Panic attack is a sudden onset and peak rapidly (usually within 10 minutes or less) and takes about 20 minutes (but sometimes much less or more).

The symptoms that may characterize a panic attack are:

– Palpitations / tachycardia (irregular beats, heavy shaking in my chest, feel the beat in the throat)

– Fear of losing control or going crazy (such as, the fear of doing something embarrassing in public or fear to escape when it hits the panic or lose your temper)

– Feelings of confusion, instability (dizziness and vertigo)

– Tremor fine or large shocks

– Sweating

– Feeling of choking

– Pain or discomfort in the chest

– Feelings of unreality (perception of the outside world as strange and unreal, giddiness and detachment) and depersonalization (altered sense of self characterized by feelings of detachment or estrangement from their thought processes or body)

– Chills

– Hot flashes

– Paresthesias (numbness or tingling sensations)

– Nausea or abdominal distress

– Feeling of suffocation (or close the throat)

The frequency and severity of panic attacks varies widely over time and circumstances. For example, some people have moderately frequent attacks (Once a week), which occur regularly for months. Others report more frequent short series of attacks ( Every day for a week), interspersed with weeks or months without seizures or with less frequent attacks ( two each month) for many years.

There are also so-called limited-symptom attacks, very common in people with panic disorder, which attacks occur when only some of the symptoms of panic, without exploding in a real attack. Most people with limited-symptom attacks, however, were full of panic attacks at some point during the disturbance.

During a panic attack, automatic and uncontrolled catastrophic thoughts fill the mind of the person who has trouble thinking clearly and so afraid that these symptoms are really dangerous. Some fear that the attacks are signs of an undiagnosed illness, life-threatening (heart disease, epilepsy). Despite repeated medical examinations and reassurance, may remain frightened and convinced that they are physically vulnerable. Others fear that the panic attacks show that they are “going crazy” or losing control, or who are emotionally weak and unstable.

The above where the signs I sadly used to have one I was younger. Instead of living my life, these discomforts ruled over me. Thanks God that one day I found a way, a cure and people ready to help me. Remember that If I was able to overcome panic attacks, you can too.

Anxiety is a feeling that is characterised by nervousness, fear, apprehension and worrying. Feeling of fear and worrying is justified in some cases like before examination, interview or stage performance and death of loved ones. Mild anxiety is vague and goes away with time but severe anxiety for a long time can cause various effects on health. Anxiety is serious if it is having an impact on the normal functioning of the body. The effects of anxiety can be on both physiological and psychological level. During an anxiety attack, number of physical, mental and behavioural changes is experienced by the person.

Effect of anxiety on the physical level: Short term anxiety that is experienced while walking down the dark street alone at night and a dark shadow appears, brings on many physical symptoms. These symptoms are shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, cold and clammy palms. The increase in heart rate is due to the sympathetic nervous system which results in increased blood flow to the heart and blood vessels. During an anxiety attack, signal is sent to the autonomic nervous system of the brain which activates the sympathetic nervous system. This prepares the body for fight/flight response. The rate of respiration increases due to the fight/flight response resulting in deep and rapid breathing. Symptoms like breathlessness, choking feeling and pain in the chest may also occur. Confusion, blurred vision, dry mouth and hot flushes are some of the effects of short term anxiety attack.

Long term anxiety can gradually have an impact on all the organs of the body. It is characterised by long lasting anxiety related to nonspecific life events and situations. Prolonged anxiety brings on various health problems like headaches, migraine, sensation of lump in throat and difficulty in swallowing and acute exacerbation of asthma. Various body pains are due to the constriction of blood vessels due to the effect of anxiety. Anxiety also affects digestive system causing indigestion, pain in abdomen, heartburn and diarrhoea. Overall immune system of a person is affected making him more prone to other illnesses. One of the major effects of anxiety is sleeplessness.

