Anxiety>Learning

Anxiety | Online Learning

Our Anxiety Management and Stop Panic Attacks in their Tracks programs are available with our qualified and registered Hypnotherapist in Castle Hill, Sydney 

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety, nervousness, fear, apprehension, worry... they're becoming common...

Anxiety is defined as "a relatively permanent state or worry or nervousness... Anxiety is often accompanied by a vague unpleasant feeling the "something bad is going to happen"...

Anxiety often refers to a disorder, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, etc.

But just because you are anxious, nervous or worried doesn't mean that you have a disorder or that you need professional help!  Mild anxiety is vague and unsettling, while severe anxiety can lead to panic attacks which can be extremely debilitating, having a serious impact on daily life.

What is a Panic Attack?

Panic attacks are commonly linked to fear of not being able to escape a bad situation.  Many who experience panic attacks feel trapped and unable to free themselves.  While these episodes may appear to be random, they are, in essence just the inappropriate switching on of the "flight or fight" response to deal with a treat to your survival that doesn't actually exist.

Panic attacks are very sudden, distinct periods of intense anxiety, mounting physiological arousal, fear, stomach problems and discomfort that are associated with a variety of bodily and thinking symptoms.  The onset of these episodes is typically abrupt and may have no obvious triggers.

Why Do They Occur?

Hundreds of thousands of years ago a panic attack was a very useful thing. Life was far more physically challenging and dangerous than it is now.  When faced by the attack of a sabre tooth tiger or woolly mammoth, man had two simple choices: he could either run (flight) or he could fight.  This is where the term “Flight or Fight” originates.  There are also times when so terrified by the experience that man would momentarily freeze (Flight, Fight or Freeze).  Man didn’t have sharp teeth or claws, or guns or knives for that matter, so he had to be able to react quickly under threat.

Panic attacks occur because the part of the brain that scans the environment for threats to your survival can't tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived one. It has to treat them both the same. This is also why when you are in a situation that is even vaguely like somewhere where you experienced danger before, real or imagined, your brain will pattern match to similarities and trigger off the flight or fight response again, even though it's quite unnecessary.

Cave Man or Cave Woman Living in the Modern World...

Today, your threats probably don't come from sabre tooth tigers or woolly mammoths - they are more likely to be related to stressors of life, such as pressure at work, at home, pressure from bank mangers or bosses, pressure from society. Unfortunately, for most of us, bank managers and bosses don’t tend to just go away. 

In the case of panic attacks your mind perceives a stress as a threat and over-reacts.

Understanding this is one of the keys to understanding panic attacks themselves. 

Now that you know about what they are and why they occur, you might like to take the  World's Easiest Stress Test click here to see how stressed you are.  

Next we’ll look at the the things that set off panic attacks - the common triggers - the things that fuel anxiety and panic attacks.