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We all have stress and its part of everyday life, there is no such thing as “no stress”. It is our emotional and physical response to pressure. That pressure can arise from external factors including life events, illness (ourselves or someone close to us) living conditions, work, home and family, study, lack of some necessity, or the demands we place on ourselves. Even those events that we see as enjoyable can be stressful, such as holidays, moving home, starting a better job, pregnancy, parenthood and Christmas. Therapy aims to teach you ways to manage your stress, not remove it completely.

Anger is one of the most fundamental human emotions. It is a physical and mental response to a current threat or to harm done in the past. Anger takes many different forms from irritation to blinding rage or resentment that festers over many years. Patterns of thinking may include: we have been unfairly treated or disrespected, or that others have broken or fallen short of our rules, standards or expectations, and we won’t stand for it.

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. Because of the chronic and persistent pain and fatigue, it is easy to get into habits of activity and rest that may not be the best way to deal with the pain and fatigue. Therapy can help to identify those unhelpful ways of thinking e.g. “ it’s terrible I can’t cope, this keeps on going on. I can’t do anything… what will people think”, and acting e.g. doing less, doing too much when feeling better. It can help us make healthy and positive changes, and therefore reduce the pain and fatigue.

Depression can happen to anyone, 25% of us will experience it at sometime in their lifetime. It is a disorder characterised by low mood/ sadness and a wide range of other symptoms, which can vary from person to person. This condition can be brought on quickly or gradually and be brought on by life events, illness or / and changes in body chemistry. Various explanations have been proposed to further explain why people experience depression: a defence mechanism to cope with overwhelming stress, a form of direct anger towards self, perceived failure to meet one’s expectations.

Depression can often be accompanied by other feelings such as shame, guilt, anxiety, anger and tiredness.

The word ‘anxiety’ is used to describe the mental and physical response to feared and threatening situations. This reaction can include trembling, choking, increased heart rate, sweating, feelings of unreality and so on.

Anxiety is a NORMAL pyhsicological response experienced by EVERYONE at times; it is our “flight/ fight/ freeze response.

Nearly being hit by a car, sitting for an exam, giving a public talk, worrying how others may view us, are all examples of situations in which most people would experience some anxiety.

There are various different categories of anxiety such as: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), PTSD, Social Anxiety, Health Anxiety, Generalised Anxiety (GAD), Phobias and Body dysmorphia.

This is a common anxiety disorder that involves chronic/ excessive worrying, (what if something bad happens?) nervousness, and tension. GAD is mentally and physically exhausting. It drains your energy, interferes with sleep, and wears your body out. It often runs in families, but none knows for sure why some people have it and others don`t.

Individuals with this condition often report they have experienced it for most of their lives often with its origin in teen years to difficult situations (uncertainty) such as parents break up, bullying, money difficulties, illness, loss, etc. Symptoms include fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, light-headedness, having to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterised by uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts and repetitive, ritualised behaviours the individual feels compelled to perform. If you have OCD, you probably recognise that your obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours are irrational – but even so, you feel unable to resist them and break free. Individuals are often highly critical of themselves as a result of knowing this is “ silly, not reasonable” but feel the overwhelming compulsion to act on their thoughts. Behaviours may include: excessive washing, checking, hoarding, doubting, self-judgements and arranging of items.

This is a psychiatric disorder which can occur witnessing or following a life threatening experience, such as road traffic accident, rape, combat, physical attack, which may have happened at any time during one’s life. Most survivors of such events, with time, manage to return to “normal” after time has passed. However, for others the symptoms remain, for instance, nightmares, flashbacks about the event (s), difficulty with sleeping, hyper-vigilance, avoidance and intense anxiety response.

This is an overwhelming fear of an object, feeling, place, animal or situation. It develops when an individual has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger. There are a wide variety to which a person could develop this to, but they can be divided into two groups, specific; dogs, heights, vomit, visiting dentists, enclosed spaces, needles, etc and generalised; agoraphobia and social phobia.

Individuals who suffer from a phobia find various ways of coping with the fear which may include; complete avoidance, seeking reassurance, distraction and increased alcohol / drug intake

Individuals with excessive low self esteem often have highly negative views about themselves typically thought patterns involve “I’m to blame, it’s my fault, I’m worthless, I`m unlikeable, I`m unlovable, I`m a failure, I`m not good enough, I`m useless, I`m not important, other are more important than me”. The degree to which one believes these thoughts or similar ones effects their esteem, i.e. the higher the belief the greater the low self esteem. Typical behaviours individuals may engage with are: perfectionism, under achieving, over self criticism, avoidance of social situations, pleasing others, engaging in less activities, increased alcohol use, becoming defensive when believed being criticised, shyness and neglect or abuse of self.