Glasgow Anxiety Therapy

Research by T. D. Borkovec and colleagues of Penn State University  took a look at how worry manifests itself. The founds that worries have greater feelings of tension, anxiety and apprehension, and that their focus is on the future, rather than the past or present. Of course, the future is unknowable, and worriers have a tendency to try to think about the future as a way of making it more predictable. Worries think up lots of What if.... scenarios to try to work out what might happen. The subjects of this research rated motivation, preparation for the worst, and avoidance and prevention of negative outcomes as the most typical reasons for their worry.

In this research, people who considered themselves to be worriers, felt their worries to be uncontrollable once worrying was initiated. This and other research shows that worrying consists of intrusive thoughts which pop up uninvited, rather than intrusive images (which happens with anxiety.)

The researchers assessed the ability of non-worriers and worriers to concentrate on a monotonous task after they had been asked to do some worrying for set periods.

For both worriers and non-worriers, 15 min of worry resulted in an increase in the amount of negative intrusive thoughts. Thus, even non-worriers experienced these unpleasant intrusive thoughts when they were asked to do some worrying. The process of worrying causes these unpleasant thoughts, and thus for worriers, keeps the cycle turning. Worrying makes the intrusive thoughts worse.

Worriers seem generally more pessimistic. This research shows that before the worry period, worriers reported significantly higher anxiety. depression and hostility, a lower frequency of focused attention and a greater frequency of negative thought intrusions than did non-worriers.

So worrying gets in the way of feeling good. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy will help you get out of the habit.

We worry about all sorts of things. In this area, we tend to be very creative. We worry about blushing or the shape of our noses. We fear that we will make a fool of ourselves in front of our friends or colleagues if we are asked to speak. We get anxious about going to the loo, or not finding a loo. And all of these worries, and more besides, interfere with our lives, and make us unhappy. Even worse, we get into the habit of worrying, so that all these unpleasant thoughts are the first that pop into our minds and overwhelm the good experiences. Worrying like this can damage our self-esteem and self-confidence, making us unwilling to take on new challenges and this takes a lot of the fun out of our lives.

In all of these cases and many more, cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy works fast and effectively and therefore offers terrific value for money. Why not give it a try. You have nothing to lose but your worries!

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.

Research by Harvard psychologists show that the wandering mind is not a happy mind.

People are happiest when they are involved in what they are doing - living in the moment. That might be talking, listening to music, taking exercise. They found that people were least happy when they were resting, working, or using the home computer. Watching telly, doing the housework is neutral. Doing stuff builds our self-confidence.

Unlike other animals we spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around us. Most of us spend a great amount of time thinking about what might happen in the future, or raking over the past, they report. And it makes us feel bad.

How does this help us? Well, it reminds us that we should live in the moment. If you find you are ruminating about the past or worrying about the future, then getting involved with other people, going for a walk, working on a project. Anything where you can immerse yourself in the experience will make you feel much better. Find an interest that will engage you. And coming along for a session of cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy will help you if you have trouble with this idea.

Most of all, don't stay at home on the sofa.

Worrying doesn't usually help us to solve our problems. Worries tend to be rather vague and as a result they lurk around. Writing them down helps. You can look over your worries and decide which ones are productive, where you can take some action, and we can treat these as problems to be resolved.  Others are unproductive, because there is little effective action you can take.

The following tips are from the Harvard Business Review in May this year. Though they relate to business, they have more general relevance for our everyday lives.

• Get input on pros and cons. List advantages and disadvantages and ask others for their perspective on which carries the heaviest weight.
• Balance short term with long term. Determine what you'd be willing to give up in the long run for some important short-term gain — and vice versa.
• Gauge support. While weighing alternatives, think about who will support a particular idea and who will oppose it. Ask whose support you can live without, and whose backing and buy-in you absolutely need.

When something bad happened in the past, we can fear it coming back again.

So, having made an effort to recover from a bad event and finding pleasure, happiness and contentment, there is an uncomfortable niggling feeling that it won't last. That the bad thing is going to happen again. This takes away much of the delight of appreciating your success in overcoming difficult times. It stops you from living in the present.

Something bad in the past is in the past. It is over. Processing the experience fully will allow you to spot the difference between past, present and future.

