Anxiety and the time to change the negative to positive. What should you do?

Firstly ANXIETY is a natural part of your makeup. If you did not have Anxiety you would not be able to function as a human. Without it people would walk around or sit down not being able to do things that they normally do in their lives. They would resemble a lump of coal.

People with severe Anxiety can let it control their lives, rather than use it as it should be used as a fight or flight mechanism within their body to help them survive the stresses that are forced upon us by the world. We cannot change that because we have no control of laws of the land, finance, religion or life and death etc.

We do have a choice in how we live along side this. If we are stressed so have ANXIETY we must change something in what we do to reduse our feelings of ANXIETY. You might be wondering why I keep putting ANXIETY in capital letters. The reason is to remind people that ANXIETY is unique to everyone.

One chap I was seeing for severe stress and ANXIETY had a very high powered job dealing with millions of pound deals across half of the british isles. He was sent by his GP to see if we could help him.

After a long and detailed session of talking openly about how he spent his day's from when he got up in the morning and when he went to bed, we were able to establish a possible reason for his severe stress and ANXIETY.

To cut the story short, because it took quite some time talking and discussing ways that he could cut down on stress and ANXIETY.

He either got up from his own bed or got up from a bed in an hotel. He started completing his paperwork straight away and did not ever have breakfast, just a cigarette and coffee. He then jumped in his car and went to where he had his meeting with the client. This was normally an hotel and the meeting was always over lunch paid for by his firm. His clients were plied with alcohol and lots of expensive food. Money was no object as long as he clinched a deal as cheaply as possible. After his meeting he went back to his hotel and completed more paperwork. Then time was on his hands so he started to consume large amounts of alcohol and also eat more food. He worked over 90 hours a week with little sleep, poor relationships with his wife and children. He was exhausted as he had kept up with the pace of his life for at least a decade.

I was his key worker and with detailed dialogue saw things from a different angle. So was able to see how changes to his work pattern  would help reduce his stress levels and ANXIETY.

First thing was for him to have a good breakfast. Then plan his day around himself not the client. Instead of driving all the time he left his car at home and bought a rail card, or if the journey was a long one he got a business class flight paid for by his firm. One really important thing to come out of the sessions was that he never delegated and work to colleagues to reduce his work load. When it came to dealing with clients he booked a confrence suite by the side of an hotel and ordered high class food to be brought in. No alcohol was allowed at the meetings. After the meeting was finished he would stay behind and complete his paperwork. If away from home he would change into his running gear and go for a run once back at the hotel. This would then use up a lot of unused energy making him less hungry so he had a sandwich before going to bed.

Doing very small changes to his busy working life allowed him to spend much more time with his wife and children so start to enjoy his hard earned money. After 2 days talking and looking at his life,  the cloud lifted and he could see clarity that changed his life. With all his stress and severe ANXIETY he was on a slippery slope towards a heart attack or stroke.

Please make a true diary of your day to day life. Be truthfull and honest with yourself because if you can change something in your life that makes you feel that ANXIETY is taking over your life, you will start t develop a higher self esteem and self worth. Take a chance and CHANGE something so that your ANXIETY reduces. Then you can live your life to the Full. Thanks for listening PETER.

2 likes, 6 replies