Effect of anxiety on mental plane: One of the major effects of anxiety is sleeplessness. Person is unable to fall asleep or remain asleep due to the constant thinking going on in the mind. Disturbed sleep can also be because of bad dreams or nightmares. This irregular sleep pattern can further cause disturbing symptoms like irritability, aggression and lethargy. Prolonged anxiety can have an effect on brain causing confusion and difficulty in concentration due to crowded thoughts in the mind. Irrational fears and phobias and extreme agitation are seen due to disturbed emotions. Behavioural symptoms like shaking and repetitive movements of the hand and legs are indications of anxiety. Severe anxiety has many features of depression. There is increased sensitivity to various external impressions like light, noise and sound.

The effects of anxiety are treated by removing the underlying cause behind the anxiety. Treatment includes combination of medicines, psychotherapy and behavioural therapy.

Just like Depression and Bipolar Disorders, Anxiety Disorders are a type of Psychological Disorder. A Psychological Disorder is basically a pattern of behavioural symptoms that affects many facets in a person’s life. Because it affects many facets in a person’s life, it may prevent a person who is suffering from the disorder to actually act as a normal part of society. Thus, it is important to get them treated right away to help them get over their problem. But what sets an Anxiety Disorder apart from all the rest of the Psychological Disorders?

Well, an Anxiety disorder is characterized by too frequent and too intense bouts with Anxiety. Common symptoms would be a constant feeling of stress and worry, a constant fear of things that are not rational, a feeling that danger is just around the corner, constant feelings of panic, and an all-around feeling of anxiety for extended periods. Of course, anxiety is a normal emotion; one that is welcome for most people. However, for people with Anxiety disorders, these bouts are simply too frequent and intense that it prevents them from performing a lot of the basic functions of society.

Thus, it is advisable that anybody who is suffering from the said disorder must get checked in an Anxiety Clinic to get professional help. An Anxiety Clinic is a type of psychological disorder treatment facility that actually focuses on providing professional care to people with Anxiety Disorders. They try to help their patients by exposing them to several forms of therapy which include individual sessions with a psychiatrist, group sharing sessions, and a host of other fun activities.

Most of the popular anxiety clinics require their guests to stay within the compound for (usually) at least three weeks or until they get completely well. This allows the experts in the industry to prevent any anxiety triggers to cause their patients much more trouble. Being in a controlled environment makes the patient more comfortable in the facility and thus more comfortable with getting treatment. This is in line with studies that show that most people who suffer from Psychological Disorders are only open for treatment when they feel totally relaxed and comfortable in the place where the treatment is administered.

This is why it is very important to choose an anxiety clinic for your loved one very well. More than just the price or the types of treatment sessions they provide, it is also quite important to ask them how they feel within the treatment facility to ensure faster progress.

How will a person know that he or she is suffering from anxiety panic attack symptoms? Imagine this scenario:

your boss gave you and your partner a project to work on a week ago. This morning, he sent you an e-mail requesting that your project should be on his table before noon of today. The project has not yet been finished and you are still in the stage of making revisions. You suddenly feel a huge wave of fear and your body starts shaking. The room starts to spin and you feel like you cannot breathe. Your heart feels like it’s about to burst out of your chest, and you feel like throwing up.

A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear and terror that strikes without warning. An attack could even repeat, and the time is unknown. For onlookers, this could look very serious as the person who suffers from this could look like he or she is having a “crazy” fit, a moment wherein he or she has lost all rational thought. There are times when these attacks could mimic the signs of a heart attack. Often, there is no specific or clear reason why a person develops a panic attack. Studies have even shown that attacks may even occur while a person is asleep.

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Repeated panic attacks could be a sign that a person is suffering from a disorder. The attacks could be triggered by a specific situation wherein a person could have suffered from a panic attack before. These situations would usually be triggered when the person feels like he or she is endangered and may feel like he or she cannot escape. When people also tend to have obsessive worries and unwanted thoughts could also trigger a panic attack. These attacks could have anxiety as the root cause of the problem.

What are the different signs and symptoms of someone who is suffering from a panic attack? A person who suffers from these attacks would usually suffer from racing heartbeats, dizziness or lightheadedness, extreme terror that could be paralyzing, difficulty in breathing, trembling, chest pains, and fear that he or she is going crazy or about to die. These symptoms arise unknowingly, and the level of fear that is involved is one that is extremely out of proportion, something that would normally be okay. People who have panic disorder may even develop phobias, but not exactly due to certain objects, but from the fear of suffering from another attack.

