Feeling ‘stuck’ with difficult feelings
Life can throw at us a number of challenges. Some are major life-changing events that force us to reshape our understanding of the world and our position in it (for example, traumatic events, bereavement, and illnesses).
Others are a constant stream of day-to-day demands of our roles and responsibilities including work and family, and they could be made even harder due to our internal expectations for ourselves (“I need to be able to do everything really well!”, “I can’t let anyone down!” etc.).
We all have our strength and resilience within ourselves. However no matter how strong we are, at times we may feel somewhat overwhelmed by what’s going on and feel trapped in a cycle of feeling anxious, sad, angry, and upset.
This is a kind of thing that could happen to anyone, and having a therapist to explore the situation with can make a real difference.
Please contact me if you are interested in looking into a talking therapy. I would be happy to discuss it with you. There is no obligation to book a full appointment when you make an enquiry.
Depression and anxiety: They can affect anyone.
Depression and anxiety are very common difficulties that anyone could be affected by at any point in life.
Common signs of depression include:
- Feeling low, down, or hopeless
- Lack of pleasure and enjoyment in activities
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Eating too much or too little
- Low energy
- Reduced focus and memory
- Self-critical thoughts
Sometimes there is a specific trigger for an episode of depression (e.g., bereavement, work or family difficulty, physical illness or injury). However some people experience depression for no obvious reason, too.
Anxiety is also a very common issue that people experience. There are different types of anxiety, but the most common signs of anxiety include:
- Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge
- Panicky feeling – including heart palpitations, tight chest, muscle tension, sleep difficulties
- Excessive worrying – ‘what if’
- Trouble relaxing
- Restlessness and/or irritability
- Avoidance of situations that cause you anxiety
- Overdoing something to reduce anxiety (to feel ‘in control’)
Anxiety is our natural self-protection mechanism, but sometimes it starts to affect our daily functioning significantly.
These are different anxiety-related problems that I can help with:
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – excessive worry about lots of things
- Panic disorder – frequent experience of physical panic attacks that make you feel something is seriously wrong with you
- Health anxiety – excessive worry about having a serious health issue such as cancer
- Social phobia – strong fear of embarrassment and negative social judgement by other people
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – excessive anxiety about distressing intrusive thoughts and engaging in rituals and other behaviours to try to stop these thoughts
- Specific phobias – anxiety about and avoidance of specific situations, activities, or objects (e.g., heights, driving, confined spaces, needles/blood)
- Hair pulling (trichotillomania) and skin picking disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – anxiety that develops in response to a traumatic event, characterised by extremely heightened vigilance, reliving of the event (flashbacks and nightmares), and avoidance behaviours
- Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) – excessive worry about flaws in physical appearance
Because anger is not a diagnosis as such, provision of treatment is often somewhat limited. However CBT techniques can be effective for managing anger better and building frustration tolerance. I have delivered anger management CBT within the NHS.
For both depression and anxiety, CBT is recommended as an evidence-based treatment in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. Some also benefit from medications, so please consider consulting your GP.
And ‘Anger’ …
Anger is a distinctly different emotion from anxiety or depression. If you feel that you get angry very quickly and end up saying or doing things that you regret later on, you are not the only one. Angry outbursts can affect interpersonal relationships and self-esteem in the long run. CBT-based anger management skills can be helpful.
Impact of physical health conditions
Long-term health conditions can have a huge impact on our wellbeing. We may find that we are no longer able to do activities that we used to enjoy in the same way. This can lead to the loss of the sense of who we are as a person.
As part of my NHS work, I have worked with people with various long-term conditions, including:
- Chronic pain
- Chronic fatigue
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Diabetes
- Coronary heart disease
- Stroke
I incorporate ideas from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you explore ways of reconnecting to who you are as a person and flourish in the face of physical health challenges.
For more information on how CBT can be beneficial for the issues listed above, please go to the Treatment section.
May Breeze 