There are a wide range of anxiety disorders that we can help you with:
Generalised anxiety disorder is sometimes referred to as GAD. It is a normal response to be anxious in certain situations. However, clients with GAD feel anxious all or most of the time. This anxiety often causes physical symptoms such as tension, sweating and a fast heartbeat. You might notice that you worry a lot and about several situations. This often is worsened by situations that are uncertain and uncontrollable. Worrying excessively is tiring and over time can lead to exhaustion and demoralisation.
Health anxiety (sometimes called hypochondria) is when you spend so much time worrying you are ill, or about getting ill, that it starts to take over your life.
You may heave health anxiety if you constantly worry about your health. You might frequently check you body for signs of illness, such as lumps, tingling or pain. You might find it difficult to believe anyone who is trying to reassure you, whether they are friends or professionals. You might spend a lot of time researching your health or the opposite that you would avoid anything to do with health problems or a particular illness. Anxiety itself can cause symptoms like headaches or a racing heartbeat, and these symptoms are easily misunderstood as evidence of further illness problems.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is often referred to as OCD and is a common mental health condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsions. OCD can be distressing and significantly interfere with your life.
If you have OCD, you will usually experience frequent obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours
-An obsession is an unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that enters your mind, causing of anxiety, disgust or unease. They happen often and repeatedly. They may be hard to ignore or control. Obsessions are likely to cause you to have severe anxiety and distress. You are likely to try to deal with your obsession with another thought or action. For example, by carrying out a compulsion.
-Compulsions are either mental or physical actions that you do often and repeatedly to relieve the obsessions. You might also hear things that you do repeatedly being called compulsive behaviours or rituals.
For example you might believe that you, or someone close to you, might come to harm if you don’t carry out your compulsions. You may realise that your thinking and behaviour isn’t logical but still find it difficult to stop.
Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear. Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety and panic at certain times. It is a natural response to stressful or dangerous situations. Someone with panic disorder has feelings of severe anxiety, stress and panic or panic attacks regularly and at any time, often for no apparent reason.
Fear of having further attacks often leads to avoidance of places and/or activities where the anxiety was high previously. This can spiral to a degree where an individual severely restricts their activity levels; this can lead to further problems such as depression or interpersonal difficulties.
Phobias are the extreme and often irrational fear of a specific object or situation. Being confronted with the feared object or situation, a phobic individual experiences intense levels of anxiety with symptoms such as sweating, trembling, shortness of breath and a rapid heartbeat.
Some common phobias are around animals (spiders, dogs, frogs, chickens), places (heights, enclosed spaces), activities (driving, flying) or objects (needles, clowns).
Social anxiety , also called social phobia, is a persistent fear of social situations. Social anxiety is more than shyness. It is a fear that does not go away and affects everyday activities, self confidence, relationships and work or school life.
You may have social anxiety if you persistently worry about how others perceive you during social interactions. This could be about what you say, how you come across or about physical aspects of yourself such as sweating and blushing in those situations.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that is caused by frightening, stressful and distressing events. Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and/or flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt. They may also have problems sleeping and find concentrating difficult. These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person’s day to day life.
Any situation that a person finds traumatic can cause PTSD. These can include
-serious road accidents
-violent personal assaults, such as sexual assault, mugging or robbery
-serious health problems
-childbirth experiences
PTSD can develop after someone experiences a disturbing even, or it can occur weeks, months or even years later.
People who repeatedly experience traumatic situations, such as severe neglect, abuse or violence, may be diagnosed with complex PTSD. It is often more severe if the trauma was experienced early in life, as this can affect a child’s development.