"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained" - Arthur Somers Roche
Whilst stress is a physical response to a threat, anxiety is sitting at home, worrying about it happening. However, with anxiety, we often experience the same physical sensations, the heart palpitations, shallow breathing, and stomach in knots.
Anxiety is an imagined threat; the meeting with the boss, the drive to work, what to wear, how to look good, what to feed the children, how to cope with the credit card bills.
The problem with anxiety is that you get all the sensations of stress, without having to face the sabre-tooth tiger.
“Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere” – unknown.
Anxiety can become all-encompassing, all-enveloping until it consumes the whole of a person’s life.
The combination of physical and mental symptoms of anxiety can become a loop, so that a person starts to worry about worrying. As soon as those physical sensations, such as the butterflies in the stomach, appear, the cycle begins, so that the emphasis is on feeling anxious, rather than the anxiety itself.
This can spiral until the subject has a panic attack, a period when the mind scrambles, and potentially dangerous physical sensations such as severe heart palpitations occur.
If you suffer from anxiety, and would like to do something about it, please call me on 01933 626253 or 07972057309 or email to arrange an appointment.