Anxiety .... it's autonomous?

A fairly odd title for this blog, but read on and you will develop an understanding. My work as a hypnotherapist entails me working with people who have a large assortment of issues, both physical and psychological. Whatever their issue, I really do believe that the person involved needs to understand, or at least begin to understand what their ailment is created or caused by. As the Latin phrase says, so wisely, "Scientia est potentia". Knowledge is power. If the conscious mind can develop an understanding of their plight, it is far easier to facilitate changes at a subconscious level.

This particular blog is aimed at explaining anxiety, at least as well I can do. Not the common, everyday anxiety which we all experience from time to time, but the anxiety which can take hold of, and sometimes dominate a person's life. It's described by science as a neurosis, which basically is a non psychotic issue of the minds normal functioning. This being the case, it can be altered and the person involved can go on to lead a non neurotic life. It is not a life sentence.

So what are the symptoms of this thing we call anxiety? Well, they are legion. Not everyone smitten with anxiety disorders suffers with all of the sensations listed below, but they will experience most, if not all of them at some time.

(My thanks to www.anxietycentre.com for this very, very comprehensive list)

Body (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the body in general):

• Allergy problems, increase in allergies (number, sensitivity, reactions, lengthier reactions)
  Back pain, stiffness, tension, pressure, soreness, spasms, immobility in the back or back muscles
• Blanching (looking pale, loss of color in the face or skin)
• Blushing, turning red, flushed face, flushed skin, blushing, red face or skin
• Body jolts, body zaps, electric jolt feeling in body, intense body tremor or “body shake”
• Body temperature increase or decrease, change in body temperature
• Burning skin, itchy, “crawly,” prickly or other skin sensations, skin sensitivity, numbness on the skin
• Burning skin sensation on the face, neck, ears, scalp, or shoulders
• Chest pain, chest tightness
• Choking
• Chronic Fatigue, exhaustion, super tired, worn out
• Clumsiness, feeling clumsy, co-ordination problems with the limbs or body
• Cold chills, feeling cold
• Craving sugar, sweets, chocolate, usual craving for sugar and sweets
• Difficulty speaking, moving mouth, talking, co-ordination problems with the mouth or tongue
• Dizziness, feeling lightheaded
• Dizzy, feeling dizzy
• Electric shock feeling, body zaps
• Excess of energy, you feel you can’t relax
• Falling sensation, feel like your are falling or dropping even though you aren't
• Feel like you are going to pass out or faint
• Feeling cold or chilled
• Feel wrong, different, foreign, odd, or strange
• Flu-like symptoms, general malaise, feel ill, like you are coming down with a flu
• Flushed face, red face, flushed skin
• Head Zaps
• Heart palpitations, racing heart
• Hyperactivity, excess energy, nervous energy
• Increased or decreased sex drive
• Infection - increased infections, persistent infection
• Mouth or throat clicking or grating sound/noise when you move your mouth or jaw, such as when talking
• Muscles that vibrate, jitter, tremor, or shake when used
• Muscle twitching
• Nausea
• Nausea vomiting
  
• Neck, back, shoulder pain, tightness/stiffness
• Night sweats, waking up in a sweat, profusely sweating at night
• No energy, feeling lethargic, tired
• Numbness
• Numbness tingling, numbness and tingling
• Numbness and tingling, and other skin sensations on hands, feet, face, head, or any other places on the body
• Persistent muscle tension, stiffness
• Pounding heart, heart feels like it is beating too hard
• Pulsing or throbbing muscles. Pulsing or throbbing sensation.
• Rib or rib cage tightness, pressure, or feeling like a tight band around the rib cage
• Sexual Dysfunction, sexual uninterest
• Shooting pains, stabbing pains, and odd pressures in the neck, head, or face
• Shooting pains in the face
• Shooting pains in the scalp or head
• Skipped heart beats
• Sore or tight scalp or back of the neck
• Startle easily
• Sweating, uncontrollable profuse sweating
• The floor feels like it is moving either down or up for no reason
• Tightness in the ribs or rib cage area, may also feel like a tight band around the ribs or rib cage area.
• Tingling sensations, anywhere on the body, including the hands, feet, legs, arms, head, mouth, chest, groin area
• Throat or mouth clicking or grating sound/noise when you move your mouth or jaw, such as when talking
• TMJ
• Trembling or shaking
• Twitching
• Unsteadiness, dizziness, feeling dizzy or lightheaded
• Urgency to urinate, frequent urination, sudden urge to go to the washroom (similar to urinary tract or prostate infection symptoms)
• Warm spells
• Weak - feel weak, weakness, low energy, light, soft, like you may faint
• Weak legs, arms, or muscles
• Weight loss, weight gain

