Depression and anxiety can go hand in hand

One of the most powerful aspects of anxiety is its ability to have a negative effect on your physical health, mood, emotional well-being, and even your relationships with others.

Living in a state of heightened anxiety over a long period of time is a difficult way to live, and it can also impact your well-being. Many people with anxiety can then start to experience low mood or depression.  Depression and anxiety appear to go hand in hand. You can become depressed at feeling so anxious, or perhaps become anxious about feeling so low with depression.

Either way, the important point is that neither has to be for life; there are lovely methods that you can use to help you, and a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner can support you to make the changes you wish for.

Here are examples of what an appointment may include, helping you move on from anxiety and low mood.

• Complete quick easy paperwork GAD-7 and PHQ-9 which give, at a glance, information of the level of your anxiety and depression. This also helps when looking at positive changes that have taken place
• Review of lifestyle and what your goals are
• Clearing out old trauma or emotions that are holding you back
• Increasing your own self-worth and confidence
• Teach you self help tools that you can use whenever you wish, putting you back in control
• Methods to reduce and stop unhelpful repetitive thoughts
• Enjoyable guided meditation/hypnotherapy relaxation experience to enhance the changes being worked on
• Take home tools, such as recordings.

Anxiety is worrying about the future, based on past experiences or beliefs. Your own mind is always listening, wishing to look after you, and give you what you need. It is, at all times, looking to keep you safe and protected. By focusing on fear, we actually feed that fear and make is greater and stronger. What we focus on our mind gives us more of us, as it is what we are asking for. We can also use this to our advantage by changing what we focus our thought on, and hypnotherapy and NLP practices work very well for this.

With depression, you can add simple little exercises into your daily routine which will greatly lift your mood and flood your body with natural mood-lifting hormones. Here are a couple for you to try:

• Hugging. Hug for 20 seconds; really hug - feel it, focus on it. It can be a person, a pet or a pillow - it all works the same, the main thing is to feel it.
• Gargle and sing. This engages the vagus nerve which has been linked with depression and can lift your mood.
• Music. Put on your favourite song and just dance like crazy if you can - what a fun and fabulous way to start the day!
• Sing. Singing is a wonderful way to lift your mood.

If you feel that your anxiety levels and low moods are taking the joy out of your life and you are ready to make changes, then a hypnotherapist or NLP practitioner is worth considering.

There are many ways that a practitioner can help, and this would be discussed with you. The most important point is you are ready for change and willing to do the work involved. You and your practitioner will work as part of a team, and you both have an important part to play.