Minimising physical symptoms by reducing anxiety

I’ve seen many people over the years who are seeking help with physical symptoms. It could be anything from IBS to chronic back pain, tinnitus to migraines, skin conditions to high blood pressure.

Some have an expectation that hypnotherapy can magic away their symptoms, and there are some forms of hypnotherapy where the practitioner does take a direct approach in this way. In the Solution Focused world we approach things differently. Whatever methodology we use, we therapists are tapping into the powerful link between our minds and our bodies.

When our minds are in turmoil, many physical symptoms are made worse, and some are almost entirely created by the stress response. By helping our clients to reduce their anxiety, not only do we help them cope better with whatever is causing them distress, but we also provide them with the tools to minimise the risk of the anxiety-symptom pattern recurring in the future.

It's not unusual for clients to seek help with a seemingly unrelated problem, like messy relationships, a lack of confidence or low self-esteem, and then observe that physical symptoms they’ve been living with for a while seem to get better spontaneously. They may comment on their third our fourth session that they’ve noticed they don’t get as many headaches as they used to, or their tummy doesn’t play up as much. They didn’t seek therapy specifically to improve these symptoms, but because we’ve been working on reducing their anxiety generally, they get the added bonus of feeling better physically too.

Take blood pressure, for example. Whilst there are physical conditions that contribute to high blood pressure, in many cases there’s no apparent underlying cause. The most likely factor contributing to high blood pressure is our ability to cope with stress. If we cope well, our blood pressure is unlikely to be impacted. If the stressor triggers the fight-flight response, the more anxious we get, the higher our blood pressure is likely to be.

IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is another classic example of a physical condition that can be made worse by anxiety.  Negative emotional reactions like anxiety or depression cause us to release the stress chemicals adrenaline or cortisol, which can dial up pain signals, causing the discomfort associated with IBS. The hormones that are released when we feel stressed can disrupt our digestive processes resulting in a range of unpleasant symptoms, from indigestion to heartburn, constipation to diarrhoea, feeling bloated to having excess intestinal wind.

Muscle tension is often overlooked as a sign of anxiety, but its consequences can be debilitating. Muscles that are continually contracted can cause physical issues, like tension headaches, backache, cramp, twitching or jaw-clenching. In extreme cases it can even lead to immobility. When we’re anxious we respond to the perceived danger by secreting chemicals that cause our muscles to contract. We’ve evolved to tighten them in times of stress to brace ourselves against the effect of a sudden attack. This bracing produces a kind of safety zone around delicate tissues, internal organs and joints. But if we continually react in this way, our muscles can forget to relax and remain primed for attack long after the original stressor has disappeared.

Another possible symptom of anxiety is dizziness. Sometimes this is due to the sudden pressure of stress hormones being pumped into our system. This can disturb the delicate vestibular system in our inner ear that creates our sense of balance. Sudden changes in blood pressure that accompany heightened anxiety can make us feel lightheaded and woozy. When the fight-flight system kicks in, stress chemicals cause our heart rate to increase and our breathing to become shallow. Again, this can make us feel dizzy or shaky.

So, what can we do to lower anxiety and help reduce the impact of these types of anxiety-related symptoms? Well, virtually anything that has a positive impact on our physical and emotional wellbeing.

Getting a good night’s sleep is a good start, so it’s important to make sleep a priority. When we sleep, our immune system is boosted and our cells are repaired, and that obviously helps to improve our physical health. The aim is to wake up refreshed and recharged. We start the day less stressed and so are better able to cope with whatever life throws at us. If you have trouble sleeping, your local Solution Focused hypnotherapist will be able to help.

Doing activities that create feelgood chemicals like Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins, will help to reduce anxiety and any physical side-effects of heightened stress chemicals. We can’t have both feelgood and stress hormones floating around our system at the same time, so we need to make an effort to generate the happy chemicals. Taking a walk in nature, preparing a nutritious meal, getting stuff done from our to-do list, mixing with friends, and focusing on what’s going well in our life (and there is always something), all help to boost the positive hormones.

Learning to see things from a different perspective can help to erode the power of triggering stressors. We call it reframing. Finding an alternative way of thinking about a problem, changing our attitude from, ‘this is really difficult’ to, ‘what can I do to overcome this?’ creates all kinds of possibilities. It puts us in control and undermines those negative thoughts that lead to anxiety.

And once we get in the habit of doing that, those troublesome physical symptoms begin to become a thing of the past.