Chest (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the chest area):

• Chest tremors, trembling in the chest, chest feels like it is vibrating
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Concern about the heart
• Feel like you have to force yourself to breath
• Find it hard to breath, feeling smothered, shortness of breath
• Frequent yawning to try and catch your breath
• Heart Palpitations – beating hard or too fast, rapid heartbeat
• Heart - Irregular heart rhythms, flutters or ‘skipped’ beats, tickle in the chest that makes you cough
• Pounding heart, heart feels like it is beating too hard
• Rib or rib cage tightness, pressure, or feeling like a tight band around the rib cage

Fears (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with fear):

• A heightened fear of what people think of you
• Afraid of being trapped in a place with no exits
• Constant feeling of being overwhelmed.
• Fear of being in public
• Fear of dying
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of impending doom
• Fear of making mistakes or making a fool of yourself to others
• Fear of passing out
• Fear that you are losing your mind
• Fears about irrational things, objects, circumstances, or situations
• Fears of going crazy, of dying, of impending doom, of normal things, unusual feelings and emotions, unusually frightening thoughts or feelings
• Heightened self awareness, or self-consciousness
• Need to find nearest washrooms before you can feel comfortable
• Need to seat near exits

Head (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the head):

• Burning, itchy, tight scalp
• Dizziness
• Dizzy
• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Frequent headaches, migraine headaches
• Feeling like there is a tight band around your head, pressure, tightness
• Head, neck or shoulder pain, tightness/stiffness
• Head zaps, head tremors
• Giddiness
• Numbness
• Numbness tingling, numbness and tingling
• Shooting pains, stabbing pains, and odd pressures in the neck, head, or face
• Shooting pains in the face
• Shooting pains in the scalp or head
• When you close your eyes you feel like are beginning to, or will, float upwards
• Sore jaw that feels like a tooth ache
• TMJ (Temporo-Mandibular Joint) - clenching of the jaw or grinding of the teeth

Hearing/Ear(s) (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with hearing):

• Feel like there is something stuck in your ear, that your ear canal it plugged or blocked, that there is a pebble in your ear that you can't get out
• Low rumbling sounds
• Reduced hearing, frequent or intermittent reduced hearing or deafness in one or both ears
• Ringing in the ears, noises in the ears, noises in the head
• Pulsing in the ears, throbbing sound in the ear(s)
• Tickle or itch in your ear that you can't seem to get at

Mind (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the mind and thinking):

• Afraid of everything
• Altered state of reality, consciousness, or universe feeling
• Deja Vu, a feeling like you've done or experienced something before
• Depersonalization
• Derealization
• Desensitization
• Difficulty concentrating, short-term memory loss
• Difficulty thinking, speaking, forming thoughts, following conversations
• Disorientation
• Fear of going crazy
• Fear of losing control
• Fear of impending doom
• Feelings of unreality
• Frequent feeling of being overwhelmed, or that there is just too much to handle or do
• Having difficulty concentrating
• Nightmares, bad dreams
• Obsession about sensations or getting better
• Repetitive thinking or incessant ‘mind chatter’
• Short-term learning impairment, have a hard time learning new information
• Short-term memory impairment, can't remember what I did a few days, hours, or moments ago
• Spaced out feelings, feeling spaced out
• "Stuck" thoughts; thoughts, mental images, concepts, songs, or melodies that "stick" in your mind and replay over and over again.
• Trapped in your mind feeling
• Underlying anxiety, apprehension, or fear
• You often feel you are carrying the world on your shoulders

Mood / Emotions (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with mood, emotions, and feelings):

• Always feeling angry and lack of patience
• Depersonalization
• Depression
• Dramatic mood swings (emotional flipping)
• Emotionally blunted, flat, or numb
• Emotional "flipping" (dramatic mood swings)
• Emotions feel wrong
• Everything is scary, frightening
• Feeling down in the dumps
• Feeling like things are unreal or dreamlike
• Frequently being on edge or 'grouchy'
• Feel like crying for no apparent reason
• Have no feelings about things you used to
• Not feeling like yourself, detached from loved ones, emotionally numb
• Underlying anxiety, apprehension, or fear
• You feel like you are under pressure all the time

Mouth/Stomach (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the mouth and stomach):

