Many people use the terms "stress" and "anxiety" interchangeably, but they are in fact two separate conditions. Stress is a response to a stimulus, which can be external or internal. You may experience stress because you are frustrated with something (like waiting in line behind a slow person) or when you are worried that you will not meet expectations (such as missing a deadline at work).
Anxiety, on the other hand, is a feeling of dread, or nervousness and fear. 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 test.
Abnormal levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain may cause generalized anxiety. Some research indicates that anxiety can be brought on genetically. In addition, anxiety can stem from environmental conditions, as when the child of a parent who is often anxious becomes an anxious person by observing the parent. But very often the base cause of anxiety is simply the thoughts that a person is thinking!
Stress and anxiety are subjective conditions. Different people may feel stressed about different situations, and different people may react 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 vomiting, irregular heartbeat, and anxiety attacks.
Everyone feels some amount of anxiety from time to time. We have all experienced the dry mouth and vague sense of dread before a public speaking engagement or a test. But when does it become damaging to your health? Research has revealed that chronic anxiety can make us vulnerable to sleep disorders, high blood pressure, relationship problems, and depression
For sufferers of chronic untreated anxiety, there may be detrimental health consequences that have yet to be fully examined. Some studies have found a link between generalized anxiety disorder and a number of serious health conditions including cancer, arthritis, respiratory illness, 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 an inappropriately high amount of anxiety relative to the circumstances, or if you feel anxious nearly every day, you may actually have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are chronic conditions characterized by an individual'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 effects.
Anxiety treatment has long been the subject of much discussion in the medical field. Some medical professionals feel that medication is the best treatment for chronic anxiety. Unfortunately, anxiety medications often produce undesirable side effects that are just as bad as or even worse than the initial condition.
There are many safe and effective ways to control negative emotional reactions. Exercise is one that is often overlooked by anxious people, but it is highly effective. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins, which are natural pain-killing and mood-boosting chemicals. With regular exercise, you may begin to feel a dramatic decrease in negative emotional reactions to situations that would previously have made you extremely anxious.
The most effective way to deal with tension and worry is to control it from within. Stress relief and stress management techniques are very useful in handling day-to-day stress. These techniques can teach you to calm yourself and let the tension leave your body. You make a conscious effort to slow your breathing, release the worry, and remain in a peaceful state of mind. Meditation is an increasingly popular form of tension relief in which you practice mindful relaxation and deep, calm breathing.
However, if you seek a proactive method to relieve yourself of anxiety, hypnotherapy is the best treatment option. When an individual undergoes hypnotherapy, their reactions and emotional responses to events are changed at the core. This gives them the opportunity to handle typical anxiety-inducing triggers without the usual nervousness and fear.
Hypnosis is often performed by a licensed hypnotherapist in a series of regular treatments. More commonly today, hypnotherapy takes the form of self hypnosis programs which can be purchased in the form of MP3s, DVDs, or CDs for personal home use. No special skills are required to practice self hypnosis. All you need is a way to play the hypnotherapy program and a quiet space where you can listen and relax.
Another successful type of anxiety treatment is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. NLP is a type of therapy that helps you retrain your mind and body to naturally react to situations in a more positive manner. You can consciously decide to stay calm rather than anxious, and consequently, you always have control over your own feelings.
In summary, you can see that it is important to manage our negative emotional responses in order to remain healthy. Learning to cope with fear and nervousness may even add years onto your life. To treat long term anxiety, the best course of action is to use hypnosis to change your attitudes and reactions from within. Then, it becomes easy to use stress management techniques as needed to remain calm in everyday situations.
Alan B. Densky, CH has been in practice over 30 years. His Neuro-VISION hypnotism website carries a broad range of anxiety elimination NLP CDs, and advanced stress elimination CDs Visit his site for the Free video hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 opens August 6th, 2008 (wide)
Three years after the events of THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS,
the four young women are back. Despite the distance that divides them
as they depart for college, the friends from Ann Brashares's teen book
series still stay connected. This sequel returns Amber Tamblyn, America
Ferrera, Blake Lively, and Alexis Bledel to the roles they originated.
the four young women are back. Despite the distance that divides them
as they depart for college, the friends from Ann Brashares's teen book
series still stay connected. This sequel returns Amber Tamblyn, America
Ferrera, Blake Lively, and Alexis Bledel to the roles they originated.
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