Online hypnotherapy for anxiety offers a modern convenient approach to tackling anxiety. Many people live with anxiety and regularly experience symptoms such as panic, increased heart rate and sweating. Because anxiety is a normal part of life, it can be difficult to recognise when it is becoming a problem. Anxiety becomes a mental health problem when it starts affecting daily life, often leaving you feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. You may be very easily triggered, or find you have a level of anxiety constantly throughout the day. Talking therapies like counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are often recommended for anxiety and your doctor may also recommend medications to help with symptoms. However, while treatments for anxiety are available on the NHS, waiting lists for talking therapies can be long, so many people look to other options. Hypnotherapy for anxiety is an option which is gaining in popularity and, for many people, brings about positive change not only in anxiety symptoms but in life in general. So could online hypnotherapy for anxiety be helpful for people looking for a quick and convenient solution to their anxiety?

What is anxiety?

As humans, we have evolved to protect ourselves in crisis situations. One of the ways we do that is through the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mechanism, sometimes referred to as ‘the stress response’. If our brains perceive a threat, it releases hormones to prepare us to either run away, ‘stand and fight’ or freeze and ‘play dead’. The hormones involved in this survival mechanism include adrenaline and cortisol, which make us feel more alert and vigilant about what’s happening around us so that we are on the look-out for potential danger. They also make our hearts beat faster, so blood is sent where it’s needed the most when we’re under attack.

This in-built protection mechanism was very important in helping primitive man survive the harsh and hostile conditions he faced, but as society has developed, we have less need for it. For many of us, this ‘fight, flight, freeze’ reaction gets activated even when there is no physical danger present. For example, this response may be triggered by being asked to take on more responsibility at work, being threatened by redundancy, or even reading a bank statement. Because there is no real threat, and hence no action needs be taken, we end up internalising the feelings created by the released stress hormones, and find ourselves sitting at our work stations with our hearts pounding and our palms sweating, with no idea how to make it stop.

Types of anxiety

The symptoms associated with anxiety will differ between each individual but, depending on the kind of problems you experience, you may be diagnosed with a more specific anxiety disorder.

Generalised anxiety disorder

Those with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) will feel anxious often and may not know why. The anxiety can interfere with daily life as sufferers may worry excessively about everyday problems such as money, health and family. General anxiety can be a particularly difficult disorder to live with as it can feel as if there’s no respite from the anxiety.

Panic disorder

Panic disorder is characterised by intense feelings of terror, which can strike suddenly and without warning. A common symptom of panic disorder is panic attacks, though not everyone who experiences a panic attack will have panic disorder. Those who are diagnosed with panic disorder can often feel afraid of having a panic attack, with the fear triggering the panic attacks in a vicious cycle.

Social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia) involves extreme feelings of anxiety and discomfort in social situations. Some of the common signs of social anxiety include fear of being around and interacting with people and being judged negatively by others.

Other forms of anxiety disorders include:

• obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• phobias
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• health anxiety

What does online hypnotherapy for anxiety look like?

While people may liken hypnotherapy to hypnosis to stage shows they see on TV, in clinical hypnotherapy (which is the use of hypnosis to treat or alleviate physical and/or psychological symptoms), there are no magic wands, swinging pendulums, or stage gimmicks involved. Online hypnotherapy for anxiety offers a professional, fast and cost-effective solution to enable people to become free from fear and worry and boost feelings of calm, confidence and self-belief. Anxiety is just fear and I offer hypnotherapy online to work with a broad range of clients from all over the world, in the privacy and comfort of their own homes, to find out why they aren’t feeling safe and relaxed and to look at the root causes and work through them. Using trance, a natural state we can all achieve which is very similar to meditation, hypnotherapy helps to access your subconscious mind and promote positive change. Trance enables you to engage more of your imagination and hence offers a quick and permanent way of reframing beliefs and dealing once and for all with the negative patterns that underpin anxiety. Clients are often surprised by how quickly their patterns can shift and they can get back in control of their lives, producing great chemicals which make them feel energised, motivated and happier.

But does hypnotherapy for anxiety really work?

While there has not been a great deal of clinical research performed to assess the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for anxiety, what studies there are suggest that hypnotherapy is more effective in helping people with ‘trait anxiety’ (a tendency to anxiety as part of your personality) as well as people whose anxiety stems from a chronic health condition such as heart disease. It can also help with conditions where anxiety can increase physical symptoms (eg. hypnotherapy for IBS). However, reviews consistently suggest that more studies are needed to assess the success of hypnotherapy for anxiety – which is not a reflection of evidence that it doesn’t work, rather a recognition that not enough studies have been done on hypnotherapy for anxiety to prove that it does.

Can using hypnotherapy for anxiety make anxiety worse?

While hypnotherapy for anxiety can be an effective method of helping people reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, it is not always helpful for everyone. If you have a history of psychosis or certain types of personality disorders, you should speak with your GP first, as hypnotherapy may not be recommended for you. Some people do experience headaches, dizziness, or anxiety following hypnotherapy, however, this usually fades quickly following a session.

If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch and call 07926 377827 to book a free session of online hypnotherapy for anxiety in the privacy, convenience and comfort of your own home. In addition to a free online session of hypnotherapy for anxiety, I offer a free audio file for self-guided hypnosis.