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Anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear that is a normal response to a range of different situations.

It can affect your mental health when you feel anxious every day and can鈥檛 remember when you last felt relaxed.

Counselling can help you explore the cause of these feelings, understand them and suggest ways of dealings with situations. A counsellor can help you learn how to cope with anxiety.

What causes anxiety?

鈥淎nxiety stems from our 鈥榝light or fight鈥� response. This happens when our body feels as if it鈥檚 in danger,鈥� says Caz Binstead, a counsellor based in London.

The fight or flight response is an automatic reaction which we have no control over. Our bodies release hormones, such as adrenaline to make us more alert.

Normally when the threat has gone our body triggers different chemicals to help us relax. We will calm down after the adrenaline rush.

However, with the anxiety fight or flight response, this tends not to happen. We habitually read fearful situations as if they are dangerous.

鈥淲e think there鈥檚 a danger, but there鈥檚 not. That鈥檚 when we become anxious,鈥� she adds.

鈥淧art of our human response is problem solving. We want to know what we need to do to stop the situation that鈥檚 making us anxious. But actually our anxiety builds up even more.

鈥淒ifferent people can react differently to different situations. One person may get anxious because they think their boss has given them a funny look. But another person wouldn鈥檛 be bothered by it.鈥�

Talking to a counsellor can help you understand what particular situations in your life are causing your anxiety.

People can also become anxious about their anxieties, for example the anxiety someone faces ahead of travelling on a London underground train at rush hour, because they know that being on the crowded train makes them feel anxious.

What does anxiety feel like?

We鈥檙e all familiar with the expressions that describe common physical feelings relating to anxiety, for instance having butterflies in the stomach or jelly legs.

Anxiety can show itself in a range of physical signs, such as an increase heart rate, muscle tension, dizziness, sleeplessness, hyperventilating and wanting to use the toilet more. These are caused by the hormones released by the fight or flight response.

鈥淪ome of these can be a normal reaction to external stresses,鈥� says Caz, 鈥淏ut they can be a problem when they start to happen habitually.鈥�

These feelings can interfere with your life, become out of proportion and be very distressing.

How to overcome anxiety

It鈥檚 important to understand what is causing your anxiety 鈥� then you can look at steps to address it.

You may want to look at ways to break out of a cycle of negative thoughts that are making you anxious. Or you may need to think about whether what is making you anxious is a fact 鈥� or something you have imagined (such as the true meaning behind the funny look from your boss).

Breathing exercises can help to regulate your breaths physically, which can have an impact on relaxing your mind as well.

Mindfulness techniques, such as meditation, can also have a positive impact for some people.

How counselling can help with anxiety

A counsellor can support you to explore what you're going through and why you feel as you do.

They can help you find ways to overcome your anxiety that work for you.

Says Caz: 鈥淲e start by looking at what鈥檚 going on for you. What's causing these fears? Are there any underlying issues, anything that triggers these feelings of anxiety? We explore the unhelpful thinking patterns that you might be having.

鈥淲e work with people and their bodies. We look to help them slow down the physical response that causes anxiety.

鈥淲e help people to find out which techniques work best for them. Often they need a different focal point such as breathing or meditation to help steer them away from the anxiety response.鈥