Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety and depression are things we all experience from time to time.  You are not alone.  It is estimated that one in four of the adult population will suffer from anxiety and depression at some point in their lives. Treating depression also helps ease symptoms of anxiety. Depression and anxiety can also cause physical symptoms, professional counselling can make dealing with anxiety easier you will learn ways to deal with anxiety attacks and take control of your life.

Anxiety is a normal response to stress or danger. At times, it is helpful because it can help prepare the body for action and it can improve performance in a range of situations.

Anxiety like depression becomes a problem when it’s experienced intensely and it persistently interferes with your daily life or when it occurs for no reason.

Counselling and psychotherapy can help you understand your anxiety /depression based on your unique situation and circumstances. Anxiety and depression affects each person differently, counselling can help you understand and identify underlying factors associated with your anxiety / depression, the core issues and causes, to help you gain a deeper understanding and awareness of how they developed and where they came from.

Some people have a very identifiable cause for their anxiety, which may include a traumatic event, living a stressful life or have undergone a significant life event (bereavement, moving to a new home, getting divorced, having surgery).

Some of the most common physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety are:

• Increased heart rate, palpitations and chest pains, you may feel you are having a heart attack.
• Difficulty with breathing and hyperventilating (over breathing) you may think you are going to die.
• Shaking, sweating, a dry mouth and struggling to speak, you may think people are looking at you and know you are suffering with anxiety.
• Increased muscle tension, tingling (pins and needles)
• Feeling physically sick, dizzy, hot flushes and headaches.

Anxiety can make you feel on edge and out of control, that everything around you, is speeding up or slowing down. You are going mad and losing the plot. You just want to leave or run away, escape from the situation anxiety can leave you feeling detached from the environment and people around you.

Although avoiding an anxiety provoking situation produces immediate relief from the anxiety, it is only a short-term solution. This means that whilst it may seem like avoiding is the best thing to do at the time, the anxiety often returns the next time that you face the situation and avoiding it will only psychologically reinforce the message that there is danger. The problem with avoidance is that you never get to find out whether your fear about the situation and what would happen is actually true.

Depression, we all feel sad from time to time, rare bouts of depression that last only a few days are usually not a problem for most people. Feeling sad and depressed may creep up and increase over, a period of time and can interfere with everyday life. Symptoms include:

• feeling sad most of the time
• feeling tired or having low energy most of the day
• loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
• changes in appetite, weight loss or weight gain
• trouble concentrating
• difficulty sleeping
• feeling worthless
• feeling helpless or hopeless
• unexplained headaches, stomach problems or muscular/skeletal pain
• thoughts of death or suicide

Anxiety and Depression Counselling

Perhaps you’ve been feeling low for a few weeks, stressed at work which is causing you to feel worried and anxious for long periods of time, or things are getting on top of you. We all expect to catch a cough or cold once in a while but when it comes to the way we feel emotionally, it can be hard to recognise or admit that we’re are not feeling 100%. This is where anxiety and depression counselling can help.