For people who are suffering from them, there is no need to feel ashamed. People could actually get help for panic attacks. It is possible for such people to continue living normal and healthy lives, as long as they get the needed treatment from certified people. There are a lot of therapies available for treatment, and it would be of great help to consult a doctor who specializes in treating panic attacks. Panic disorders are highly treatable. People who do suffer from these disorders could get help from professionals and at the same time, have their own self-help strategies.

Something happens that should not have bothered you. You see a car accident, hear a loud noise, or even possibly nothing at all occurs other than you just finished a cup of coffee. However, your body is reacting as if you have received a threat to your life. Your heart is racing, you breathing quickens, and you feel that you are just about to have a heart attack. Yet, you absolutely know that your reaction is illogical and should have never happened. You are having a panic attack.

Experts tend to agree that panic attacks generally occur because deep in your brain you have been programmed to react to threats – real or imagined. Medical scientists have explored the process that normally creates short-term memory, but in these cases the process installs a rather permanent reaction, which quickly leads to a perception of the existence of a threat. Surprisingly, this can be triggered quite suddenly – even with absolutely no awareness of what caused it. Panic attacks are a learned reaction, which most likely was etched into your brain as a result of one or more incidents that occurred prior to certain coping abilities being developed. Essentially, your brain reacted the only way that it knew how. And, now you are suffering for it.

My experience in dealing with such learned patterns is that their programming can be reversed.

1. You must realize that you are not at fault and no amount of rationalizing and explaining will ever resolve your panic attacks.
2. You must have faith that you are capable of overcoming them.
3. You must know how to reverse the programming.

Mental health professionals know how to program your mind to create a different reaction to events that trigger stress in your life. Essentially, this is a form of what I call a pattern interrupt. Once a panic attack is triggered in your mind, the alternate reaction will lead you to a different result. Meanwhile, until this is accomplished, you still need to know how to cope.

Qualified hypnotherapists and others who are adequately trained in the use of hypnosis are uniquely qualified to reprogram your reaction to panic attack triggers and to strengthen your ability to control your reaction and quickly recover for each incident. By using hypnosis to train and fortify your mind, you will begin to develop healthier responses and observe your response with detached curiosity.

If you’ve scoured the internet and visited the library in search of information on how to control anxiety, it’s likely that you’re frustrated with what you’ve found. The reason is that there is no sure way to deal with your panic attacks and even doctors find that treatment should depend upon the individual experiencing the anxiety.

Panic attack disorder and anxiety may not be accompanied by physical signs, but it’s every bit as painful as a physical health condition. You may experience symptoms like difficulty breathing, tightening of the chest, dizziness, sweating, fainting, unexplainable fear, insomnia, and much more. In fact, anxiety can run your life. You might find yourself making decisions based on that anxiety or your lack of information on how to control anxiety when it’s happening.

There are a few steps you should remember and try next time you feel a panic attack coming on:

• Remove Yourself from the Situation
• Remind Yourself that You’re Safe
• Empower Yourself by Learning More About the Condition, So You’ll Know it isn’t Harmful

Many people who experience panic don’t know how to control anxiety, and therefore it controls them. By learning a few simple techniques, you can begin the process of taking back your life. And after all, that’s the whole point. You want to be your old self again, and with a little information and dedication to calming practices, you can!

You can do it! You can go through the checkout line in the grocery store, get through your exam, or whatever it is that is causing anxiety. Tell yourself you can do it, and when you’re calm, try again. Repeat the process until you’re able to completely finish the task. Telling yourself over and over again that you’re safe and fine may sound like a silly thing to do, but this is a method of reassurance that really works. Why are you safe? Because there is no threat. There is nothing to be afraid of. Say this to yourself as you breathe deeply and continue saying it until you feel yourself relax. What has triggered your anxiety? Maybe it was a crowded grocery store, a visit to the doctor’s office or something similar. The first thing you should do is remove yourself from the situation until the anxiety recedes. Then, try again. Don’t be afraid of getting away until you’ve gotten yourself under control. This is the best way to start in how to control anxiety for good.

