What Is The Long-Term Impact Of Living With Anxiety?


 

Anxiety is a common experience that affects millions of people worldwide. While it can serve a useful purpose by alerting us to potential dangers, chronic anxiety can lead to a range of long-term impacts that significantly affect an individual’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being.


As a Hypnotherapist, I often work with clients struggling with anxiety.


Mental Health Challenges

Living with chronic anxiety can increase the risk of developing other mental health disorders. Anxiety often coexists with conditions such as depression, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The persistent worry and fear can lead to feelings of hopelessness, isolation, and sadness. Over time, this can result in a downward spiral of mental health, making it more challenging to manage anxiety and contributing to a complex interplay of symptoms that can be overwhelming.


Physical Health Consequences

The long-term effects of anxiety aren’t limited to mental health; they can also manifest physically. Chronic anxiety triggers the body’s stress response, which can lead to a range of health issues, including:

• Cardiovascular Problems: Prolonged stress can increase heart rate and blood pressure, heightening the risk of heart disease.

• Gastrointestinal Issues: Anxiety can lead to digestive problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), acid reflux, or chronic nausea.

• Weakened Immune System: Chronic stress can impair the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to infections and illnesses.


Impaired Daily Functioning

Individuals living with chronic anxiety often find it challenging to perform daily tasks. Simple activities such as going to work, attending social gatherings, or even running errands can become daunting. This avoidance behaviour can lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism, further exacerbating feelings of inadequacy or failure. Over time, these patterns can isolate individuals, leading to a reduction in social interactions and support networks.


Impact on Relationships

Anxiety can strain relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. Those with anxiety may withdraw from social activities or become irritable and defensive. Communication can suffer as anxiety leads to misunderstandings and conflicts. Loved ones may struggle to understand the person’s experience, leading to frustration on both sides. Over time, these dynamics can create distance and reduce the overall quality of relationships.

Coping Mechanisms and Substance Use

To cope with the overwhelming feelings associated with anxiety, individuals may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance use or unhealthy eating habits. Alcohol, drugs, and excessive caffeine can provide temporary relief but ultimately exacerbate anxiety in the long run. Such behaviours can lead to dependency issues and further complicate an individual’s mental and physical health.


Reduced Quality of Life

Chronic anxiety can diminish one’s overall quality of life. When anxiety becomes a constant presence, it can overshadow positive experiences, making it difficult to enjoy hobbies, relationships, or even quiet moments of relaxation. People may find themselves living in a state of hyper-vigilance, always anticipating the next source of stress or worry, which can lead to a profound sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness.


Long-Term Cognitive Effects

Chronic anxiety can also impact cognitive functioning. Individuals may experience difficulty concentrating, memory problems, or a general sense of mental fog. This cognitive decline can further hinder productivity and exacerbate feelings of frustration or inadequacy.



The long-term impact of living with anxiety can be profound and far-reaching. While anxiety is a normal response to stress, chronic anxiety requires attention and intervention. Recognising the potential consequences is the first step toward seeking help.


How Can Hypnoanalysis (Analytical Hypnotherapy) Help?

Hypnoanalysis works through and resolves the root cause of causing emotional and psychological difficulties.

The therapy works under the principle of cause and effect. For every effect there has to be a cause; a reason why someone suffers in the way they do.

Rather than managing symptoms, the aim is to remove the psychological root cause of symptoms.

By enabling past events to be re-examined and the associated emotion released, patterns of behaviour which are no longer appropriate, the symptoms, cease.

Find out more and book a free initial consultation at www.ketteringhypnotherapy.com or call David direct at 01536 350328

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting a Better Nights Sleep - The 3 Week Challenge: Principle One

Image
It all began a month or so before lockdown when I noticed how many sleep aids there were in the chemist.  That same week I had four people contact me for help with sleep problems.  This made me ask myself: “What does psychological research and Hypnotherapy tell us about getting a good nights sleep?” A positive psychological approach focuses on what makes people healthy rather than unhealthy. Instead of looking at the behaviour of someone who is struggling to get a good nights sleep, we should focus on the person who frequently sleeps well. How is the behaviour different? Can we copy it? I began teaching people to use these psychological techniques alongside Hypnosis to nudge their sleep pattern. I was pleased to see the differences that could be made…but more people are needed to really see how effective it could be. Fancy a challenge? You need to apply the principles for the next three weeks and review the changes to your to sleep.  Each principle usually takes on
Read more

Hypnosis Explained

Image
    If you are hoping to read that Hypnosis is a magical, mystical, controlling power that can make people behave in ways they choose not to, then you are certainly going to be disappointed. Any assumption that a person is asleep or unconscious is also not the case.  So have you ever experienced Hypnosis? Think back over the last 24 hours…. When you woke up this morning, do you remember that half-awake half-asleep feeling? On that commute to work, perhaps you drifted into auto-pilot and as you were driving along? Perhaps your mind drifted to the things you had to do.  You could be forgiven for thinking that you were daydreaming. Tonight, just as you drift off to sleep you are very likely to experience that same half-awake half-asleep feeling. Every one of those experiences could be given the name Hypnosis. Hypnosis is a natural state we all experience many times throughout the day. It is as much part of our lives as breathing. The idea of being under the control of another or being un
Read more

Imposter Syndrome: Do you sometimes feeling like a fraud?

Image
  One behaviour people experience from one time or another is being an imposter; the feeling that they might get ‘caught’ out for not being as good at what they do as people assume they are. Imposter syndrome is where an individual doubts their accomplishments and abilities and these are converted into a fear of being exposed as a fraud. Interestingly, this still happens when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.  What do you attribute your successes to? Unjustified feelings of being an imposter are an attribution bias. It is a tendency to attribute successes to luck or poor judgment on the part of others’. In a self-deprecating way, the assumption is that they are ‘just getting by’ and if others saw the real them then they would less than impressed. When we feel this kind of imposter syndrome, we failing to have any internal acknowledgment of our own achievements, something which is characteristic of those suffering from anxiety, and unsurprisingly, low self-esteem. Of c
Read more