Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

Treatment for Anxiety, Panic attacks, Stress management and Assertiveness as part of SWBH Occupational Health for employee's of SWBH.

• Anxiety/ Stress/ Anger
• Panic Attacks
• Coping with Weight and Eating Disorders
• Cope with Pain or IBS
• Problems with Sleep
• Stop Smoking ( in just one session lasting 90 minutes)

Take hold of your life and manage your stress in a simple 3 session therapy using hypnosis to teach you to relax, deal more effectively with stress and improve your quality of life with self hypnosis.

Location;     The Therapy Room, Old Social Club, Sandwell Hospital.

Times;          e-mail to book an appointment time.
Contact;       To ask a question, to find out more or to make an appointment email;

                                    or phone 0779 210 82 72

All in confidence with no need for referral from GP or OH

We all feel anxious at certain times in our lives, perhaps before important events such as a job interview. Although anxiety can be unpleasant, it rarely lasts long and we usually manage to cope with it. But for one in ten people, anxiety is much more severe. For them, it can become a frightening, disabling condition, which threatens to take over their lives.

Some people have generalised anxiety, which is not related to specific events, but is an unpleasant feeling which is with them all the time. For others, anxiety can be more episodic, occurring either spontaneously, or triggered by some external stimulus.

An anxiety problem does not mean that you are weak or that you are losing your mind or that you have a personality problem. Severe anxiety is a problem that can be overcome with treatment.

What is anxiety?

The word 'anxiety' is used to describe the mental and physical response to feared and threatening situations. This reaction may include trembling, choking, increased heart rate, sweating, feelings of unreality and so on. Anxiety is a normal response experienced by everyone at times. Nearly being hit by a car, sitting for an exam or giving a public talk are all examples of situations in which most people would experience some anxiety.

You are likely to be suffering from an anxiety disorder if you have any of the following:

• The anxiety reaction occurs frequently
• Your fears are out of proportion to the situation
• You start to avoid places or situations where you experience anxiety
• It interferes with your working, social or family life

Different forms of anxiety

• Panic disorder
• Agoraphobia
• Social phobia
• Generalised anxiety

Try to work out which the following descriptions best fit your situation.

Panic disorder
People who suffer from 'panic disorder' are likely to experience attacks of sudden and intense anxiety. These panics cannot be associated with events occurring around the person. The person is generally free from anxiety in between panics.

Common symptoms of panic disorders include:

Psychological symptoms:

• fear of dying
• fear of going crazy
• feelings of unreality
• Physical symptoms:
• light-headedness
• tightness or pain in the chest
• shortness of breath
• hot and cold flushes
• choking sensation
• nausea
• pounding heart
• trembling
• numbness/tingling sensation in fingers and feet

Panics are also common with the other anxiety disorders. However, those panics are easier to predict because they mostly occur in response to the feared situation(s).

Social phobia
The main feature of 'social phobia' is the fear of being the focus of attention or subject of criticism. People with this disorder may worry that they will do something silly or embarrassing in front of others. Often social phobia is experienced in many different social situations. This leads to the avoidance of these situations.

Commonly feared situations include:

• speaking in front of others
• being the centre of attention
• asking questions
• social activities such as lunches, dinners, parties, marriages, religious
• gatherings/festivals etc
• eating in front of others
• writing in front of others

Agoraphobia
People who have agoraphobia experience psychological and physical anxiety and often panics, in particular places or situations, in which:

• there is a sense of being trapped or being unable to leave or escape
• it would not be easy to get help should the need arise
• the environment is different and unfamiliar
• they have had a panic before

This leads to the avoidance many situations and can severely affect day-to-day life. In extreme cases people who suffer from agoraphobia find it difficult to leave the house.

Examples of commonly feared or avoided situations are:

• leaving home
• traveling alone
• crowds, public places

Generalised anxiety disorder
Generalised anxiety is different from the other anxiety disorders. The experience of anxiety is not linked to specific situations or to a fear of having panic attacks. It is ongoing general anxiety, tension and excessive worrying about normal events and the future. You may feel worried most of the time about things which might go wrong or find that you are tense without knowing exactly what you are worried about. But you are less likely to have all the feelings that are listed under `panic' and `phobias'.

What may trigger anxiety?
There are many possible triggers for anxiety. It often starts during periods of psychological or physical stress.

Examples of psychological and physical stress include:

Psychological

• relationship break-ups
• severe arguments
• loss of someone close
• loss of a job
• lack of sleep
• work pressure
• financial problems
• physical and sexual abuse

Physical

• physical illness
• excessive use of alcohol/ abuse of other drugs
• domestic violence
• trauma

Breathing too quickly and deeply
When people experience stress they have a natural tendency to breathe more quickly and deeply. Breathing too quickly and/or deeply (also known as 'over breathing' or 'hyperventilation') can itself bring on anxiety. Breathing too quickly lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs and by a complicated series of processes this causes physical symptoms of anxiety.

Other important things to note are:
You can get physical anxiety by slightly over breathing for a long time. So, over breathing does not have to be obvious to you or to others If you slightly over breathe, even a yawn or sigh can trigger a panic attack or physical symptoms of anxiety. Changing the way you breathe can be useful for managing anxiety

Worry and negative thinking
When people experience stress there is also a tendency to worry more than usual. Worry and unrealistic or negative thinking can be triggers of anxiety. People who get anxious sometimes think in ways that bring on the anxiety or make it worse.

For example, you can:

• concentrate entirely on unpleasant things, dwell on them and ignore good things
• spend a lot of time worrying about something that never happens anyway
• think everything is going wrong when only one thing has actually gone wrong
• misinterpret what other people are doing and thinking - for example, assuming that other people are looking at you and thinking how silly you are
• Often changing the way you think and reducing worry can be useful for managing anxiety.

How is anxiety treated?
Feeling anxious does not necessarily mean you have a problem. Anxiety is a normal response that everyone has to certain situations. But anxiety is not always useful; sometimes it reaches disabling proportions. The aim is not to get rid of all anxiety but rather to reduce it to manageable proportions.

The best way to manage anxiety is through psychological help and social support. With different psychological methods, it is possible to:

• control and stop panic attacks
• confront feared situations previously avoided
• change negative and unrealistic thinking and reduce worry

Psychological methods include:

• breathing control, relaxation
• problem solving
• balancing anxious thinking with reassuring thoughts Cognitive Therapy
• gradually facing the things that you fear (graded exposure).

These psychological methods are often taught in Anxiety Management Courses.

Tablets are sometimes prescribed for anxiety but they do not solve problems or cure anxiety in the long term. Even if you have been prescribed tablets, it is still important to try to do other things as well to overcome your anxiety. 

In order to reduce anxiety to manageable proportions the first thing to do is to be clear about what the problem is. You should contact your GP for professional advice.

Exercises to help you identify your symptoms of anxiety can be found at http://www.whoguidemhpcuk.org/

Anxiety can also be reduced by:

Physical
Specifically, aerobic exercise is the form of exercise most consistently shown to reduce anxiety, and the duration should be of more than twenty minutes. Anxiety reduction achieved through aerobic exercise is similar to the reduction achieved through meditation or relaxation.

Caffeine intake
Try to avoid drinking too much tea and coffee as caffeine can increase anxiety levels.

Alcohol intake
People who are anxious may try to cope with the anxiety by drinking more alcohol. This makes things worse.