Stress and Nervousness - What We Do to Cause It and How to Overcome It

Even though many people use the words "anxiety" and "stress" interchangeably, they are in fact two separate conditions. Stress is a reaction to a stimulus, which can be internal or external. You may experience stress when you are frustrated with something (like waiting in line behind a slow person) or when you worry that you won't meet expectations (such as missing a deadline at work).

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a sense of nervousness and fear or even dread. It can be brought on by negative expectations and thoughts, or as a reaction to stress. You may feel anxious all of the time and not understand why, or your feelings may be a reaction to something you are nervous about, like an upcoming test.

Abnormal levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain can cause generalized anxiety. Some research shows that anxiety can be hereditary. In addition, anxiety can be induced environmentally, as when a child whose father or mother is often anxious becomes an anxious person by observing the parent. But frequently, the base cause of anxiety is simply the thoughts that a person is thinking!

Anxiety and stress are subjective conditions. Different people may feel stressed about different situations, and different people may react to their anxiousness in extremely different ways. Symptoms of anxiety can range from the mild, such as tense muscles and sweaty hands, to the severe, such as vomiting, irregular heartbeat, and anxiety attacks.

Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety once in awhile. We have all experienced the dry mouth and "butterflies in the stomach" before a test or public speaking engagement. But when does it become damaging to your health? Research has shown that chronic anxiety can make us vulnerable to sleep disorders, high blood pressure, depression, and relationship problems

For sufferers of long-term untreated anxiety, there may be negative health consequences that have yet to be fully identified. Many studies have found a link between generalized anxiety disorder and a number of serious health conditions including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, respiratory illness, and thyroid disease. Chronically anxious people may even be more likely to suffer a fatal cardiac attack.

If you experience what seems like an overwhelmingly high amount of anxiety relative to the circumstances, or if you feel anxious nearly every day, you may actually have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are chronic conditions characterized by a person's inability to function normally because of frequent anxiety. Anxiety disorders are serious conditions that should be treated to lower the risk of long-term negative health effects.

Anxiety treatment has long been the subject of much discussion in the medical community. Some medical professionals believe that medication is the best treatment for chronic anxiety. However, anti-anxiety medications often produce side effects that are just as bad or even worse than the initial affliction.

There are many safe and effective ways to handle negative emotional reactions. Exercise is one that is often overlooked by anxious people, but it is very effective in managing stress and anxiety. Exercise causes your body to release endorphins, which are natural pain-killing and mood-boosting chemicals. With regular exercise, you may begin to see a decrease in negative emotional responses to situations that would previously have made you feel quite anxious.

The best way to deal with worry and tension is to control it from the inside out. Stress relief and stress management techniques are very useful in managing day-to-day stress. These techniques can teach you to relax yourself and relieve your tension. You make a conscious effort to slow your breathing rate, release the worry, and remain in a calm state of mind. Meditation is a form of tension management in which you focus on mindful relaxation and deep, calm breathing.

However, if you seek a proactive way to relieve yourself of anxiety, hypnosis is by far the most effective form of treatment. When an individual undergoes hypnosis, their reactions and emotional responses to events are changed at the core. This gives them the opportunity to deal with common anxiety-inducing triggers without the typical fear and nervousness.

Hypnosis is often performed by a licensed hypnotist in a series of regular sessions. More commonly today, hypnosis can be learned from self hypnosis programs which can be purchased in the form of DVDs, CDs, or MP3s for individual home usage. No special skills are necessary to practice self hypnosis. All that you need is a way to play the hypnosis program and a quiet place where you can listen and relax.

Another very successful type of anxiety treatment is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. NLP is a type of therapy that helps you retrain your body and mind to naturally react to situations in a more positive manner. You can consciously decide to be calm rather than anxious, and consequently, you always have control over your own feelings.

It is evident that it is important to control our negative emotional responses in order to stay healthy. Learning to cope with fear and nervousness may even extend your life. To treat chronic anxiety, the best treatment option to follow is to use hypnosis to change your reactions and attitudes at the core. Then, it becomes easy to use stress management techniques as necessary to remain calm in everyday situations.

About the Author:

Alan B. Densky is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers a complete line of anxiety reduction NLP CDs, and advanced stress elimination CDs through his Neuro-VISION hypnotism website. You can visit his video hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.