“Active ingredients” for preventing and treating anxiety and depression

This episode was informed by a talk at the 2020 British Psychological Society online conference titled:

In it I cover the key ingredients of mental health wellness as defined by the wellcome trust so that you can consider which of these could have an impact on improving your mental health.

What causes anxiety?

When we experience the symptoms of anxiety such as the heart racing or feeling sweaty and shaky we are actually experiencing our bodily response to fear.

Our fear response comes about because our brains have evolved to keep us alive for as long as possible, his means that it Is hard wires to fear things that threaten our lives.

What can happen in people with anxiety is that the fear response doesn’t only react to life threatening situations, it starts to respond to situations where death is very unlikely.

An example of this is fear of flying, statistically the risk of death is low but people with a fear of flying experience sometimes very extreme symptoms when faced with even the thought of flying.

Find out in this episode what makes our fear response react to non-life threatening situations and what you can do to manage your anxiety.

How we damage our confidence

In this episode I am talking about the common ways that our thoughts can damage our confidence. This is a really important part of understanding why we get anxiety as often anxiety comes from a lack of self-confidence.

I also chat through some techniques that you can try yourself to combat these thoughts and avoid self destructive behaviours so that you can build a calm and realistic self-confidence.

Anxiety, Motivation and Procrastination

Find out how anxiety can impact our motivation and cause us to procrastinate in this info packed episode!

Included are some practical tips to help you notice when your anxiety is holding you back and what to do about it.

How to use self-hypnosis and visualisation to improve performance

Visualisation is a well documented and utilised technique. It is often used by sports people to improve performance and mindset, in this episode I talk you through how you can do it for yourself!!

To learn more about how you can learn self-hypnosis from the comfort of your own home head to: https://www.anxiety2confidence.com/self-hypnosis-product

How anxiety affects memory

I have been inspired to record this podcast for two reasons, firstly because many of my clients who have anxiety, with or without depression, tell me that they struggle to remember things. Secondly because as part of my psychology MSc we have been studying the effects of anxiety in exam performance.

In this episode I cover:

• What types of memory are affected
• How anxiety affects memory
• Why anxiety sufferers forget things
• What you can do to overcome anxiety

References:

Shi, Z., Gao, X. and Zhou, R., 2014. Emotional working memory capacity in test anxiety. Learning and Individual Differences, 32, pp.178-183.

Hembree, R. (1988). Correlates, causes, effects, and treatment of test anxiety. Review of Educational Research, 58, 47-77

Schweizer, S., & Dalgleish, T. (2011). Emotional working memory capacity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49(8), 498–504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.05.007

Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2), 336–353. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336

How to be more assertive

Following on from last weeks episode, I am talking about how you can come across and be more assertive.

I cover:

• The self-belief required for assertiveness
• Language styles that promote assertiveness
• How to come across as more likeable and trustworthy
• The body language associated with assertiveness

Make sure you download my free negative thought exercise and find out what negative thoughts are holding you back here: https://www.anxiety2confidence.com/

How anxiety affects the way we communicate with others

In this episode I am talking about how anxiety affects the way that we communicate and what consequences this has for us.

I cover:

• The three main communication styles
• What leads us to use these different styles
• How anxiety affects our communication
• The consequences of each style

Make sure you subscribe for notifications of future episodes as next week I will be talking about assertiveness and how you can appear and become more assertive.

If you would like to find out what negative thoughts are holding you back then head to my website where you can download a free exercise to find out: https://www.anxiety2confidence.com/

What is Self-Hypnosis and does it work better than mindfulness or hypnotherapy sessions?

In this episode I answer common questions about hypnosis and self-hypnosis.

I cover:

• what hypnosis is
• what the differences and similarities between mindfulness and self-hypnosis are
• the benefits of self-hypnosis and hypnotherapy sessions
• does it actually work

For those interested in the Learn Self-Hypnosis Online course that is launching on the 16th May, you can register your interest here: https://www.anxiety2confidence.com/pl/163134

How Self-hypnosis can help you manage anxiety

Talking today about meditation, mindfulness, self-hypnosis and applied relaxation!

Today’s episdoe will chat about some of the differences and similarities in all of these approaches as well as how you can use these tools to help with anxiety.

I will also be talking about how you can learn self-hypnosis in the comfort of your own home, especially handy during lockdown.