If you are one of the millions of people who suffer from panic attacks around the world every day then you know very well just how much these attacks can cause anxiety and fear. You might be one of those that even fear they will die during an attack. A fear like that can be so strongly believed that you end up even more panicked than you were before.

Unfortunately many sufferers find that their doctors tend to disregard the condition as a legitimate one and invariably all they want to do is prescribe some or other medication. Although the medication can be effective in controlling the symptoms of an attack the person risks becoming dependent upon them for the rest of their lives, thereby compounding the problem with a prescription drug addiction.

We are all familiar with the fact that many of the drugs we take can be harmful to our bodies and so search for more natural means of treating ourselves. Although many of these remedies are becoming more widely known about it can prove difficult to determine which are effective and which are simply not. If you suffer from panic attacks you might well be interested to know that there is a means of dealing with and treating the disorder that does not involve drugs. As an added bonus is that you also save money you would normally have to pay to a therapist, not to mention the cost of the drugs themselves.

Panic Away Can Be the Definitive Answer

Panic Away was developed by a fellow-sufferer who created the program to deal with his own panic attacks from the moment they start. Not wanting to risk becoming dependent on prescription drugs he decided to find a different way of dealing with them. Panic Away is unlike other methods that are easily identifiable as being ineffective.

It is a fact that many of the treatment variations that have come about to treat panic attacks can be harmful. When it is impossible to determine the cause of the attacks it makes treatment difficult and this is the reason why so many doctors claim that it is not a legitimate medical condition.

Of course some medications that are prescribed for the treatment of panic attacks are effective and not every doctor is a drug pusher. There are many caring doctors who sincerely wish to aid their patients and these are the doctors that are generally more receptive to the idea of a natural approach to treating this disorder. You will know whether you doctor falls into this category and if he or she does, you might choose to discuss Panic Away as a viable option for treating your panic attacks.

What is Panic Away?

The promises that Panic Away makes it keeps and so it stands apart from those that are merely fly-by-night remedies that do not keep their promises. When you decide to try Panic Attack you will receive an e-book that contains all the relevant info that you need to follow the program properly. In the interest of promoting a fast recovery the program includes audio CDs. You will be taught how to control any situation that would usually result in the onset of an attack. It does not matter where you are, even if you are in a checkout line, you will know how to combat an attack before it takes control. Once you find that the techniques you have learnt are in fact effective you will find that you are more self-confident and eager to continue with the program.

Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the program uses this to teach you the way to practice the techniques, enabling you to learn and practice new ways of behaving. In order for this to come naturally you will need to practice what is called One Move Technique. This technique will help you stop an attack the moment you feel it coming on. When you have mastered it you will have found that you are once again in control of your anxieties.

Of course an obvious advantage to this program is that you will not need to have expensive prescriptions filled on a regular basis. You will probably choose to continue with the Panic Away exercises when you realize that you are not only saving money but you are also protecting your body by not ingesting chemicals that could prove harmful in the long run. This program will allow you to enjoy a social event without fear and anxiety by helping you to relax and be confident that you are in control and that the panic attacks are not in control of you.

The Panic Away Program

If this is of interest to you, as it has been to many others, you should give the Panic Away demo a try. By doing so you will be able to determine if this is the method for you but with no cost involved. If you decide at the end of the demo that you would like to try the program out fully you will also receive some extra bonus products as a thank you gift for trying the demo.

A $150 coaching voucher, online presentations, extra audio information and access to an online forum are among the bonus products you will receive. For people who suffer with this disorder the forum is a great place to meet. It is well-known that just knowing that you are not alone can go a long way in motivating people to continue onward to attaining their goal of a panic-free life.

When it comes to Panic Away there are three issues that really count in its favor.

1. It is not invasive.
2. Developed by someone who is very familiar with the disorder.
3. It does not result in lots of cost like what would be required for ongoing sessions with a therapist and the medication that needs to be purchased.

The developer acknowledges that there are effective treatments and does not desire to discredit anyone. The only goal of this program is to provide people with the information he has gathered through his own experiences so that they too may enjoy a life free from anxiety and fear.

