Anxiety can feel scary, the physical feelings in our bodies that anxiety creates can be very strong. Being a therapist and understanding anxiety fully is a nod to my anxious  teenage self, this knowledge would have helped me with the daily fear of life and the unpredictable nature of what anxiety generated for me.

Anxiety is a term used commonly now in a way that it wasn’t 30 years ago, however the explanation of why it exists is often missing from these widespread conversations. So, what is anxiety? Why does it generate such powerful physical symptoms and how do we manage it so that we can get on with life?

Anxiety is our body helping us to survive, it is a function that is important to ensure we can either run away from a threat to survive or fight to defend ourselves.

This reaction, that we all have in-built, has served a very important function since we first evolved as human beings. 

When we first evolved we needed a highly functioning danger state that would keep us alert for signals that there was danger present and enable our bodies to kick in with an immediate response to keep us safe. 

This quick response, from our autonomic nervous system, sends out adrenaline into our body to enable us to flee to safety, or if that is not possible or successful, to fight against the threat. 

This is why we experience symptoms such as increased heart rate, churning stomach, sweaty palms, headaches and shaking limbs, as these are just some of the physical sensations the nervous system creates when it is charged.

Therefore it makes sense that we all have this function, but for some of us the autonomic nervous system is more active than others. 

This can be for a number of reasons, such as experiencing a traumatic event or a build up of stress at work, regular arguments with a loved one or financial worries that won’t go away.

The threat does not have to be a polar bear at your door for your nervous system to be triggered, it can be from past experiences that have caused chronic stress of the nervous system and therefore it is more easily triggered. 

It could be that due to negative messages received throughout childhood there are now negative core beliefs that create unhelpful thoughts and emotions. These, in turn, then trigger this threat response. Or it could be that the nervous system has become so used to being active, due to unhealthy relationships for example, that being in a flight/fight ‘state’ becomes the norm. 

Many of my clients start to notice and become aware that anxiety and the nervous system are working hard most of the time during the day and this has become part of life. Through taking time to reflect and recognise the signs of this danger/threat response, strategies can then be created that start to move clients out of this constant state of being on high alert to one of feeling emotionally safe.

Throughout history there have been many psychological theories that have evolved to help us to understand anxiety and how to manage it. These have progressed more in the last 20 years with the development of neuroscience to help us to track what happens in the brain when we are exposed to certain situations and studies into the autonomic nervous system. Research into Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has shown the impact of chronic danger level threat on our bodies. 

More recently Dr Porges developed the Vagal Theory, a further model upon which to understand the nervous systems and further strategies to move back into a ‘state’ that enables us to connect with others and problem solve. I will be exploring this theory more in later journals to help explain in more detail how our autonomic nervous system operates and how we can make it work better for ourselves.

As well as the regular information out in the media now about anxiety,  we also need to be hearing some good news about how anxiety can be managed, about why it exists and how we all have the capacity to move back to a ‘state’ that feels emotionally safe. 

Hope is an important part of managing an overactive nervous system, hope that it is possible to manage these responses in the body and hope that the worrying thoughts will quieten down.

The combination of knowledge about why the human body creates anxiety, along with the empowerment that we all have the skills to find a way out of a ‘stuck’ state enables us to feel better and get on with our lives. 

Now, if I could find a time machine to go back and tell my 14 year old self this information!! 

Jane McPhillips Hypnotherapy