What is anxiety?

Living with anxiety can feel debilitating and lead to stress on the mind and body. Anxiety can feel like it lives within us, with physical symptoms sitting beneath the surface waiting to interrupt are daily lives.

Anxiety creates a sense of doom, feelings as if something awful is about to happen to us, sometimes we may feel unable to pin point what this is, meaning that we feel unable to control our environment.

The physical symptoms can feel overwhelming, headaches, fatigue, pounding heart, rapid breathing and a tightness in your chest, muscle and joint pains as well as stomach pains and issues.

Anxiety can rob us of our labido and lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression.

Anxiety can present itself in different forms, the most common presentations include:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

This means having regular and consistent worries about many different things in your everyday life. This can include the symptoms of anxiety without being able to pinpoint exact causes or specific worries. I can manifest as a feeling, without conscious causes.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD develops if you develop anxiety following a traumatic event, such as a car crash or attack. Complex PTSD develops after a number of traumatic events occur over a period of time, such as childhood abuse and trauma. PTSD can involve flashbacks and nightmares and can feel like the trauma is in the hear and now, feeling like you are re- living the event or events.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

This is anxiety in relation to having repetitive and intrusive thoughts, behaviours or urges. OCD suffers often become very anxious if the repetitive behaviour or safe behaviour cannot be performed.

Health Anxiety

Anxiety around health often manifests as suffered checking their body for signs of illness, spending considerable parts of their day researching illness and symptoms and fearing becoming very unwell.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety is a phobia of being around others and in social situations, SAD suffered may experience intense fear of embarrassing themselves, offending others, being humiliated, watched or judged by others. Everyday social situations can lead to suffers experiencing extreme anxiety and withdrawing from any social experience.

The physical sensations of SAD often exacerbate the fear itself.

Panic Attacks and Disorders

This is sudden and intense anxiety and fear, this can be brought on by being triggered by something in the environment, or can feel as though they come from nowhere. Symptoms may include racing heart, feeling faint, feeling that you are unable to breath, nausea, shaking and sweating.

Panic attacks can feel very frightening and suffered often describe them as feeling like a heart attack.

The Link Between Trauma and Anxiety

Trauma, whether from a single event or prolonged experiences, can leave deep emotional scars. Unresolved trauma often lies at the root of chronic anxiety. Traumatic experiences can disrupt a person’s sense of safety and stability, leading to heightened alertness and a constant state of fear or worry. This is particularly true if the trauma occurred during childhood, a critical period for emotional and psychological development.

When trauma is not addressed, it can create patterns of negative thinking and behaviour that persist into adulthood. These patterns can manifest as anxiety, where the individual is constantly anticipating danger or negative outcomes, even when there is no immediate threat.

Anxiety can severely impact daily functioning, our relationships and being able to participate in what we enjoy. However, there is hope, understanding its connection to unresolved trauma and seeking appropriate treatment can lead to significant improvements. Psychodynamic therapy offers a comprehensive approach to managing anxiety by uncovering its underlying causes and promoting long-term emotional health. If you are struggling with anxious thoughts reach out today for a free 20 minute consultation to discuss how therapy with me could be the way into the life you want.