Counselling Articles

Panic attacks are extremely frightening. They seem to appear for no reason, strike at random and leave the sufferer feeling threatened and out of control. It is useful to be able to recognise the symptoms of a panic attack to help alleviate the fear of dying, ‘going mad’ and reduce the risk of developing phobias due to a panic attack.

Sufferers may not experience all of the below symptoms in one panic attack, but it is worth being aware of all symptoms in case you experience another attack or even encounter someone else who requires assistance in a panic situation.

How to Recognise a Panic Attack through Common Symptoms: (more…)

Turn Negative Emotions into Something Positive

Negative emotions can take a number of forms including anger, anxiety and jealousy, and are linked with behaviours such as eating disorders, substance abuse, obsessions, self-harm and violent outbursts. Although negative emotions might be surprising and unwelcome, they occur for a good reason – usually one of our fundamental needs is unmet. These can include physical needs, for example adequate diet, quality sleep, and emotional ones such as social interaction, privacy, self-determination and sense of achievement. Neglect of emotional needs is likely to result in negative feelings.

Understanding why the negative emotion has arisen, by identifying which of our needs are not met, is important to help manage it and restore balance. Suppressing emotions is unhelpful and if our needs remain unattended, they will find another way of expressing their demands, often through physical illness or emotional flooding. Negative emotions are inevitable and in fact useful because they signal to us that something is lacking. (more…)

What is CBT?

CBT stands for cognitive behavioural therapy, which is an effective treatment for behavioural and emotional problems. It helps patients to identify and understand their fear, and then from this, learn to overcome their fear response.

How are Phobias formed?

Many phobias are believed to be a result of a process called classical conditioning.

For example: If every time a person sees a dog it either bites or barks loudly at that person, the person begins to feel anxious or scared. The dog becomes the object of the person’s fear, and the biting or barking is the cause of this fear. Then upon seeing a dog again, which results in the same negative experience, the person begins to form a phobia. This means that in the future, just seeing a dog that is not vicious in any way will still make the person feel emotions of fear. The development of this fear is called acquisition. (more…)

OCD, is a mental health issue that seems to be getting increasing publicity; it is regularly talked about on radio, news, TV dramas (think Brie in Desperate Housewives) and often is labelled as a joke (‘oh, that’s the OCD in me’). However, this increased exposure of OCD has done very little to benefit our understanding of an often debilitating and complex medical condition. So what really is OCD?

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