As a Holistic energy practitioner I have had an awareness of the many clients and friends I have seen with ‘anxiety’ in many forms and recently I have been working on a ‘free’ anxiety program’ to allow those with ‘anxiety to take back control of their lives. I will be offering a series of short ‘blog’ posts on the differing identified areas or types of anxieties prior to the release of this program called The 7 Steps to Freedom so that if you or someone you love suffers from this often debilitating condition then you know that help is at hand

Is it Anxiety? My family have always been excessive worriers or concerned with fears, maybe that’s what’s wrong with me?

Anxiety can be either a short term or a long term state of being. It may present as a concern or a worry about a specific circumstance in your life for example, a job interview, a test or an exam, or simply doing something with which you are not familiar.

In the long term anxiety can have a much more profound effect on your body and the symptoms or the frequency of the symptoms that you experience may be much more profound, and in these instances it can literally take over a person’s life due to its frequency or the debilitating effects that it produces.

I am going to talk about the different types of anxieties in this series of short blog posts and share with you some of the symptoms that are associated with the differing forms of anxieties and related ‘phobias’.

Anxiety can be classified as a disorder when the symptoms of anxiety become longstanding or ‘chronic’ and have an effect on our daily lives and our ability to function in our everyday life.

Postnatal depression 

While many people do not identify Post Natal Depression as an anxiety, I believe anxieties may well be a major contributing factor

For many women postnatal depression or PND can be very isolating and many women who experience the symptoms of it are often unable to make sense of what their feelings are, or be aware of a need to seek help. Often referred to  over the years as the ‘Baby Blues’ over the years there were many ‘old wives tales’ handed down the generations of what it was and how or why ‘you were experiencing it’, and in many instances women were told to ‘snap out of it’ or stop complaining. In many instances these ‘Baby Blues were more than a short period of being emotional or tearful after giving birth.

Although described as a’ form of depression’ I believe that can happen gradually or all of a sudden, and can range from being relatively mild to very severe. And may well be the effects of a combination of anxieties which have been exacerbated by the hormonal swings of pregnancy and the birthing process.   it is estimated that at least one in 10 women suffer from PND, and it can start within days to one or two months of giving birth, although it can also be several months after having a baby before symptoms start to appear.

Some of the Signs and symptoms related to postnatal depression /anxieties

Women experiencing PND may go through one or more of the following experiences,

• Feeling very low energetically
• Feeling tired or lethargic or not wanting to do anything or to take an interest in the outside world.
• Feelings of inadequacy or of being unable to cope.
• Feeling guilty about not coping, or about not loving your baby enough.

• Being unusually irritable, which can make the feelings of guilt worse?
• Wanting to cry, crying a lot or even crying constantly and unable to stop.
• Having obsessive and irrational thoughts which can be very scary.
• Loss of appetite, which may go with feeling hungry all the time, but being unable to eat.
• Comfort eating.
• Having difficulty sleeping: not getting to sleep, waking early, or having vivid nightmares.
• Being hostile or indifferent to your partner and/or baby.
• Having panic attacks, which strike at any time, causing rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms and feelings of sickness or faintness?
• Having an overpowering anxiety or anxieties often about things that wouldn’t normally bother you, such as being alone in the house.
• Having difficulty in concentrating or making decisions.
• Experiencing physical symptoms, such as headaches, nausea or faintness
• Having obsessive fears about your baby’s health or wellbeing, about your own health or wellbeing or other members of the family.
• Having disturbing thoughts about harming yourself or your baby.
• Thoughts about death or dying

Every mother who experiences PND will do so differently and some specific symptoms may not be listed

These symptoms may range from mild to severe and  be upsetting enough to make the individual feel uncomfortable, out of control and helpless.

*If in doubt that your symptoms are more than ‘anxiety’ and may be Postnatal depression please seek the appropriate medical advice.

Anxieties and anxiety disorders fall into a series of separate categories or diagnoses depending on the individual symptoms and the severity of the levels of anxiety the person is experiencing. The broad overview of the types of anxiety disorders I will be discussing in this series on anxieties includes.

1 Anxieties

2 Worrying

3 OCD- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

4 Social Anxieties

5 Anxieties and phobias

6 Fear of flying’

7 Fears of things that walk crawl run or fly e.g. Birds, Moths, Spiders, and Cats.

8 Separation anxiety

9 Performance anxiety

10 Fear of Failure exams

11 Fear of Failure Business

12 Fear of death or dying

13 GAD general anxiety disorder

14 Post Natal Depression

15 Panic attacks

16 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

In support of the ‘Free’ 7 Steps to Freedom program I have started a FB Community called Anxiety Need Not Be A Life Sentence at the link below. If this resonates with you I would invite you to please join us and be a part of this supportive community or to share the information with those to whom it may be of assistance

Peace Love and Light

Sheila

http://www.the7stepstofreedom.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/anxietyneednotbealifesentence/