Anxiety

Anxiety Counselling in London

As an MBPsS and MBACP accredited counsellor and psychologist based in London, Divya C. Berry is able to help with a range of anxiety disorders and counselling.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a prevailing sense of doom, or gloom, about what could go wrong. It belongs to the spectrum of anxiety disorders, which include many, but the prevalent underbelly is that of a set of thoughts, feelings, and emotions that evoke a feeling known as ‘anxiety’ – a feeling that something is about to go wrong, or that all that could go wrong indeed will.

The feelings often more expressed than not around feeling anxious could involve any of the following:

• A feeling of nervousness
• Restlessness
• Panic attacks
• Tension
• Feeling stressed
• A sense of impending danger
• Unsafety
• Panic about what may happen

Anxiety impacts both the mental and physical realm – in fact, it is a highly physiological condition in that it displays itself viscerally by signalling a set of messages to the Sympathetic Nervous System. When we are anxious, we may experience symptoms that feel very physical but are a result of the neurotransmitter imbalance that the mechanism has triggered. The mechanism is known as Fight/Flight/Freeze, and beyond psychological literature and research, it is a very real phenomenon that takes place during the anxiety response.

Learning to live with and overcome one’s anxiety involves recognising the problem, naming it for what it is, and then learning the tools and techniques to deal with them. The experience of working with your anxiety to overcome it is definitely one that needs patience and support, as well as a better understanding of how anxiety impacts the mind and the body – see also body-mind therapy.

How Anxiety Presents

Anxiety presents itself in the mind in terms of cyclical thoughts and fixed ideas, and in the body in terms of physical sensations.

In the Mind

• Disconnected thoughts
• Fixated ideas
• Distraction
• Repeated thought intrusion
• Tendency for the same idea to appear repeatedly
• Fears
• Irrational thoughts
• Phobias
• Unnatural concern about something
• Ruminating about the future
• Introspective thinking that is beyond the normal realm
• Catastrophising
• Imagining the worst
• Focusing only on the negative
• Inability to see the bigger picture

…and many more that can cause serious disruption not just of the quality of life but also constitute the base for real health problems that leave the person quite unwell and incapacitated.

In the Body

The physical symptoms of anxiety may involve:

• Racing pulse
• Shallow or fast breathing
• Pupils dilating / constricting
• Blood pressure rising
• Migraine headaches
• Sweaty palms
• Dry mouth
• Weakened limb movements
• Jittery limbs
• Involuntary movements
• Upset stomach
• Stomach reflex
• IBS
• Acidity

…and many more that can range from simple headaches to panic attacks that can cause a visit to the emergency room.

Common Anxiety States & Diagnoses

The diagnosed spectrum of anxiety disorders includes the following: Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Phobias, Social Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Separation Anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

All of these disorders present differently, and are reflective of their own extremity or mildness, but the common theme is feeling anxious with a fear of what may be. Even if a person does not exhibit all the symptoms required for it to be clinically classified as a disorder, they can be a victim of anxiety, a long-time sufferer who does not need a diagnosis. Anxiety can colour the landscape of their lives in a deep-seated, toxic way that is even more difficult to diagnose.

How Can Therapy Help with Anxiety?

Anxiety counselling helps by helping you to identify your own triggers, sort out what feels real and what is unlikely to happen, and most of all, provide a safe space to take all the unresolved fears and feelings around anxiety that can render a person quite incapacitated.

Once some stability is reached through this process, awareness-building work can begin with the idea of rooting oneself in the present and literally training the self to not be focused on what may happen in the future.

The safe space of the therapy room is an area where the person does not need to explain why the anxious thoughts feel totally real to them – that version of their story is completely accepted and received with empathy. Not being judged and given the opportunity to tell your own story in your own words can go a long way towards opening up hidden wounds and stuck spaces in the psyche. Therapeutic interventions for anxiety relief is a process – a process of getting to know the whole person and working with them compassionately to overcome the helpless and hapless feelings around this set of disorders.

Coping Techniques for Anxiety

First of all, ground yourself. Become aware that, while the experience you are having feels real and your symptoms are real, they are mostly about something that is either yet to take place or not real in its entirety in the way it has arrived in your mind. The mind is quick to remodel old patterns and the brain makes synaptic connections quicker than we can manage; hence grounding yourself by way of simple measures like deep breathing, taking off one’s shoes and walking barefoot on the ground, and removing screens from around us, go a long way in beginning the grounding process.

Next, it would be important to look into one’s repertoire of skills and techniques that have come either from therapy or awareness building and self-knowledge, in order to understand what are the causes of stress in the current moment and an assessment of how well resourced you may be to deal with it. This is not the moment to imagine the worst-case scenario, but rather to imagine your resources in dealing with the worst as it appears in your mind.

Different therapies promote different techniques including CBT, behavioural therapy, stress release, and chakra healing. Gestalt therapy has its own way which involves imagery, body work, and releasing feelings in the here and now of the moment.

My Approach to Anxiety Counselling: Training & Experience

“Anxiety is the gap between now and later.”– Fritz Perls

This quote singularly captures the essence of how Gestalt Therapy deals with anxiety. The focus is on understanding how anxiety is rooted in a fear of what may be, in the future, and what may not be. Gestalt techniques that seek to ground the client go a long way in helping root themselves in the here and now, hence the potential to not get too caught up in the future or the past.

The extreme and uncomfortable feelings associated with anxiety, both mental and visceral, are usually about the dread of what may come later, of an event that is yet to take place. Hence, the play on the words – now and later.

In my experience of working with anxiety in London and elsewhere, I first try to create a sense of honesty through empathy about the extent of debilitating thoughts the client has had. The first place to begin is that of removing the feelings of shame and vulnerability experienced – as the logical mind may know that some of these thoughts are useless and may never happen; however, getting in touch with the illogical and irrational in the self can feel demeaning and difficult.

Moving on from that feeling of trust and confidence, it would involve hearing the person’s story – the whole journey of when anxiety began for them and all the forms it takes place in. Finally, a lot of our work would involve grounding, imagery, and body work, which would literally mean learning to identify triggers and also notice where in the body anxiety is felt. Knowing these triggers and symptoms would go a long way in helping the mind to notice their arrival at the early stages and perhaps ‘halt’ the anxiety process.

I want to know your story – your first brushes with anxiety in your childhood and how it is different when you are resourced as an adult, or if you are not. And that is okay, either way.

Resources to Support Yourself

Here are some resources which you may find of help in managing stress and anxiety:

• The Chemistry of Calm – Henry Emmons
• The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
• The Meaning of Anxiety – Rollo May

Final Thoughts on Anxiety

In conclusion, come to a professional counsellor to help deal with your anxiety, whatever its degree. In the safety of the therapy setting, many fears can be assessed, reassessed, and released; more importantly, you can equip yourself with a toolbox of your own to better understand your anxiety triggers and hence be equipped to cope with them when they do arrive – especially unannounced.