More than 40,000 people have tried Panic Away. They have armed themselves with the methods to combat panic attacks and to finally be free of the crippling effect of this condition. One Move Technique is the trademark of the program and could very well be the natural solution you have been looking for in your quest to regain control.

No matter when or where an attack strikes this program will arm you with the techniques that you can employ to manage your anxiety. The program is complete and you will also receive a full guarantee which goes a long way in alleviating any doubt about the legitimacy of the method.

The site is easy to navigate and offers lots of very useful information regarding panic attacks and how they can be controlled. Access to the site is possible whether you order the program or not. If you want control of your panic attacks and you are tired of suffering the fear and anxiety that they bring, Panic Away could well be the very thing you need.

We all know that anxiety is normal. In fact, a person is not normal if he has never felt anxiety at any point in his life. It is the feeling you get when you are nervous about something like before a big event in your life or before when you have to give a speech to a huge crowd for instance. As you stand there, waiting for your name to be called you feel your hands getting clammy. As you wait some more, you feel your heart beating loudly in your chest. You break into a cold sweat and you feel dizzy. As you take the first step towards the podium, you find it difficult to breathe and you start to feel nauseated. This is a classic example of the different symptoms that a person goes through during an anxiety attack. It is important that you know how to identify panic attack symptoms so that you have an idea on how to deal with them before they get too severe.

The Heart

Your heart is one of the first body parts that usually show anxiety attack symptoms. This is usually the first sign that you are having an attack. You begin to feel your heart beating really fast, like it is about to burst out of your chest. Then you start to feel a tightening in your chest area. For some people their chest feels so tight that they find it difficult to breathe. These symptoms can also be mistaken as the signs of a heart attack. It is best to seek medical attention if it becomes too much to bear and especially if you have a medical history of heart problems.

Breathing

As you start to go into a panic, you begin to feel as if you are trying to catch your breath. Your chest begins to rise and fall rapidly as you try to take in more air into your lungs. Because of the shortness of breath, it is normal for you to feel dizzy and lightheaded. For some it gets so severe that they reach a point where the vision begins to become blurry and then totally black. This is the sign that you are about to pass out. Passing out in public places can be a problem so it is important to find a cure for the difficulty in breathing that you feel.

Visions Of Doom

When you are having an anxiety attack, you constantly think of all the things that could go wrong. It is like with every single step that you take outside your house, the many ways that you could die on the way to the grocery store are flashing before your eyes. This can cause severe paranoia and stop you from living a normal, happy life.

Anxiety is a common problem in America today, with tens of millions of adults and teenagers being medicated to treat the symptoms. But it should be noted that it is not the same from person to person – and that medication is not really necessary in a large number of these cases.

If we created a scale from 1 to 10, a panic attack (which is the most powerful form of anxiety) would register at a 9 or 10. Complete relaxation would be around 1. The typical person living in a big city might have a stress level of around 3 or 4 on a daily basis.

In comparison, a person with general anxiety (sometimes called Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD) are around the 5 to 8 range. People with GAD vary in the intensity of what they experience, but typically they have feelings of anxiety that are not triggered by any specific incidents, and they often experience anxious thoughts and worry constantly.

People who have GAD spend their days in the upper level of our scale, almost as if their “dial” is stuck on a permanent high setting of sensitivity. This constant anxiety makes them jumpy, irritable, and physically feel bad. They are habitually tense and uncomfortable, and they become obsessed with anxious thoughts.

Some symptoms that people can experience include…

• Becoming nauseated
• Being dizzy
• Becoming exhausted
• Problems with eyesight
• Cramps and stomach pains
• Intrusive thoughts they can’t control
• Depression
• Feelings of unreality
• Disturbed sleep
• Difficulty concentrating

The good news is that if you have general anxiety (and if you only think you do, you should consult a doctor or therapist to get a professional diagnosis), it’s not an illness. Your brain is just fine, and so is your body. You merely suffer from a sensitized, anxious state. Basically, your body is attuned to a higher level of readiness to act – you’re in a constant state of “fight or flight.”

