Stress Management Anxiety Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy by Grantham Hypnotherapist
Stress, what`s that ?
Stress is the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure and feeling unable to cope with it all.
Everyone reacts to stress differently. People are also biologically ‘wired’ to react differently to stress.
One person may secrete higher levels of cortisol than another in the same situation, so a situation that feels stressful to one person may be stimulating or motivating to someone else.
Many `life events` can cause stress, especially things at work, relationship issues, the world’s economic problems, and one`s own money problems. The list is endless…
Feelings, thoughts and behaviour can get in the way of sorting out these challenges by affecting how you think, feel and behave.
The body often reacts in such circumstances with sleeping problems, sweating, bowel or bladder problems, loss of appetite and difficulty concentrating.
There may be a decrease in testosterone levels in males and irregular menstrual cycles in females.
There is also an increased likelihood of infectious diseases.
You may feel anxious, irritable and have low self esteem, and you may have racing thoughts, worry constantly or go over things in your head – time and time again.
You may notice that you lose your temper more easily, drink more or act unreasonably or `out of character`.
You may also experience headaches, muscle tension or pain, or dizziness etc. etc.
Stress causes a reaction of the autonomic nervous system and releases hormones into your body. These stress hormones are released to enable you to deal with pressures or threats, what many call the “fight or flight” response and these hormones are responsible for several stress-related changes in the body.
The adrenal steroid hormone, cortisol and norepinephrine are released to boost the body’s ability to fight off the attacker or run away quicker than normal.
Cortisol is believed to affect the metabolic system causing a breakdown of muscle protein, leading to release of amino acids into the bloodstream and norepinephrine is believed to play a role in ADHD as well as depression and hypertension.
Originally, the human being`s design was intended to take care of physical threats – not everyday worry and problems that we have in the modern day.
Once the pressure or threat has passed, your stress hormone levels will usually return to normal.
However, if you’re constantly under stress, these hormones will remain in your body, leading to the symptoms of stress and often long-term stress.
Stressful Life Events
The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe decided to study whether or not stress contributes to illness.
They surveyed more than 5,000 medical patients and asked them to say whether they had experience any of a series of 43 life events in the previous two years.
Each event, called a Life Change Unit (LCU), had a different “weight” for stress. The more events the patient added up, the higher the score.
The higher the score, and the larger the weight of each event, the more likely the patient was to become ill.
What are the symptoms of stress?
Stress affects people in different ways the symptoms of stress often build up gradually before you even start to notice them. Stress can affect how you feel, how you think, how you behave and how your body works. Stress affects people in different ways, but if you are stressed, you may have a number of the symptoms or conditions described below.
Your feelings
You may feel:
- irritable
- anxious
- low self-esteem
- moody
Your thoughts
You may find that you:
- have racing thoughts
- worry constantly
- imagine the worst
- impaired cognitive performance
- go over and over things
Your behaviour
You may notice that you:
- lose your temper easily
- drink more
- smoke more
- rushing around
- talk more or talk faster
- change your eating habits
- feel unsociable
- are forgetful
- incompetent
- act unreasonably
- find it difficult to concentrate
Your body
You may experience:
- headaches
- muscle tension and pain
- suppressed thyroid function
- blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
- decreased bone density
- decrease in muscle tissue
- higher blood pressure
- stomach problems
- sweating
- dizziness
- bowel or bladder problems
- breathlessness
- dry mouth
- sexual problems and issues
- lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
PLEASE NOTE:
Dr. Michael G Millett accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this page.
The information is provided for guidance only.
Dr. Millett is not a medical doctor. ALL medical conditions should be firstly checked out by a practicing and licensed GP.
How does hypnotherapy help with stress?
During hypnosis / hypnotherapy your conscious mind is deeply relaxed initially because it’s important that the body’s relaxation response is activated, and adrenal activity normalised, so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event.
Then the unconscious mind can be accessed where deep, and long lasting changes are made.
During the process, once relaxed in this way, you are guided in a way that supports your intended outcome to access the inner resources you already have to bring them forward to support your reaction in future situations.
You will be encouraged to make lifestyle changes in order to keep your body from reacting to stress in the first place, and subsequently maintain a low-stress lifestyle. You will then be reminded how our good work will continue after the session and you will be happily surprised to discover how easy it is to achieve you goals.
You may also choose to practice self-hypnosis which you will be taught – to deepen the change and increase relaxation reducing the effects of stress on the body by deeply relaxing, lowering heart rate and blood pressure and relaxing muscle tension.
→ Coping with Stress in Business in Grantham & Newark
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