COUNSELLING THE GURU’ CHANGE IS POSSIBLE

The rise of generalised anxiety in an uncertain financial climate

IN an uncertain financial climate and an economic downturn, many families feel a generalised sense of anxiety about how they may meet the rising cost of living and ensure that they have enough income to cover costs.

The war in Ukraine, an unstable banking sector and steep rising inflation and food costs, all add to pressures on families.

A social environment that feels unstable does add fear and insecurity to those who are ‘breadwinners’ in families.

952 147 834

“The result was communicated to the family on February 27, 2023 and was devastating for them,” a lawsuit filed by pressure group The Patient’s Ombudsman states. The family is suing the health system as well as the Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar in Cadiz. The regional health chief, Catalina Garcia, launched an investigation into what exactly happened.

Fears

The lawyer acting for the family, which has not been identified, also raised fears about how far-reaching the error could be: i.e. another family undergoing IVF treatment may have had a baby using the man’s sperm.

The group has opted to go public with the story in order to avoid such mistakes happening again. “It’s obvious that what happened cannot be sorted out, but perhaps if everyone hears about it, it won’t happen again,” a spokesman said.

This anxiety may show itself in a generalised form of anxiety, a sharp rise in fears and a rise in bodily tensions such as tighter muscles in the jaw, head and neck, feelings of dread or catastrophic thoughts and low moods.

Generalised anxiety due to stressors should be seen through the prism of a constant overactive bodily stress response. Sometimes this overactive stress response is related to a specific life event or sometimes, it starts to become the ‘norm’ in how people think and feel because the body has adapted to react to a consistent perceived threat.

If anxiety and stress is not countered long term, the body adapts to this hyper-active state which leaves the body and mind in a constant state of alert. This is what we call ‘generalised anxiety’ and the longer people feel financially unstable, the greater the risk that generalised anxiety can bed into those who are the main family earners. Counselling is one of a range of treatments to help individuals manage their stress levels and underlying thoughts and feelings that can trigger high stress anxiety reactions.

Whilst many people may have events in their lives that lead to high levels of anxiety, generalised anxiety is more of a deeper rooted issue that points to historical events that have shaped the way that an individual interprets or reacts to world events.

For example, trauma events, parents who projected consistent fears of the world to their children, as well as unstable home environments can all affect the subconscious of someone who has experienced such adverse life events so that they feel a deeper sense of the world being a risk to their existence. These innate fears trigger the fear centres in their brain which become sensitised over time and which remain on ‘high alert’ for risk.

Sadness

So whilst someone who has not been affected by adverse life events may look at the loss of their job through the prism of sadness tinged with a desire to get another job, individuals with traumatic childhoods or adverse life conditions may view the same event as another bad event in a catalogue of bad events in their life and that such depressing news was only a matter of time because ‘nothing good ever happens to me’. This in turn can trigger the same ‘fear centre’ in the brain, reconfirming a mental loop that the world is unstable and that the individual is somehow incapable, weak or unable to cope. Counselling can help such individuals make sense of where these thoughts come from and provide opportunities for an individual to develop self-compassion and a deeper sense of understanding of the root causes of why they think and feel certain ways.

For many, this realisation is life changing to the point that they are able to slough off old behaviour patterns that have held them back. Change is really possible and the first step is reaching out for help and acknowledging that there is a problem.