Hypnotherapy for anxiety and panic

Hypnotherapy is very effective for treating anxiety and panic. You may remember me saying on the home-page that hypnotherapy can help you relax anywhere, anytime. If you are suffering from anxiety, or panic attacks, this may be hard to believe- but it can happen. Hypnotherapy is not a miracle cure- it won't just give you instant calm right away, but what hypnosis does give you is natural ways to be at peace and calm, that you take with you wherever you go, for the rest of your life.

I myself used to suffer from anxiety. I was a typical worrier. I used to work myself up into a state of panic about all kinds of things that worried me. Since I found hypnosis, and used self-hypnosis, not only am I a much calmer person, but I hardly even worry anymore! Hypnotherapy amazed me and it can amaze you- as you can become a totally different person- calmer and happier, free of panic attacks, anxiety and all kinds of stress.

This is why my special interest area in hypnotherapy is helping people with anxiety and panic attacks- because I know what it is like to feel terrified of some upcoming situation, imagining all the ways in which it could go wrong, and wondering, how on earth am I going to cope? I am very happy to be able to say that hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis can help you cope and overcome these feelings of anxiety, panic, worry and stress that can often hold you back.

I'd like to provide you with some self-help tips on overcoming anxiety and even panic attacks. So if you do suffer from anxiety, or panic, please keep reading- and if you decide to try these self-hypnosis techniques- do let me know how you get on!

How you get worked up into a state of anxiety and panic.

First of all, do not blame yourself, as this is not healthy- but *do* realise that you are the master of your emotions. You *can* control them, rather than them controlling you. The self-hypnosis techniques I am about to share with you can help you to be more calm, capable and more in control of your feelings, so anxiety and panic naturally fade more and more away.

The main thing that keeps a panic attack happening over and over again is being afraid of it. If you get a panic attack in a certain situation, you then want to avoid that situation, for fear of it provoking another panic attack. This can be a vicious cycle- you get terrified about the situation and feel like you're going to have a panic attack, which leads you to feel even more afraid because you don't want a panic attack- well with self-hypnosis you can STOP this vicious cycle- once and for all!

Notice how you think

Your thoughts are important- if you read the home-page about how the imagination can affect the body, you will already know what I mean by this. If not- imagine something that makes you feel *mildly* afraid. Just by imagining it, your body reacts, making you feel uncomfortable and uneasy.
Another important thing to note is that what we think affects how we feel. This is why hypnotherapy is such an effective treatment- it teaches you to think in a new way, and reinforces the new feelings you want to have whilst in the hypnotic state. You can achieve this to some degree by yourself with self-hypnosis.

First of all, what you need to do, is stop the thoughts that lead to panic and anxiety. If you are thinking about a situation in which you've had a panic attack before, you probably think things such as: "What if X happens, or X, or X... oh god I could not cope!"
The Xs of course are some kind of horrible, dreadful thing you imagine in vivid detail. With self-hypnosis, not only can you stop those catastrophic thoughts that lead to fear and panic, you will also learn how to feel more confident in situations in which you used to panic or feel anxious!

If you are telling yourself "Oh my god, the terrible thing X could happen, and if X happened, I couldn't cope!" you are sending a very negative message to your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind always works to protect you from harm, so if you are constantly imagining X happening, and telling yourself you could not cope with it, your subconscious mind is on the alert, preparing you for danger- this is what gives you the feelings of anxiety that can lead to a panic attack. It wants to protect you from harm, so it alerts your body to be prepared, releasing adrenaline- the fear hormone! The more you imagine things going wrong, the worse you feel.

With hypnosis, this cycle of fear, adrenaline, anxiety and panic can STOP.

Here's how.

Whenever you notice that "OH NO!" or "What if...X" thought starting... tell yourself, gently but firmly STOP. Imagine putting that thought into a hot air balloon, and untying the pegs of balloon so that it floats up into the sky... away from you. Repeat this imaginative exercise *every time* a fearful thought starts. You may have to do it a lot at first, but it is well worth it to decrease your anxiety and panic.

The frightened inner-child.

Whenever you feel scared, are you often hard on yourself? Do you call yourself 'stupid' or even a failure, for having such feelings? If you do, please stop. It's only because you haven't been taught how you can use your mind to empower you, rather than frighten you. Hypnotherapy can help you use your mind to make you feel good. You *can* do it, because anxiety and panic is just a result of how good you are at using your imagination! People with anxiety and panic attacks are often very intelligent, imaginative and creative. If you are suffering from anxiety and panic, it is a sign that you probably have a brilliant imagination- you are just using it in the wrong way! Thankfully, hypnosis can teach you how to use your mind to make you feel good.

Whenever you feel scared or anxious, rather than beating yourself up about it, imagine that the fear is coming from a little 'inner child'. You might imagine that this is you as a child- or you might picture another child- it doesn't matter, but just imagine a scared child. If there was a real child standing in front of you afraid, I very much doubt you would yell at the child and tell him or her how stupid they are! I think it is even more unlikely that you would sit the child in front of a movie screen and show him or her movies of the thing they are most afraid of. Yet, this is what you do to yourself when you think those "What if" thoughts and imagine things going wrong.

