Vitality News Health Articles

Lots of people tend to use the terms “anxiety” and “stress” interchangeably, but they are actually two separate conditions. Stress is a reaction to a stimulus, either external or internal. You may feel stress when you feel frustrated with something (like waiting in line behind a slow person) or when you worry that you will not meet expectations (such as missing a deadline at work).

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a sense of nervousness and fear or even dread. It can be caused by negative thoughts and expectations, or as a response to stress. You may experience feelings of anxiety virtually all of the time and not understand why, or your feelings may be a response to something you are nervous about, such as an upcoming business trip.

Abnormal levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain may cause generalized anxiety. Some research indicates that anxiety can be brought on genetically. Anxiety may also stem from environmental conditions, as when the child of a parent who is often anxious becomes an anxious person by observing the parent. But frequently, the core cause of anxiety is simply the thoughts that a person is thinking!

Anxiety and stress are subjective conditions. Different people may feel stressed about different situations, and different people may respond to their anxiousness in extremely different ways. Symptoms of anxiety can range from the mild, such as sweaty hands and tense muscles, to the severe, such as irregular heartbeat, anxiety attacks, and vomiting.

Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety once in awhile. All of us have felt the dry mouth and “butterflies in the stomach” before a public speaking engagement or a test. But when does it become damaging to your health? Studies have revealed that prolonged anxiety can lead to sleep disorders, depression, high blood pressure, and relationship problems

For sufferers of long-term untreated anxiety, there may be detrimental health consequences that have yet to be explored fully. Many studies have found a link between generalized anxiety disorder and a number of serious health conditions including cancer, respiratory illness, arthritis, heart disease, and thyroid disease. Chronically anxious people may even be more likely to suffer a fatal cardiac attack.

If you suffer from what seems like a disproportionately high amount of anxiety relative to the situation, or if you feel anxious nearly every day, you may actually have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are chronic conditions characterized by a person’s inability to function normally because of frequent anxiety. Anxiety disorders are serious conditions that should be treated to lower the risk of long-term negative health effects.

Anxiety treatment has long been the subject of much debate in the medical community. Some medical professionals feel that medication is the best method to handle chronic anxiety. Unfortunately, anti-anxiety medications often have harmful side effects that are just as bad as or even worse than the initial affliction.

There are plenty of safe and natural ways to handle negative emotional responses. Exercise is a frequently overlooked option, but it is extremely effective. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins, which are natural mood-boosting and pain-killing chemicals. With regular exercise, you may start to feel a decrease in negative emotional responses to situations that would have previously made you extremely anxious.

The most effective way to manage tension and worry is to control it from the inside out. Stress relief and stress management techniques are very valuable tools in managing day to day stress. These techniques can teach you to relax yourself and relieve your tension. You make a conscious effort to slow your rate of breathing, release the worry, and remain in a calm state of mind. Meditation is an increasingly popular form of tension relief in which you practice mindful relaxation and deep, calming breathing.

However, if you are looking for a proactive method to free yourself of anxiety, hypnotherapy is the most effective treatment option. When an individual undergoes hypnosis, their reactions and emotional responses to events are changed at the core. This allows them to handle typical anxiety-inducing triggers without the typical fear and nervousness.

Hypnosis can be performed by a licensed hypnotherapist in a series of regular treatments. More commonly today, hypnotherapy can be learned from self hypnosis programs which can be purchased in the form of DVDs, CDs, or MP3s for individual home usage. No special skills are necessary to perform self hypnosis. All that you need is a way to play the hypnotherapy program and a quiet space where you can listen and relax.

Another successful method of anxiety treatment is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. NLP is a form of therapy that can help you retrain your body and mind to naturally respond to situations in a more positive way. You can consciously decide to be calm rather than anxious, which means that you are always in control of your own feelings.

It is evident that it is important to be able to manage our negative emotional responses in order to remain healthy. Understanding how to cope with nervousness and fear may even add precious years onto your life. To treat chronic anxiety, the best course of action is to use hypnosis to change your attitudes and reactions at the core. Then, it becomes easy to use stress management techniques as necessary to keep calm in everyday situations.

Alan B. Densky is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers a complete line of stress reduction hypnosis CDs, and advanced stress management CDs through his Neuro-VISION hypnosis website. You can visit his video hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.

- Alan B. Densky, CH