If you think about it, this sort of anxiousness might have been a benefit to our ancestors. If people 6000 years ago lived under the threat of being eaten by a tiger, people who constantly worried about tigers and scanned their surroundings stood a better chance of NOT being surprised and eaten by a tiger. People who were relaxed and unconcerned about dangers probably didn’t live as long!

The problem comes in that the vast majority of humanity doesn’t have to worry about physical dangers as much as our ancestors did. But in people with general anxiety, their brains just don’t have the same physical capacity of shutting down.

But it is a process that can be learned, and learned quickly and easily.

Ever heard that stopping a panic attack was an impossible thing to do? Well, it is not wrong actually.

You must be wondering why and this is perfectly normal. Let’s try to be as simple as possible and avoid speaking in too many medical terms.

The simple reason why you can’t really stop a panic attack once it has started is because your mind has fabricated it and unless you stop it right before it kicks in, your panic attack will reach its peak within 10 minutes. They usually last for up to 30 minutes and include all sorts of physical and emotional symptoms as you most probably know it already.

The most annoying thing with this sort of problem is that they can occur anywhere and at anytime. The foundations of a panic attack are laid hours before it happens and this is why you are taken by surprise most of the time. And yes, it is a nasty surprise.

So, you must now be wondering what you have left to do then?

Does it mean that you will have to live with this plight for the rest of your life?

The answer is no, no and no! There are solutions depending on the actual severity of your panic attacks.

GAD or generalized anxiety disorders have each their particularities. Treatments for panic attacks are varied and they each have a role in helping you get your life back on track.

If you feel that the symptoms you experience each time you have a fit are becoming a real problem that even prevents you from leading a normal life then your doctor could prescribe you with anti-anxiety drugs such as Benzodiazepines for instance. They are fast acting and usually bring relief within thirty minutes to an hour. However, you have to be careful because you can become addicted and they don’t treat the condition but merely alleviate the symptoms.

Natural treatments including CBT also known as Cognitive Behavioural therapy are an excellent alternative to medication. They teach you how to recognize the first signs of an anxiety attack and therefore teach you how to control your emotions in order to prevent panic attacks from developing in the first place.

Finally, a cheaper alternative remains the very well researched self-help programmes available in books or online that teach you the best techniques such as breathing exercises, how to sleep better as well as the mechanism and the development of panic attacks so that you can get a good understanding of the condition you suffer from and treat it fast.

So, stopping a panic attack is not really possible because of the reasons mentioned above but preventing them is and prevention through whatever programme or technique suits you remains the best option.

Wishing you all the best in your search for peace of mind!

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most common psychological disorders, but it is often misunderstood and belittled by non sufferers. Many people will label it as just being shy, but it is much more than that.

If you have a friend that has been diagnosed with social anxiety there are challenges that he/she faces on a daily basis. It is a mental disorder cause by environmental factors, genetics, psychological factors, or a combination of all three. So simply telling a friend with social anxiety to just get out there and socialize won’t work.

Having support from a friend can make the road to recovery much easier. Before you can lend your support, you must first educate yourself about the disorder. This article discusses 7 ways you can provide support to a friend with social anxiety.

1.) Research the Disorder – There is plenty information available online that will help you get a better understanding of what it’s like to live with SAD. Learning as much as you can about the symptoms and the treatment options will better prepare you to be there for your friend.

2.) Don’t Be an Enabler – Your friend may have had SAD for as long as you’ve know him. During the course of your friendship, you may have developed “enabling habits” such as speaking up for them or helping them avoid anxiety provoking situations.

Pay attention to possible enabling behavior and gradually stop. It’s a fine line between enabling and being sensitive; learn when to push and when to pull back.

3.) Congratulate Small Steps – The road to recovery is a gradually process. If you see your friend making positive steps (no matter how minor), congratulate them and give words of encouragement. Positive reinforcement can help motivate your friend to keep working at overcoming their disorder.

4.) Encourage Treatment – Sometimes a person has been living with SAD for so long they just give up trying to fight it. It’s possible that your friend doesn’t know that there are many treatment options available. Be careful not to try and force treatment, but once they do decide to give it a shot, encourage them to complete the treatment.