So, what can you do instead? Self-hypnosis is simply using your imagination to achieve a state you desire- in this case, most likely calm and confidence. So, if at any time you feel fear, just imagine it's a little child inside of you, asking you for reassurance. Give that child reassurance. We'll call it a he for ease of writing. Tell him that everything is going to be okay. It doesn't matter if you don't believe that yourself- your job is to convince *him* that everything will be okay. So talk to him kindly, reassuringly.

Another great hypnotherapy technique I teach my clients is to imagine showing your inner child movies. This is what the vast majority of us are doing every day- running mental movies. For example, if you want to go and get a drink from your kitchen- that first starts as a thought in your mind- a movie- you picture yourself going to your kitchen to get a drink. Thoughts inspire action. So, running terrifying mental movies of all the things that could go wrong in the feared situation is like sitting your inner child down in front of a horror movie depicting all the things he is most scared of. No wonder it leads to feelings of anxiety and panic!

So, with self-hypnosis, use your imagination to your advantage. Say STOP to those negative thoughts of impending disaster and doom. Imagine your inner child, comfort and reassure him. Imagine showing him movies that will calm him down. These movies can be anything you desire as long as they are *positive* such as imagining times when you felt calm before.

So- you stop the "what if" thoughts of fear and doom, talk reassuringly, and picture *positive* movies. There is another hypnosis technique you can use- called anchoring. This is like your confidence switch, or you can have a calm switch, whatever you like. Here is how you can use that:

Creating the feelings you desire.

Your subconscious mind has on file all the feelings you have ever had in your life. So, if you want to feel confident about a situation in which you ordinarily experience anxiety or panic, a good hypnosis technique to help you achieve this is to bring to life feelings of confidence that you have experienced before, and anchor them.
You do this by imagining yourself in a situation where you felt most confident (or calm, whatever it is you want to feel). You go into hypnosis quite naturally and easily- it's not an alien state that needs to be controlled by an outsider. You can simply close your eyes and re-create the experience you had, of feeling confident, or calm, or whatever it is you want to feel: and imagine it as vividly as possible. Step into the image, so that it's like re-living it. Feel how you felt, and experience all the things you saw, all the things you heard, everything you did, when you felt that positive feeling. Then, when you feel that feeling strongly in your body, just squeeze the thumb and index (or middle) finger on one of your hands together. Keep imagining it, feeling the good feelings, growing and glowing strongly within you.

Do this often- it only takes a few minutes at a time. Every time you squeeze your finger and thumb together, you make a link between the good feelings you have and that physical action- so with practice, just squeezing your thumb and finger together can switch on those feelings you desire. I use this technique in hypnotherapy with all my clients because it is so useful and effective. Try it! You could even have 2 switches- e.g. your thumb and index finger for calm, and your thumb and middle finger for confidence!

If you feel panic- it's okay!

It's not the end of the world if you do feel panic. You have coped with it many times before, everything always works out okay. The best way of dealing with panic is to *stop fighting*. Stop trying to be calm, stop trying to make it go away, just accept it, as part of who you are in that moment. The paradox is, by accepting it, it loses its hold on you and you become calmer anyway.
It is a hard thing to do I know, because we don't like to feel panic and anxiety- fear is a feeling we are predisposed not to want to feel! It makes us want to escape- but remember- emotion comes from the word energy in motion- and feelings of panic, no matter how intense- do not last. They will eventually at some point fade away. Even if you stay in the feared situation, the panic will fade away.
So, just 'go with the flow' as best you can. Tell yourself "Oh, here is panic. I've handled this before, I can do so again." Rhyming affirmations are particularly good, e.g. "It's okay to feel this way, I'll handle it and be okay." Tell yourself that as you imagine yourself being okay, imagine how it feels to be okay, imagine how you'd be acting if you were okay in that situation- and gradually you find, panic loses it's power over you.

Keep up the good work!

Remember, anxiety and panic is a learnt response- it is something you have learned. It usually happens because of a bad experience; your subconscious mind decides to protect you from experiencing that again- and thus gives you feelings of 'danger' to warn you to be careful. If you think about the bad experience, such as having a panic attack, you re-create it, and make it stronger. So now what you want to do is keep re-creating with the self-hypnosis techniques I've shared all the positive feelings you desire.
STOP those "what if" thoughts and scary mental movies of things going wrong.
Imagine things going right! Even if you can hardly believe they will- by simply imagining it, the belief that you can do it grows stronger.
Once you have practiced establishing your anchor, imagine yourself in the situation you fear- BUT imagine yourself coping with it- talk to yourself reassuringly like you would to that scared, inner child. Use your anchor and imagine confidence (or calm) flowing through you, and imagine- how great it would feel, to be enjoying that situation, to be handling it really well and feeling how you *want* to feel.
Keep doing this- and you are sending a strong message to your subconscious mind of what you want to achieve. So, instead of receiving that message of 'oh god I can't cope, prepare me for the worst' which led to anxiety and panic, your subconscious mind gets the message of- 'prepare me to do really well in this situation, by giving me all these good feelings that I get when I touch my finger and thumb together'. Your subconscious mind learns through experience- by repetition and practice, so by imagining yourself coping well and being a success- and repeating it often- gradually the feelings of anxiety and panic will fade away and you will be emotionally stronger, more confident, and more free to enjoy doing whatever it is you want to do!