• A ‘tinny’, ‘metallic’ or ‘ammonia’, or unusual smell or taste
• Aerophagia (swallowing too much air, stomach distention, belching)
• Burning mouth, feeling like the inside of your mouth is burning, or tingling, or like pins and needles, or all of these together or at different times
• Burning tongue, feeling like your tongue is burning, or tingling, or like pins and needles, or all of these, or all of these together or at different times
• Choking
• Constant craving for sugar or sweets
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Difficulty swallowing
• Difficulty talking, pronouncing certain letters or sounds, mouth feels like it isn't moving right, slurred speech
• Dry mouth
• Feeling like you can’t swallow properly or that something will get caught in your throat
• Feeling like your tongue is swollen
• IBS
• Lack of appetite or taste
• Lump in the throat, tight throat, something stuck in your throat
• Mouth muscles twitching/jumping
• Mouth or throat clicking or grating sound/noise when you move your mouth or jaw, such as when talking
• Nausea
• Nausea vomiting
• Nausea or abdominal stress
• Numbness
• Numbness tingling, numbness and tingling
• Stomach upset, gas, belching, bloating
• Teeth grinding
• The thought of eating makes you nauseous
• Tight throat, lump in throat
• Throat or mouth clicking or grating sound/noise when you move your mouth or jaw, such as when talking
• TMJ
• Tongue symptoms - Tingly, “stretched,” numb, frozen, itchy, “crawly,” burning, twitching, “jumpy,” aching, sore, or swollen tongue (when it isn’t).
• Urgency to urinate, frequent urination, sudden urge to go to the washroom
• Vomiting

Skin (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with the skin):

• Burning skin sensations, skin sensitivity
• Numbness
• Numbness tingling, numbness and tingling
• Skin problems, infections, rashes

Sleep (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with sleep):

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Frequent bad, bizarre, or crazy dreams
• Hearing sounds in your head that jolt you awake
• Insomnia, or waking up ill in the middle of the night
• Jolting awake
• Waking up in a panic attack
• You feel worse in the mornings

Sight (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with sight):

• Distorted, foggy, or blurred vision
• Dry, watery or itchy eyes
• Eye tricks, seeing things our of the corner of your eye that isn’t there, stars, flashes
• Eyes sensitive to light
• Spots in the vision
• Flashing lights when eyes are closed
• Your depth perception feels wrong

Touch (anxiety symptoms commonly associated with touch):

• Burning skin sensations, skin sensitivity
• Feeling cold or chilled
• Numbness
• Numbness tingling, numbness and tingling
• Pain
• Tingling, pins and needles feelings

Other anxiety symptoms are described as:
Being like a hypochondriac, muscle twinges, worry all the time, tingles, gagging, tightness in the chest, tongue twitches, shaky, breath lump, heart beat problems, head tingles, itchy tingling in arms and legs, and so many more.
In addition to these anxiety symptoms, you may also find yourself worrying compulsively about:
• Having a heart attack
• Having a serious undetected illness
• Dying prematurely
• Going insane or losing your mind
• Suddenly snapping
• Losing it
• Uncontrollably harming yourself or someone you love
• Losing control of your thoughts and actions
• Being embarrassed or making a fool out of yourself
• Losing control
• Fainting in public
• Not breathing properly
• Losing control of reality
• Choking or suffocating
• Being alone

Phew!! Anything else, I can hear you thinking?? Well, no, that's just about sums it up quite well. So, now, what causes these feelings and sensations, and what can we do to alleviate them?
An author named Seligman once summed the cause up very succinctly in one sentence; "Anxiety is caused by catastrophic thinking". We are controlled by our thoughts, and, if we fall foul of negative, frightening thoughts, which have become part of a scary learned pattern of behaviour, our autonomic nervous system reacts and up come the sensations listed above. I know, I know, MORE psychobabble, but humor me. Here is a representation of this portion of our nervous system, so named, and very aptly, as it works autonomously, and outside the sphere of our conscious control. One reason at least which makes anxiety so scary, it just 'happens'!
As you can see, the system is split into two distinct parts, the sympathetic, and the parasympathetic portions. Put very simply, the sympathetic portion screams into action when the frightening thought or situation develops. The parasympathetic portion comes back into play as we return to 'normal' and calm down. If you study the picture, you'll see that just about every major body organ is affected, and even the pupils of our eyes dilate during an anxious episode. Fascinating stuff. Check it out for yourself, an anxious person will have dilated pupils, even in normal daylight.

As I said previously, this is not a life sentence. The mind can be teased, coaxed and taught to think in a different way. One of the most subtle and effective ways of doing this is via the use of hypnotherapy. Most sufferers will begin their search for a cure by first visiting their GP, who will generally prescribe medication, and of course that's just fine. Many of my clients discover that as our sessions progress, their need for chemical interventions diminish. This is done by altering that "catastrophic thinking", and in turn influence the autonomic nervous system, bringing it back to what is known as homeostasis, or a point of balance.

I just know after all of this that you will have questions! Of course, you can always contact me by way of my email address, or, if you're a local, by phone or text.