In the current climate of the Coronavirus pandemic, the people of this world are experiencing some of the toughest times in recent history. How often have you heard the term, “these are unprecedented times”. Indeed, these truly are extraordinary times which will have most likely become the fixtures of all future history books.

There is no denying that this event has impacted my day to day life in many ways and has changed the way I appreciate things around me. Just by doing something as simple as watching a movie or a reality TV show, I am reminded of how the way we communicate and connect with one another has been challenged overnight. Not to mention the existential concerns this most recent health outbreak has posed to our health, jobs, finances, and other sources of containment and certainty. Naturally, this state of affairs is linked to heightened experiences of anxiety in most if not all of us.

During these anxious times, I would like to share with you some of my work on anxiety; something that I share with those who come to me for help. On the whole, anxiety seems a bit of an enemy, something to be avoided, something to be reduced. Indeed, there is considerable guidance on the different ways that we can ‘reduce’ anxiety. Sure, to be suffering from excessive anxiety is unpleasant and it can be highly distressing, leading to considerable psychological suffering. However, both clinical and research evidence suggests that safe levels of anxiety, if not experienced too excessively (those marked in green below) are highly beneficial to learning, development and new insight.

This is because anxiety is a physiological response that is triggered by the undercurrent of important feelings, impulses, fantasies and goals. If we don’t listen to this anxiety information (or if we are unaware of it), we might actually be doing urselves a disservice as we might be robbing ourselves of a chance to learn something new that is appropriate and helpful for our current circumstance and which can improve and free our lives.

On the basis of the above, knowing your own anxiety symptoms and treating these as friendly clues might not only reduce your anxiety. Importantly, it might give you a new way of seeing your circumstances and help you find more adaptive ways of existing. Also, being able to recognise excessive anxiety (marked as red and orange below) and using exercises to reduce these can create a huge sense of relief.

Below are summary two sheets which I share in my day to day work with others. The sheets summarise the types of anxiety symptoms we might experience and some of the exercises which have been proved effective depending on which type of anxiety you are experiencing. The understanding is based on extensive research and clinical evidence and uses techniques developed by the Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP).

Interested to learn more? Why not get in touch. Let’s make anxiety work for you!