Anxiety disorder

Anxiety Disorder

Everyone gets a bit anxious from time to time. Our teenagers are home a bit late and we wonder if they’ve had an accident or something worse.

We make a mistake at work and we wonder if we can smooth things out and correct them before the boss notices and gives us an earful. We sit exams and wait for the results

These are all common reasons to be anxious and if you’ve faced a few situations like this and think that you’re anxious all the time, you might not need to worry or consider seeking help from hypnotherapy.

But sometimes anxiety goes beyond normal worries about actual threats and becomes more of a habit – or, more correctly, a disorder. This is where you do need to seek help of some kind to help you break the habit. Some people try medication as a solution to anxiety disorder,

but as this is a problem that originates in the mind rather than in the body (although some physical aspects do play a part in anxiety disorder), it’s better to seek help from something that works with the mind and in the thinking, which is what clinical hypnosis aims to do.

How do you know if you have anxiety disorder and need help or whether you’ve just been a week bit stressed lately? (If the latter is the case, then you don’t need to turn to hypnotherapy to calm down and feel better – a nice hot bath,

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a soothing warm cup of hot chocolate and a good night’s sleep will work wonders, as will a good comedy movie!) One thing that psychologists and therapists use to help diagnose clinical anxiety is the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale.

This is a test that you can do on yourself and give yourself a score, depending on whether your answer is “a little of the time” (one point), “some of the time” (two points), “a good part of the time” (three points) or “most of the time” (four points).

A score of 20 (the minimum) to 40 is considered normal, 45–59 is classed as mild anxiety, while scores of 60 or more means that you have marked anxiety levels and probably need help – and a score of over 75 means that you have extreme anxiety and you should seek help straight away.

It should also be noted that there isn’t a category for “never” or a score of zero, so if you try our quiz below, choose the answer that is the closest to the truth for you. If you’d like to have a go at rating yourself to see if you do have anxiety disorder and really do need help from hypnotherapy or some other source,

use the points system listed above to score your answers to the following 20 questions, which have been taken from the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. However, please note that questions 4, 6, 8, 11 and 20 are “reverse scored” meaning that if you answer “most of the time” to these,

you subtract four points from your score. And for question 13, it doesn’t count if you get tingling in your fingers and toes because you’ve been sitting on them for too long and got “pins and needles”! These questions are a guide only and aren’t a substitute for a proper clinical diagnosis. Here goes:

1. I am troubled by dizzy spells.

2. I am troubled by headaches neck and back pain.

3. I am bothered by indigestion or stomach-aches.

4. I can breathe in and out easily.

5. I can feel my heart beating rapidly.

6. I fall asleep easily and get a good night’s rest.

7. I feel afraid or scared for no reason at all.

8. I feel calm and can sit still easily.

9. I feel like I’m falling apart and going to pieces.

10. I feel more nervous and anxious than usual.

11. I feel that everything is OK and nothing bad will happen.

12. I feel weak and get tired or exhausted easily.

13. I get numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes.

14. I get upset easily or feel panicky.

15. I have fainting spells or feel like I’m going to.

16. I have nightmares or bad dreams.

17. I have to empty my bladder often.

18. My arms and legs shake and tremble.

19. My face gets hot and blushes.

20. My hands are usually dry and warm.

It also should be noted that if your main symptoms are constant tiredness (question 12) and frequent trips to empty your bladder (question 17), then your problem may not be anxiety disorder. These are also the main symptoms of diabetes,

so if these symptoms have been accompanied by frequent thirst and hunger, it’s probably wise to visit your doctor and have a blood test before you book yourself in for a session of Anxiety Treatment Brisbane .

What causes anxiety disorder? The main cause is, of course, stress. Often, people put up with low-levels of stress but then get tipped over the edge into a full anxiety disorder by a major stressor, such as having to undergo major surgery, bereavement or financial problems.

Anxiety disorder can also be triggered by major trauma, such as being the victim of a violent crime.

Anxiety disorder is often found alongside clinical depression and is very frequently linked with phobias.

It’s fairly safe to say that many of the people who come through our doors for hypnotherapy because of a phobia have a degree of anxiety disorder, though whether this is the cause or the effect of the phobia is open to debate, as these conditions tend to “feed” each other.

While it is not common, there may be a physical cause behind anxiety disorder. The most common physical causes of anxiety disorder are the things we drink, especially alcohol and caffeinated drinks.

Alcoholics and coffee addicts who are trying to wean themselves off the habit often go through a period of acute anxiety, especially if they go “cold turkey�.

No matter what’s behind your anxiety, you don’t have to live with it, and you can and should find help and support so you can be free of it.

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