5.) Be Patient – Sometimes overcoming SAD can be a slow process. It may take several months to reverse behaviors that have been learned over many years. Show patients; don’t expect things to change overnight.

6.) Don’t Place Blame – Don’t think it’s your friends fault that he has SAD. Trust me he/she didn’t choose to have and would give almost anything to be able to overcome it.

7.) Ask How You Can Help – If notice your friend is in an anxiety provoking situation, ask if it’s anything you can do to help. Working together with your friend will help you determine how much or how little you will need to participate in the recovery process.

Everyone experiences some form of discomfort around certain people at certain times, this is natural and is often just a sign that your brain is adjusting to an unfamiliar environment. Where it becomes a problem is when it happens too often and the person buys into the illusion that they don’t have the means or resources to return back to their normal comfortable state other than when they are on their own. This then, in turn can cause them to loop round in a self-destructive cycle that can play havoc with their happiness, social relationships and life chances…

There are a wide variety of thoughts and theories as to where this phenomenon originates. Genetics, child development, chemical imbalance and nutrition have all been cited at some stage as playing their part in the make-up of what can often, on the surface, appear a complex problem…

With my own background being in NLP (Neuro linguistic programming), change psychology and hypnosis I am hugely biased towards the belief that feeling unnecessarily anxious or phobic around people is a neurological pattern that is learned and re-enforced through time and, as such, can also be un-learned through time. I’m not making the bold claim that everyone who experiences it can be cured almost instantly with a few techniques. While most have their similarities each case is obviously unique and it can often take a bit of exploration to find what works with each particular person.

I have, however, seen far too many examples of people who have made incredible improvements in a short space of time to believe anything other than change happens fast. It may sometimes take a bit of time to dig and figure out what will make the greatest difference but once you do, change certainly doesn’t hang about. It’s kind of like the game domino rally. Once you’ve set the game up and knocked over the first domino, the rest follow suit in dynamic and inevitable fashion.

This belief that social anxiety is simply a pattern that is learned, repeated and re-enforced over time is, for me, the crucial distinction that someone who is trained (and experienced) in NLP makes in comparison to someone who is not. From the initial diagnosis by a GP to the numerous sessions with a psychiatrist the language that is almost always used creates and re-enforces the in accurate and dangerous assumption in the patients mind that ‘they have got something’, like a cold or some sort of illness or virus.

Not only does this operate from the belief that you are in some way broken it also implies that social anxiety is ‘a thing’ and not a process. This, in my opinion, is one of the most in-accurate and dangerous belief systems that you can buy into and unfortunately the one that most health care services in the western world create and re-enforce.

Let me be blunt about this…Social anxiety is not a thing! You cannot go down to the shops and buy a lump of social anxiety…It may feel like a thing but it’s not so stop talking about it like it is a thing as this seriously hinders your ability to relax and be comfortable around people.

When you really get down to it, it is a group of limiting beliefs/mis-informed opinions that you have created (usually with good intentions and out with conscious awareness) about your relationship with people that have left you with a hugely un-helpful pattern or patterns that you play through way too often.

These patterns, in the form of internal pictures, movies, sounds, internal critical voices and feelings can often cause havoc to the quality of your life but at the end of the day it’s not a thing but rather just your own going experience heading in an un-useful direction.

You are not broken…your brain is like a well oiled machine, a finely tuned instrument…It may be playing the wrong tune but it’s playing it incredibly well…

Just knowing these two distinctions is such a powerful first step for those who feel unnecessarily anxious around people. The distinctions that:

1. Social Anxiety is not a thing it is a collection of limiting beliefs/mis-informed opinions that were created with good intentions but now have left you with some destructive neurological patterns that you keep playing through.

2. You are not broken you work perfectly…You may be working perfectly in the wrong direction but your brain is doing what it feels it should be based on the inaccurate limiting beliefs you bought into at some stage in your life.

So here’s my invitation to you…if you have been viewing social anxiety as ‘a thing that you suffer from’ or some form of ‘illness’, suspend those old beliefs for a moment and become open to these two new important distinctions…because it’s from this position that you can start to make some serious progress.