Certain images and thoughts about a bad experience can pop into your mind unbidden and you get all those unpleasant sensations of anxiety. And then you worry that these feelings are telling you something important, that there is danger present. But these feelings are just normal reactions to the thought of the earlier experience. Feelings get confused with real danger. But there is no threat.

As a result, though, sometimes we avoid getting involved in things that are a bit like the bad experience. All this does is make your world smaller. To recover, we need to get involved again. Back into situations that trigger these memories. Only then can you learn that history doesn't have to repeat itself, and that you can cope. You've coped before and you will again.

Most of us worry in a random but constant way. A nasty self-critical thought pops up, or we brood on something that might happen and think of all the disasters that could entail. The random thoughts seem to self-generate and continue endlessly, all without your control. What can we do?

If persistent worrying is your problem, then making an appointment with your worry can be very effective. This limits the amount of time that you spend worrying, but also allows you to move the thoughts away from vague and non-specific to something a bit clearer. What exactly is it that is worrying you. Write it down. Clarify it.

To do this, spotting the onset of worrying is the key. You will find that there are certain thoughts or feelings that get you started and certain feelings and sensations that go with them. Make a note of these so that you can catch them at it. Once you find yourself worrying, interrupt yourself and tell your worries that you will deal with them during your appointment. You can then relax and get on with whatever you were doing. You will worry properly at the appointment. Sounds simple? Even a bit silly? Well, it has been shown time and again to be really effective. Persistent worrying is a habit. You can unlearn it.

And it you need a helping hard, contact me and have a go at hypnotherapy. It works and it's fast. You'll be feeling better in no time.

In managing anxiety, one of the things to look for are distorted, dysfunctional ways of thinking and then find more helpful and realistic ways of thinking.

Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) identified one of the most common dysfunctional beliefs as “There is invariably a right, precise, and perfect solution to human problems and it is catastrophic if this perfect solution is not found.” (Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, 1962).

Intolerance of uncertainty has been shown to correlate with the presence of worry. There is also some evidence that intolerance of uncertainty precedes development of worry. So if we could be more tolerant of the reality of uncertainty, a lot of this worry would go, and we would feel happier.

Some chronic worriers prefer certainty about a negative outcome happening to uncertainty. "Just let it happen and get it over with". Perhaps knowing that something bad is going to happen helps some of us get down to planning how to cope, whereas uncertainty keeps us on edge. 

People who feel in this way compulsively seek to reduce uncertainty in their lives. They keep checking on the internet or asking their doctor or friends for information. They think about their worries constantly.   However, this quest for certainty seldom leads to satisfaction and people who suffer from chronic worry waste time trying to reach certainty, where none is available. Or procrastinate and avoid things because taking action might involve risk and uncertain outcomes.

The way to deal with this is to practice eliminating attempts to reduce uncertainty. Stop checking on the internet, stop seeking reassurance. Letting uncertainty become a normal part of life. Which it is. Hypnotherapy will help you achieve this goal.

One of the things that distinguishes cognitive behavioural therapy from the sort of therapy you see in American films, is that we focus on the here and now. We don't bother too much about what might have happened in your childhood. We are much more interested in how to make your life better now. More of an action focus than an analytical one.

Similarly, one of the things that distinguishes humans from animals is our ability to contemplate the future and reflect on the past. This is helpful. It allows us to plan for the future, and learn from the past. This helps us to solve problems. But it is also unhelpful, because this ability to contemplate and reflect also means that we worry about the future and go over the past again and again, ruminating on what we might have done better or what someone who said something really meant.

These worries and ruminations are not much help. They tend to just go round and round on the same old stuff. Worries are in some nebulous, imaginary and usually rather scary future. Ruminating and groaning about the past is not much help either. The past is over and done with.

But we can relearn how to use this amazing ability to contemplate and reflect in a way that is helpful. We can plan for the future in a realistic and helpful way.  We can look to see how things that went wrong might be avoided if we take certain action. And this frees up a  mass of time so that we can spend more time in the here and now, enjoying life, immersing ourselves in activity, getting involved with other people.

So rather than analysing everything, give my sort of cognitive behavioural therapy a go. The addition of hypnosis will excite you once again to possibilities and delight!