Counselling for anxiety - Auckland

Anxiety has many symptoms which can be grouped into

• Mood symptoms
  e.g., Feeling anxious, wound up, fearful, scared, frightened

• Body Symptoms
  e.g., Tense, nausea, dizziness, light-headedness, hot and cold flushes, racing heart, trembling, shaky, sweating, irregular breathing, churning stomach, need to go to the toilet

• Thinking Symptoms
  e.g., What if? thoughts, worry thoughts, racing mind

• Behaviour symptoms
  e.g., Avoiding people or places that trigger your anxiety

Anxiety is a normal reaction when people are in worrying situations or are faced with danger.  You can think of anxiety as a tool our body uses to warn us of potential danger and alert our bodies to spring into action and defend ourselves.  You have probably heard of the system in our bodies called the “fight or flight” response which produces physical changes so that we can defend ourselves.  This is very useful and adaptive in situations we have to respond quickly, for example, moving out of the way of a train.

Some anxiety (a moderate amount) results in increased productivity, where you might experience a bit of a “charge”, you’re ready for action and your performance improves.  For example, this might be felt before an important performance –helping us focus and perform well under pressure.  The optimal amount of anxiety differs for each of us so we need to find it individually and not compare it with others.

The problem occurs when our bodies start the fight or flight response when the threat in the environment is not obvious or there is a very strong bodily response to a threat that most people would not think is severe.   The good news is that you can learn to manage it.

There are many types of anxiety not all of which are listed here.  Each of these anxiety problems have been shown to respond well to cognitive behaviour therapy.

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by a lot of worry about many different areas of life.  If one worry is solved, people who suffer GAD will keep worrying about other areas.  Other symptoms of GAD include restlessness or feeling on edge, difficulty concentrating and being easily distracted, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, difficulties falling or staying asleep, stomachache, diarrhea, headache.  These symptoms must be on-going, persisting at least 6 months.

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can be a disabling condition where sufferers find themselves having repeated unwanted thoughts (obsessions) which they try to ameliorate by performing some action (compulsions).  Sufferers recognize that the thought is excessive and unreasonable but feel driven to perform compulsions which reduce distress and provide short term relief.
  
  Common themes of OCD thoughts are about contamination (i.e., themselves or people they love will be contaminated), doubting (e.g., did they lock the door or turn off the oven), or aggressive or sexual impulses that would be socially unacceptable.  Compulsions from the above thoughts might include handwashing, repeatedly checking the door or oven, hiding knives or avoiding people they think they might hurt.
  
  People often feel trapped by OCD as the more the try and perform compulsions to stop the thoughts, the more the thoughts occur.

• Social phobia is a common problem where people fear being judged negatively which they think will then lead to being rejected or found socially unacceptable.  Because social situations provoke such anxiety, they are often avoided, or endured with gritted teeth.  Usually the fear involves being embarrassed (e.g., others noticing the blushing face or trembling hands) and that others will deem them anxious, crazy or weak because of this.
• Health anxiety used to be known (and sometimes still is) as hypochondriasis.  People with health anxiety believe that they have (or are at risk of developing) a serious illness. The preoccupation with this causes distress or interference in life in some way, however they can acknowledge the possibility that there may not be an illness or that they might be overstressing the negative elements of the situation.
• Click here for strategies for relaxation or information to help with worry.
• Often sleep can be affected by worry and anxiety, here are some sleep tips to help.
• If you feel like talking to someone about what's bothering you, please call us on (09) 361 2303