Understanding Anxiety & Fear
Anxiety is part of the body’s natural system for anticipating and responding to threat. It can sharpen attention, prepare us for action and help us recognise situations that may require caution. In this sense, anxiety itself is not necessarily a problem. Difficulties can arise when the threat system becomes persistently activated, responds strongly to relatively safe situations, or continues operating even after a threat has passed.
Anxiety can take many forms. For some people it is experienced primarily as worry, rumination, a persistent sense that something may go wrong, and irritability. For others it may be strongly physical, involving a racing heart, muscle tension, nausea, dizziness, breathlessness or feelings of panic. Anxiety can also influence behaviour, particularly through avoidance, reassurance-seeking, checking or attempts to maintain control, and anger and impatience.
These patterns can sometimes become self-reinforcing. Avoiding something frightening, for example, may provide immediate relief while also reducing opportunities to discover that the situation is manageable. Similarly, repeatedly trying to eliminate uncertainty can inadvertently make uncertainty feel increasingly difficult to tolerate.
There is rarely a single explanation for why someone experiences anxiety. Temperament, early experiences, relationships, stressful life events, trauma, physical health and current circumstances can all play a role. Understanding anxiety therefore involves more than simply identifying symptoms. It involves understanding how anxiety developed and the function it has come to serve in a person’s life.
How Therapy May Help
Therapy can provide a space to understand not only what triggers anxiety, but also the processes that may be keeping it going. This can include exploring patterns of worry and avoidance, bodily responses to threat, past experiences, relationships, beliefs about oneself and others, and how a person has learned to manage uncertainty or distress.
Different therapeutic approaches understand and work with anxiety in different ways. Some focus on changing patterns of thought and behaviour, while others place greater emphasis on emotional processing, relationships, trauma, bodily experience or the different parts of ourselves that emerge in response to threat.
Therapy may therefore involve developing practical strategies for responding to anxiety while also building a deeper understanding of why particular situations, thoughts or feelings have acquired their emotional significance.
The most appropriate approach depends on the individual, the nature of their difficulties, and what they hope to gain from therapy. Our practitioners draw on a range of therapeutic perspectives, so treatment is shaped around the person rather than assuming one approach will suit everyone.
