At present, says the World Health Organization (WHO), around 40% of disability across the world is caused by depression and anxiety while AnxietyUK says it estimates 13% of the adult population in the UK will develop a specific form of anxiety – known as a phobia – at some point in their life while one in six have experienced some form of ‘neurotic health problem’ in the previous week.
Statistics also show that levels of anxiety-related common mental health disorders have risen by 12.8% in the 14 years from 1993 to 2007 and 800,000 more UK adults would have qualified for the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder in 2007 than 1993. The UK’s Mental Health Foundation says mixed anxiety and depression has been estimated to cause 20% of days lost from work in the UK with one in six adults having a common mental disorder.
Compared with physical ailments like angina, asthma and diabetes, the WHO found in a recent study that the impact of depression and anxiety on a person’s ability to function was 50% more severe. It adds that only 15% of UK people with anxiety or depression are receiving treatment.
Treating anxiety issues can be done with drugs or with talking therapies and while some say the type of treatment depends on the severity of the anxiety, stress or depression, clinical hypnotherapy has a proven success record for its efficacy in this regard.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) has more than 1,800 therapists across the UK on its register who are highly-qualified and trained to provide the correct treatment for many issues, including anxiety and stress-related problems in a non-invasive manner.
Using anti-depressant medication can cause side effects while the body may take time to adjust to the medication and stopping the use of drugs should be done gradually and with GP supervision.
The NCH says while some people manage to cope with stressful issues in their lives, ‘more and more people are showing signs of over-anxiety, which leads to stress, which can make a significant impact on the quality of life and wellbeing’.
A hypnotherapist can help assess a person’s anxiety, identifying the root of stress or anxiety whether it is a situation, a physical issue, a past experience or a relationship. Once this is done, a goal will be set to let the person realise a life free of anxiety.
Using a variety of techniques and working with the person’s sub conscious mind, the therapist will work with the person in a number of therapy sessions to reach this goal. After these sessions, people will feel more confident and more relaxed in situations that might have been stressful before.
With loss of work days largely attributed to stress-related issues, many hypnotherapists offer special offers to businesses for stress reduction schemes at work. It is worth talking to your employer or to a local hypnotherapist to see if that this is a possibility.
To contact an NCH therapist near you, click here to access the Council’s directory and enter your post code. Stress is one of the major reasons people take time off work and, by investing in stress reduction schemes, companies can increase productivity, happiness and subsequently loyalty in their employees.