What is Anxiety – Anxiety Attacks – Panic Disorder?
All the above disorders are very much interlinked with each other. These disorders may often begin with an onset of worrying thoughts for the sufferer, leading to irrational ideas about their present situation, and often the sufferer’s ‘catastrophising’ their situation in their minds. This eventually causes an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety. When this cycle continues, the fear experienced can progress towards anxiety and panic attacks. These anxiety and panic attacks can appear out of nowhere, which can be very distressing for the sufferer. Because anxiety and panic attacks produce a high level of physiological activity, this physical intensity in the body can exacerbate the condition, causing this cycle of anxiety and panic to continue.
Anxiety Disorders can be brought on by an overload of stressful situations in the present life, but also often from earlier trauma in a person’s life. With the appropriate counselling approach and techniques, and with the help of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, individuals can recover quickly and lead normal, healthy lives in the future.
What is Depression?
There are different types of depression, but all come under the umbrella of mood disorders. For example, Major Depression is where a person’s mood has dropped below a normal level over a significant period of time and shows no sign of lifting.
Another type of depression is called Bipolar where an individual’s mood moves from high to low and then high to low again.
Mood changes can be caused by many factors e.g. a childhood upbringing, attachment issues, and sometimes a genetic component. Another big factor to all kinds of depressive illness can be a reaction to stress. Life situations experienced have a direct effect on our moods and can cause many of these depressive illnesses. Such situations can be a bereavement, workplace stress, disappointments in life, midlife crisis and many other life experiences, causing also a ‘reactive depression’. Clinical Depression can also be caused by an overwhelming level of stressors and negative experiences in a person’s life history. These different types of depression can be treated successfully and recovery achieved with the initial help of medication when necessary, along with talk therapy, using at times a Mindfulness Therapy approach, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). and Existential Therapy.
