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19th March 2024 

Stress and Anxiety.


Bereavement, problems at work, difficult relationships, or just dealing with the myriad of day to day problems that life throws at us can all lead to stress and anxiety, the anxiety we feel can be helpful in focusing us in on solutions; it gets us up and running. This sort of anxiety is a normal response to the things that worry us and is often useful when we need to solve a problem.



However when worries pile up, things can sometimes get out of proportion and everything becomes something to worry about. If stress and anxiety go on for too long then it can affect us in very negative ways. Prolonged stress leads to physical changes and changes the way we think and feel, this leads on to a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety that feeds upon itself until everything we do seems wrapped in an unfocused anxiety. That said, if you are suffering from stress and anxiety you probably know all this already.



So what can be done about it?

When stressed out and suffering from anxiety it is often even more stressful and annoying when someone tells you to calm down and relax, but, in the end the goal is to do just that. So perhaps breaking it down into small steps might be helpful.



Some points to remember.

1 Try to exercise.
2 Do your best to eat well.
3 Learn some relaxation techniques.
4 You don’t have to be responsible for everything
5 Remember self medicating with alcohol doesn’t work.
6 Take care of yourself; a little self compassion goes a long way.



Counselling or Psychotherapy for stress and anxiety.

Talking about things can help to get things into a more reasonable perspective; after all being anxious is not a bad thing in itself, the problem arises when the anxiety takes over. It is keeping things in balance that is the key, and that is often the aim of therapy.

It would be good to be able to describe how therapy for anxiety works, the problem is that people are individuals and the way that they deal with anxiety will also be individual, so each therapy session is tailored to the person and their own particular way of dealing with things, nevertheless, there are some themes that do often come up for people suffering stress and anxiety. As I have already said it is ok to be anxious; but it is even better to be anxious about the right thing. Therapy can help to keep things in proportion and stop the anxiety leaking off into other parts of life, making you stressed about everything.

Therapy is so often about finding what is reasonable, and then coming to some way of achieving a more balanced way of being.




If you think counselling might help, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Phone 01923 262725
Or email tony@pentagramcounselling.co.uk