Anxiety Counselling

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Anxiety in Stockport  

Everybody at some point in their lives will suffer from anxiety.  Here are some common anxiety disorders:

• Health Anxiety (Hypochondriasis)
• OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
• GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder)
• Panic Disorder

Would you benefit from Anxiety Counselling?

Symptoms of anxiety can take many forms and guises from low level anxiety to full-blown anxiety attacks but some of the following are commonplace among anxiety sufferers:-

• Feeling irritable more than usual
• Feeling nervous in normal situations
• Disrupted sleep patterns and difficult sleeping
• Muscle tension and unable to ‘unwind’
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness of light headedness
• Dry mouth
• Shaking or tremors
• Blurred/altered vision
• Loose bowel movements
• Flushes
• Extreme fatigue

Physical symptoms of anxiety can become entwined with psychological symptoms. If someone feels excessively nervous or dizzy in a situation, then the situation itself begins to engender more anxiety, leading potentially to avoidant behaviour. You can get caught in a vicious circle and that’s the point at which you may need my help. For Stockport Anxiety Counselling I provide tailored, caring, discreet and effective therapies to help reduce patients levels of anxiety permanently.

Symptoms of anxiety, such as sudden dizziness and palpitations, can themselves cause further anxiety creating a vicious circle which sufferers can become locked into, feeling that they are losing control or struggling to cope.  People feel their panic is noticeable which can lead to the development of social anxiety disorders. At Stockport anxiety disorder counselling, therapeutic tactics are deployed to challenge the thinking and behaviour behind anxiety disorders and help individuals to ‘rewire’ themselves again.

Why do we get Anxiety Disorder and where does it come from?

As mentioned previously, modern life can be stressful and any number of factors can trigger the development of anxiety disorders. It may be a sudden, profound event such as the death of a loved one or divorce, or can be a gradual build-up of niggling problems at home or work. It can also be that a person has learned behaviours or ways of thinking at an early age which predispose them towards anxiety disorders for no clear reason.  Regardless of cause, anxiety disorder counselling can be effective in provoking positive change.

It may not feel like it when you’re anxious but the physical mechanism for anxiety was once a vital part of our development. In situations where an individual was threatened, a massive surge of adrenaline to kick-start action would be released, preparing a person for ‘flight or fight’. Except on rare, extreme occasions, this mechanism is no longer a necessary facet of modern life but people can still trigger surges when they become stressed.

Types of Anxiety Disorder

Generalised Anxiety Disorder is an underlying, on-going form of anxiousness without apparent reason. Sufferers tend to have problems with sleeping, relaxing and related symptoms such as tension.

Panic Attacks are anxiety disorders that strike suddenly in certain situations and can be debilitating. The ‘classic’ anxiety attack is an unpleasant concoction of shortness of breath, dizziness and palpitations that can make people believe they are close to collapse or having a heart attack. It can cause avoidant behaviours such as fear of going places where they could have an attack and feel trapped or in extreme cases fear of leaving their home – agoraphobia.

Such phobic anxiety disorders aren’t limited to situations but can be developed by people towards things or objects such as spiders or giving blood. Social phobia is seen as an extreme version of shyness with the fear of being judged or noticed severe enough to cause blushing or nausea.

If you think you may be suffering from any of these anxiety disorders or low-lying anxiety, then call Stockport counselling today and start taking the first steps towards a healthier and more enjoyable life.  Short-term relief for extreme anxiety should be sought from your GP who may prescribe sedatives or beta-blockers to reduce symptoms, while long-term counselling is beneficial in helping people work through their anxiety disorders.

Stockport Counselling Services provides support to people with phobias through behavioural therapy, while cognitive behaviour therapy is a proven effective approach for countering panic disorders and GAD.