More and more of us use Facebook these days, and it is a convenient means of exchanging news on a fairly trivial level. However, recent experiences have reminded me that there's no such thing as privacy, once you go online. This especially applies to Facebook.
Hypnotherapy Blog
Anxiety and Physical Problems
Anxiety is often mistaken for a physical illness. When we’re anxious, our body is preparing us for “fight or flight”. Nature has designed us to deal with physical dangers, by fighting or running away. Breathing rate is increased, to get more oxygen into our blood. Heart rate is increased, to pump more blood to our muscles. Our hands and feet sweat a little more than usual, to get a better grip. The extra blood diverted to our muscles means less blood in our stomach and intestines. In extreme anxiety people may be sick or even lose the contents of their bowels. This is Nature’s way of unloading excess weight. Eating and digesting is not a priority when our life is at risk.
The problem of modern life is that this same “flight or flight” reaction is triggered when we’re not in any real danger. Sometimes we get so used to being anxious that it starts to feel almost normal. We can forget what it’s like to fee relaxed. Another problem is that we become afraid of the physical symptoms of anxiety. We are anxious about being anxious- which creates a vicious circle. For example, feeling slightly sick may make us think we have a stomach problem. This also creates a fear of being sick in public, which would be embarrassing. Speeding of the heart beat can cause a fear of heart attack. Likewise, permanent muscle tension causes discomfort and even pain in various parts of the body. Chest pain causes fear of a heart attack, other pains may cause a fear of having cancer.
Any physical symptoms should be checked up by your doctor, just in case they are caused by a physical disease. But if they are related to anxiety, then hypnotherapy is an effective method for dealing with these symptoms.