Your Happiness Factor

div style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">   People under stress or suffering from phobias sometimes experience moments of sudden and intense anxiety. This can leave you shaking, feeling confused or disorientated, with rapid heartbeats, a dry mouth, sweating, dizziness and, sometimes, chest pain. Chest pains should always be checked out with your doctor immediately, just to make sure it is nothing more serious. The symptoms usually peak within 10 minutes. But they can last anything between five minutes and half an hour. If you know something triggers a panic attack, it is best to avoid it and seek help from a physician or counsellor.   But Professor Paul Salkovskis, a psychologist at  King’s College, London , says it's important not to let your fear of panic attacks control you. “Panic attacks always pass and the symptoms are not a sign of anything harmful happening,” he says. “It’s important not to restrict y

   Generalized anxiety is a relatively common problem, affecting 3-4% of the population.  It turns daily life into a state of worry, anxiety, and fear. Over thinking and dwelling on the "what ifs" characterize generalized anxiety. As a result, you feel there’s no way out of the vicious cycle of anxiety and worry, and you can then become depressed about life and the state of anxiety you find yourself in. Generalized anxiety usually does not cause people to avoid situations, and it isn’t having a "panic attack. It’s the   thinking, thinking, thinking, dwelling, dwelling, ruminating, ruminating, and inability to shut the mind off that interferes with your ability to deal with life. Quite often, other thoughts seem almost non-existent because the anxious feelings are so dominant. Feelings of worry, dread, lack of energy, and a loss of interest in life! Many times there is no "trigger" or "cause" for these feelings and you realize these feelings

   The next few posts here are going to deal with anxiety and stress - f irst - anxiety!  Anxiety is the feeling of fear we all experience when faced with a threatening or difficult situation. It helps us to avoid dangerous situations, makes us alert and motivates us to deal with problems.   It can save our lives by making us run away from danger. We all feel anxious sometimes.  It is normal.  But for some of us – about one in ten – anxiety becomes a problem.  It gets in the way of living the life we would choose.   It can turn into panic attacks and phobias. Some of us just seem to be born more anxious than others. Research suggests these problems can be inherited through our genes. But even someone who doesn't naturally worry can, under enough pressure, become uncomfortably  anxious. This video introduces us to the five  anxiety disorders and why they develop. If you have any thoughts on this they will be very welcome. Related articles Why I am

We can’t avoid stress but we can learn to counteract it! Relaxation can help to relieve the symptoms of  stress. It can help you calm down and take a step back from a stressful situation . This is particularly important, if you find yourself frequently in situations that make you feel angry or frustrated.  When you feel like that you certainly don’t perform well. Nor can you respond to others in a positive way.  Using a simple relaxation technique will not remove the cause of your anxiety.  But it should help you deal with it in a more constructive way. You can act once you have released the tension in your body and cleared your thoughts. Most relaxation techniques combine breathing more deeply with relaxing your muscles. Don't worry if you find it difficult to relax at first. It's a skill that needs to be learned. It will come with practice. Practise for three to five minutes, two to three times a day! You can use this technique whenever you feel the need to c