Anxiety Disorders
The NICE clinical guidelines in the UK as used by the National Health Service state that there are a range of Anxiety Disorders.
NICE categorises these as being:
(GAD) Generalised Anxiety Disorder; (PD) Panic Disorder (with and without agoraphobia); (SAD) Social Anxiety Disorder; (PTSD) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; (OCD) Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder; (BDD) Body Dysmorphic Disorder as well as social and specific Phobias, (e.g., of spiders).
Anxiety Disorders can exist in isolation but more commonly occur with other anxiety and depressive disorders.
Many Anxiety Disorders, as stated in the guidelines, go unrecognised or undiagnosed but even taking this into account, the 1-week prevalence rates for adults (a snapshot of anxiety disorders over a 1-week period) from the Office of National Statistics in it’s 2007 national survey in England were 4.4% for generalised anxiety disorder, 3.0% for post traumatic stress disorder, 1.1% for panic disorder and 1.1% for obsessive–compulsive disorder.
These percentages, acknowledging that ‘many anxiety disorders go unrecognised or undiagnosed’ and by implication ‘untreated’ would give in 2015 of a UK population of 64.6 million a snapshot figure of 2.8 million people recognised and diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, 1.9 million with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and 0.7 million living with Panic Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. A total, recognised as a conservative figure, of approximately 6.1 million people or nearly 1 person in 10. Even without the acknowledgement of unrecognised and undiagnosed individuals these figures clearly indicate the significant issue Anxiety Disorders are within today’s society.
Anxiety Disorder’s are not always recognised and diagnosed as people with them may have other symptoms which may take prevalence when being assessed. People who have anxiety or significant worry and have a chronic physical health problem may have an Anxiety Disorder. As may individuals who do not have a physical health problem but are regularly seeking reassurance about physical symptoms or are repeatedly worrying about a wide range of different issues. It is easy to see how due to the presentation of such symptoms that Anxiety Disorders may go unrecognised and undiagnosed for a significant time period.
Hypnotherapy, NLP and HSF can assist individuals with Anxiety Disorders significantly. Assistance is given in the first instance by working with people to establish a means of gaining immediate relief at the onset of their anxiety symptom. People benefit hugely by learning and knowing that they have within themselves a crisis response management technique which they can use as and when they need it. Once this has been learnt and firmly established it is then possible to successfully develop a solid core of strategies and interventions that the individual can put to good use at any crisis moment that they know they need them. These strategies and interventions are all tailored to suit the individual on a person by person basis, using the person’s already known awareness of when, where and how their symptoms manifest making the strategies and interventions the most effective possible to deal with any crisis moment which may arise.
Once this core of crisis management responses has been established, people notice a significant rise in personal confidence that goes with the attainment of such knowledge. Once this confidence level has been established then it is possible, where necessary, to work on other significant areas of a person’s life so that crisis moments themselves may be reduced.
The techniques I am qualified in using can be used to assist with Anxiety Disorder’s so please look at other pages on this site which may contain information that you will find useful particularly:
What is Hypnotherapy ? What is NLP ? What is HSF ?
If you would like to speak further about the options available, please click here to arrange a free initial consultation.