Anxiety in the 21st Century

Why is anxiety so prevalent today?

Anxiety, panic and subsequent depression have become steadily more prevalent over recent decades. The reason for this increase in anxiety is that, while we are now living in a progressively fast moving world, our bodies and minds are simply not equipped for this rapid ever changing new environment.

While it may be considered that the technological developments of today can in many ways be seen as progress increasing our ability to move around, communicate and build home comforts, they also come with particular disadvantages at both the emotional and physical levels of our being. The reason is that, while we move through our lives at an ever-increasing rate of speed and change, our physical bodies and emotional responses have not moved on much further than they were thousands of years ago.

Our bodies and internal emotional responses were developed over a huge period of time to do not much more than keep us alive by allowing us to find food, procreate, and protect us from the continual physical threat of wild animals. This in-built system – propelled by an adrenaline surge system (commonly known as the fight or flight syndrome) to help us either fight or flee the many physical dangers of the time – does not really suit the pressures of our modern days lives.

The truth is that now it can be almost impossible to actually physically run away from life’s pressures in the way that nature originally intended. The threats to our lives are different to those of our ancestors in the sense that they are at an ever present level – eating away at our emotional resources – in the form of the stresses of financial, business and social expectations that were not present during man’s original development. Our predecessors lived a largely predictable day to day existence; our lives are full of pressures that can often be unpredictable and uncertain on a day to day basis.

Not only do modern day pressures create different kind of anxieties than those from the past, but also we often lead more sedentary life styles. The effect of this is that more and more of us are becoming affected emotionally and physically as our adrenaline continues to fester within us, but outside of our conscious control. This can often lead to an uncomfortable, unhealthy and, sometimes, overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety.

This build up of stress and anxiety can continue to grow and affect our functioning and sense of contentment with life as we lurch from one difficulty or ‘crisis’ to another without the ability to escape as in the past. Often these pressures overlap and are governed by an ever increasing sense of time-urgency to meet the deadlines expected of us. The ultimate outcome of this is that we will often reach the point of overload so that something has to give. The resulting symptoms can manifest as acute or chronic anxiety, panic attacks, depression, anger, frustration, relationship difficulties, and physical or mental illness. It is possible that our system will ‘breakdown’ altogether if these emotions are not dealt with.

Hypnotherapy and NLP offer the insight and the tools to recognise the symptoms of emotional anxiety and physical stress, and to help us tackle them before it is too late, or to recover when things have finally become too much.  So there’s a lot that can be done to alleviate anxiety in the 21st century.

Hugh Clover uses his experience of the most up to date advanced hypnotherapy and NLP techniques to help his clients relax, understand, cope with, and release the effects of these modern day pressures, and to find ways to move their lives forward in a more positive and appropriate way.

Help with Anxiety in the 21st Century with Hugh Clover hypnotherapyFor more details on how hypnotherapy and NLP can help with anxiety and other emotional issues feel free to explore this website www.hughclover.co.uk. Further to this you may like to email Hugh on hughhyp@hotmail.com or phone him on 01206 323089 to see how hypnotherapy and NLP might be able to help you.

Comments are closed.