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Although stress, anxiety and panic attacks are different and produce differing symptoms, they are also closely related. If you have high levels of stress and anxiety, panic attacks are more likely to occur. The more stressed you are, the more anxiety you experience from day-to-day. This increasing tension and energy can trigger a panic attack.

What is Stress?

Stress is anything that places a demand on us physically, mentally, or emotionally. It makes us change the normal way we live. Most of us think of stress as a crisis, but not all stress is bad. Without stress, life would be boring. There would be no growth and no change. With too much stress (distress), we reach overload. Our ability to cope becomes limited, and we feel burned out. However, some stress is good. It can provide an opportunity to bring about positive changes in our lives. We call this eustress. This type of stress leads to peak performance.

What are the Signs of Stress?

Stress brings about many physical and emotional changes. Your heart rate and breathing increase. Your muscles tense. The adrenaline begins to flow. In general, your body is getting geared up to meet a challenge. The diagram below shows some of the physiological, emotional/mental, and behavioral reactions to stress.

Physiological	Emotional/Mental	Behavioral
Pounding heart	Irritability	Sleeping more
Rapid breathing	Nervous, edgy	Sleeping less
Sweaty palms	Lack of patience	Eating more
Cold hands and feet	Crying	Eating less
Lack of energy	Losing temper	Angry outbursts
Headaches	Worrying	Withdrawing from others
Muscle tension	Emotional sensitivity
Sleep difficulties	Memory lapse
Stomach disturbances	Lack of concentration
	Increase in careless errors
	Negative attitude
	Pre-occupation

Take a few minutes to download and complete this stress test.

Understanding the natural stress response

If your mind and body are constantly on edge because of excessive stress in your life, you may face serious health problems. That's because your body's "fight-or-flight reaction" — its natural alarm system — is constantly on.

When you encounter perceived threats — a large dog barks at you during your morning walk, for instance — your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

• Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies.
• Corisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.

Stress and Learning

Stress affects all of us. Today's research suggests that stress can block chemical reactions in the brain that are necessary for learning. Stress can disrupt learning and memory development as it forces the brain to revert to more primitive survival needs. To foster creativity and learning, educators should learn how to minimize stressful situations. The challenge is to introduce new ways or instructional strategies to reduce levels of the stress hormone (cortisol) and increase levels of the `happy' hormone (DHEA).

You can click here for some tips to help you reduce exam anxiety.

 

Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps one deal with tense situations in the office, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it helps one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be accompanied by physical effects such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, stomach aches, or headaches.

Physically, the body prepares to deal with what it perceives as a threat. Blood pressure and heart rate are increased, sweating is increased, blood flow to muscle groups increases and immune and digestive system functions are inhibited (the fight or flight response). External signs of anxiety may include pale skin, sweating, trembling and many others. Someone suffering from anxiety might also experience it as a sense of dread or panic.

 

Panic attacks

Panic attacks are sudden surges of overwhelming fear that that comes without warning and without any obvious reason. It is far more intense than having anxiety or the feeling of being 'stressed out' that most people experience. One out of every 75 people worldwide will experience panic attacks at one time in their lives. People who have full-blown, repeated panic attacks can become very disabled by their condition and should seek treatment before they start to avoid places or situations where panic attacks have occurred. For example, if a panic attack happened in an elevator, someone with panic disorder may develop a fear of elevators that could affect the choice of a job or an apartment, and restrict where that person can seek medical attention or enjoy entertainment. Panic attacks are not dangerous, but they can be terrifying, largely because it feels 'crazy' and 'out of control.' Panic disorder is frightening because of the panic attacks associated with it, and also because it often leads to other complications such as phobias, depression, substance abuse, medical complications, even suicide.

 

What are Emotions?

This is a useful way to understand emotions: e-motion is ENERGY IN MOTION.  Genuine e-motion flows gently, freely, unhindered by the need or the desire for control.  It simply is what it is.  It also allows others to be what they are. Essentially, feeling a particular way is what all human beings desire. We look for and do all manner of things so that we can feel the way we want to feel! Is it money we chase, a car, drugs! No, it is the feeling we think we will experience when we have those things. Managing emotion is the key invisible skill every human would benefit from.

 

Why do we feel the way we feel?

The following diagram illustrates the connections between our underlying beliefs, thoughts, emotions and behaviour.

Pay attention to the beliefs we have, especially our identity beliefs (I’m good enough, I can’t do it, I’m not good enough etc.) Our beliefs drive our thinking (“the stories in our head”) and the way we feel is directly linked to our conscious and subconscious “stories”. Our emotions drive our behaviour. The research in peak performance is clear. Successful people are able to move from how they are feeling to how they need to feel – on demand and under pressure. For example, from feelings worried, nervous and anxious to feeling, calm, relaxed and confident.

 

Managing Emotions

What is the biggest problem you have? And for each of the problems you have (and most of us have quite a few) what is the biggest problem that having that problem causes you? 

I contend that the biggest problem our problems cause us is how they make us feel.

Think about it. We don't like presenting in public because it "makes us" feel anxious. We don't like boat rides because they "make us" feel woozy. We don't like certain people at work because they "make us" feel irritated and annoyed.  

And because we tend to feel in these ways we tend to behave in certain ways - the most common of which is avoidance. How our problems cause us to feel therefore hugely influences (some would say controls) our behaviors and therefore our outcomes in life. 

If speaking in public caused us to feel excited, if boat rides caused us to feel exhilarated, if interactions with that person in the office caused us to feel powerful then everything would be different, wouldn't it? The problem would not even be a problem. 

If we felt differently then we would act differently then everything would be different. 

So you have your problem. Then you have the way(s) the problem makes you feel. And it's treating these feelings where EFT/SET comes in. 

 

Click here to find out how EFT/SET helps process emotion.

Self - hypnosis is also an excellent technique to help reduce stress and process emotion.

Check out our freebies link and download more tips and techniques to help manage emotion.

 

Phobias

DO PANIC AND ANXIETY ATTACKS, FEARS AND PHOBIAS AFFECT THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE?  

If you suffer any of these or other panic/anxiety attacks, fears or phobias contact us.

PANIC OR ANXIETY ATTACKS	FEARS OR PHOBIAS	SYMPTOMS OF PANIC ATTACKS
Performance anxiety	Fear of Needles (giving blood)	Nausea
Exam anxiety	Fear of Flying	Breathing difficulties
Social anxiety disorder	Fear of Public Speaking	Dizziness
	Fear of birds, rats, spiders etc	Trembling, weakness
	Claustrophobia	Feelings of choking etc
	Agoraphobia	Fear of dying, losing control
	Doctor or Dentist Phobia
	Blood Injury Phobia (tend to faint rather than panic)

It is estimated 30% of the population experience a panic attack during any given year, with about 3% going on to develop Panic Disorders AND OR Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is a fear of situations or places from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing in the event of a panic attack. Many of us have NORMAL fears and worries. A useful question to ask yourself if you are unsure about receiving treatment is, “Is this fear/panic/anxiety affecting the quality of my life.” An example would be a fear of spiders. Many of us have a “healthy” fear of spiders etc. however does this fear send you into a panic were you could faint, scream, run out of the room etc. Likewise many of us get anxious in exam situations, however do you become physically ill, sweat profusely and lose concentration?

New technologies such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and breakthroughs in Energy Psychology are providing rapid, painless recovery (80% and better). Traditional therapies would last months and sometimes years and cost a fortune. These
revolutionary techniques are providing complete recovery in some cases in one session. Contact us and book a one on one session or find out further