Problems Treated

Anxiety

The Symptom of Anxiety

A person feels nervous, worried, or anxious without appropriate reason. This is the definiton often given by the medical profession for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Having these symptoms of perpetual worry and stress can be very limiting and prevent a person living a normal life. Besides feeling anxious and worried, a person who suffers an anxiety disorder may also suffer tension, restlessness or even physical aches and pains as a result of their mental afliction. Others may experince fast heartbeat, a heavy tight feeling in their chest or heavy sweating.

The Cause for Anxiety

Those who have experinced a traumatic childhood are more likely as adults to develop an anxious personality. However, great stress in one's current environment can also trigger severe stress and anxiety as can be witnessed with previously well-functioning adults who develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), by having experienced war or survived a catastrophe. Some people are more inclined to become anxious than others, but the environment and one's reaction to it always plays a vital part as well.

Having had an intense emotional experience, where one feels that one's life is threatened or having had other experiences of great fear or insecurity, and not having had these feelings of the past resolved, will leave an emotional imprint on the mind and affect the way we behave. Even if there is no real reason to be anxious, the anxious person still carries anxiety in their unconscious programming. The feeling, as a sort of mantra if you like, of the anxious unconscious mind that hasn't resolved the past events, will leave one continually wondering if a new terrifying experience will happen again! Unless resolved, the anxious person carries this emotional anxiety with them wherever they go!

The Cure for Anxiety

The only way to uproot anxiety is to trace the memories back to the time when they were first created, and in that experience, release the emotional tension in them. There can often be a resistance in people with anxiety, to go back to uncomfortable memories. A part of their mind is still trying to avoid any feelings, pictures, sounds and smells having to do with the horrible experinces from the past.

It very natural to do this as most of us want to avoid pain and experience pleasure. However, one of the leading aspects of holistic therapy, is to come to the realisation that the associations and memories inside of us are not real. When we think back on a painful memory and we experience unpleasant emotions, we must realise that we ourselves are creating the unpleasant emotion. Even if someone did something horrible to you as a kid, the horrible feelings in this present moment are arising within you. You carry the past within you and it still affects you. For the unconsious mind to realise that the memories and associations of the past are not real, that only now is real, is the key for the mind to let go of internal stress and anxiety.