Glasgow Anxiety Therapy

 Anxiety appears in many forms. Whenever it comes on, whatever it is called, it is fear. It may seem extraordinary that a person may not be able walk to the end of his road, but that is the power of fear. It may be out of proportion, but it is paralysing.   But it doesn’t have to be forever. Anxiety in all forms can be treated. This text comes from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Anxiety has a purpose. It makes us more alert, more aware, more ready for action. The fight or flight hormones rush through our body, getting us ready for action. That’s very useful in the jungle. And a little bit can help if we have to give a talk to colleagues. Too much and you want to run away. That’s panic.

The good news is that you can learn how to regain control. Methods have been developed over the last 50 years or so, and proved to work. So take courage. Decide to take action. Because you can get better.

In hypnosis, you can look at the things that make you anxious and learn to respond in a different way. Because of course, anxiety triggers more anxiety. And fear of anxiety is paralysing too.

With the sort of hypnotherapy that I practice, you can expect to feel significantly better after just a few sessions, armed with some practical techniques that will last you all your life. You will rebuild your self-confidence as your anxiety recedes. Why wait?

If we think about nice things that might happen in the future, we will feel happy and relaxed. If we think about all the terrible things that might happen, then we are likely to feel low.

This is probably the most important thing to know when you are wanting to manage your anxiety.

You can try it out for yourself. Remember a time when you felt really good about yourself. Smile to yourself. How do you feel? Then think of a ghastly mistake you made in the past, and notice all the feelings. With me, it is a hot face and dry mouth, maybe with a sense of shame.

So, knowing that it is your thoughts, or your belief systems and attitudes that are making you feel this way, you can accept that if you change these, then you will change your feelings. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was developed to deal with just this sort of problem. If you want to have a go on your own, try David Burns' book The Feelgood Handbook. Or give me a call and try some cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy.

Is that two things on your To Do List, or just one?

Stress can make you physically ill. There is lots of medical research to showing that stress, especially certain types of chronic stress, have predictable effects on the body's  defences, particularly by reducing the activity of natural killer cells.

The brain is hard-wired to the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system. The brain is in constant contact with these systems through well-defined pathways. So it is not surprising that what happens in the brain can alter host defences.

And this has important consequences for how we manage our wellbeing. If we become defeatist, seeing only the worst outcomes, then that brain-ANS-endocrine link will result in lowered immunity.

Based on the recognition of this connection, Professor Leslie G Walker (Chair of Cancer Rehabilitation) at Hull University and Director of their Institute of Rehabilitation (and a Scot previously based in Aberdeen) uses hypnotherapy to induce a positive attitude in cancer patients. He found that the use of hypnotherapy with cancer patients improved.

Sixty-three patients with Hodgkin’s disease or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were randomised to one of three interventions: (1) training in progressive muscular relaxation and cue controlled relaxation, (2) relaxation plus hypnotherapy (direct hypnotic suggestion) or (3) standard treatment. The purpose of these was to reduce the severity and prevalence of chemotherapy side effects (nausea, vomiting and anticipatory anxiety).

37% of the patients who got the  standard treatment were still alive at the end of the trial.  50% of those offered relaxation techniques with or without hypnotherapy were still alive. The average survival of those in the standard treatment group was 74 months compared with 115 months in those offered relaxation with or without hypnotherapy.

Reducing stress makes a difference to people suffering with a serious illness. So it can help you too. Reducing stress improves your wellbeing.

The most effective way to deal with anxiety and worry is through cognitive behavioural therapy. This is what I use, alongside hypnosis, which has been shown to speed up the process.

But nowadays technology has been harnessed to help you. There are great online therapy courses and there are now apps for your smart phone. So, there are lots of ways now to feel better. No reason to hang on to your worries and anxiety and the misery it causes you.

The technology-based therapies can be used on their own, but if you want a helping hand, then contact me. I have gone modern too, and offer therapy on the phone supported by hypnosis cds which have been prepared just for you, to deal with your specific problems. For some people this is great, as it is anonymous. You don't need to say who you are. And I continue to offer face-to-face therapy sessions in Glasgow and Annan.

This is National Anger Awareness Week. Most of us get angry from time to time. But if we get angry often and easily, unable to resist the urge to flail out and unable to control our actions, then we need to take things in hand.

Anger not only damages relationships, but our own health too. All those fight or flight hormones flooding into the bloodstream cause a range of problems - high blood pressure, lowered resistance to illness, chronic back pain, stroke, insomnia, skin problems, depression, alcoholism. These risks have been shown to be associated with failure to control anger responses.

So in Anger Awareness Week, here are some tips.

When you notice the signs (the red curtain coming down, the faster heart rate, the dry mouth and many more) step back. If you can leave the room, so much the better. When your fight or flight hormones are flooding your bloodstream, you have a choice. Try flight instead of fight.

Go for a run or a brisk walk. This gets those hormones used up and out of your body.

Count backwards from ten.

Breathe slowly. Breathe in deeply, hold it at the top till it is uncomfortable, then breathe out slowly. Simple, but effective.
If you tend to breathe lightly just in your chest rather than down in your belly (like athletes do) then learning belly breathing would be useful. Yoga teachers know how to do this.

As a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist, I can help you to change the style of thinking that could be contributing to your anger. Maybe other people just don`t respond to you as they should. Or they ought to do the things you want them to do. If you hear yourself say Ought, Should or Must, then  your demands of others might be unreasonable. If you feel hard done by, this will make you angry. The more you think these thoughts, the more miserable you will be. And when you feel bad, you get angry, your self-confidence plummets, your self-esteem drops.

Challenging these ways of thinking will help to feel calm and in control, confident, strong and empowered. You could learn how to do this by coming to see me, or try some useful self-help books, like David Burns `Feeling Good`.

Easily hypnotised people can hallucinate colours whenever they want to. They can even choose which colour. This research comes from
University of Hull. Psychologists gathered together two groups - one group where they considered themselves  highly suggestible and another group that said they were not easily hypnotised. The groups were shown some black-and-white patterns and asked to try to see colors in them. The highly suggestible group while in hypnosis was consistently able to see colours while the second group generally failed at this task.

The psychologists were able to measure some extraordinary brain activity in the highly suggestible group. These subjects showed significant changes in the parts of their brains responsible for visual perception. Previous research has shown hypnosis can get people to see colours that aren't there, but this new research indicates that the hypnosis simply unlocks a natural ability.

What this is showing is that people who are easily suggestible can alter their brain activity at will. Lead researcher Professor Giuliana Mazzoni says "These are very talented people. They can change their perception and experience of the world."

Some people are naturally good at hypnosis - which is a skill and can be learned. You get better at it with practice. Hypnosis is totally voluntar. This research shows that you can change your perception of the world through hypnosis. This is very helpful if you are trying to change something troublesome in your life. Because hypnosis allows us to alter our perception of the world, it means we change change from being anxious and worried, bounced around by our emotions or other people,  to feeling calm and in control.