, your doctor may also recommend a course of medication. Depending on the factors underlying your anxiety, lifestyle changes may also be beneficial. These may involve reducing caffeine and alcohol intake, increasing exercise and addressing factors contributing to your stress levels.

Anxiety

We are here to help

close-up-of-woman-s-hand-stress-nervousness-ten-2022-06-13-20-29-19-utc

What to look for

Symptoms of Anxiety

Whilst anxiety is experienced differently between people, the main symptoms of anxiety include:

Excessive and difficult to control worrying
Feeling “on edge” or “wound up”
Disturbances in sleep, feeling restless and easily tired
Headaches and muscular tension
Irritability
Heart palpitations and/or trembling
Quickened breathing
Excessive sweating
Feeling light-headed, dizziness
Diarrhoea, nausea or stomach upsets
Difficulty with concentration and short-term memory
Numbness or “pins and needles” in hands or feet

What Causes Anxiety?

Individuals may develop anxiety due to many factors, some of them including:

A genetic predisposition to develop anxiety
Personality factors
Environmental or external factors e.g. a traumatic event or financial stressors
A chemical imbalance
Medical factors e.g. an illness which causes shortness of breath can worsen feelings of anxiety
Stress often triggers or worsens anxiety
Anxiety may lead people to use alcohol or substances as a coping strategy, however over time these can worsen the anxiety

Treatments for Anxiety

Psychological therapy is very effective in the treatment of anxiety. In severe cases, your doctor may also recommend a course of medication. Depending on the factors underlying your anxiety, lifestyle changes may also be beneficial. These may involve reducing caffeine and alcohol intake, increasing exercise and addressing factors contributing to your stress levels.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a very popular and effective approach to treating anxiety. CBT helps you develop physical relaxation strategies to cope better with the bodily symptoms of anxiety, as well as teaching you to think about the situations that provoke anxiety in a different way. Depending on the nature of your anxiety, psychological treatment might also focus on supporting you to face your fears in a gentle, graded way, with the aim of increasing your confidence and mastering your fears.

Reid Clinical Psycology

Meet Our Team

At Reid Clinical Psycology we believe it is really important that clinicians have a mixture of clinical skill and human qualities that mean you can place your trust in them.