An ongoing elevated stress response in the body leads to anxiety, and anxiety leads to an elevated stress response. This becomes a self-perpetuating cycle for many clients. When people do this cycle often enough, they reach a stage where they worry about worrying, even when there is nothing going wrong to worry about. When they notice they are worrying about worrying, that makes them more worried…
How it began in the first place is many and varied:
• Early childhood experiences, such as trauma, illness (of the parent or the child), abuse, or learnt behaviour from an anxious parent
• Faulty core beliefs such as “life is scary” or “I’m not good enough” learnt early in life
• Type A personality (motivated, ambitious, intelligent, perfectionist) leading to people having such high expectations of themselves and over-pressuring themselves for success
• A sudden, shocking experience at any stage in life, leading to mistrust of life and the future
• Lack of purpose and fulfilment
• Lack of self-love or self-belief
• Learnt limits (such as “I can’t go to shopping malls/do public speaking et cetera)
• Loneliness after a divorce or bereavement
• Boredom after retirement or the children leaving home
• Hormones (including post-natal)
