Areas of support Anxiety

What anxiety is and when it becomes a problem

When the brain senses a threat, the fight-or-flight response speeds up heart rate and breathing, tenses the muscles, slows digestion (one reason anxiety can feel like a knot in the stomach) and narrows attention onto whatever seems risky. In real danger this is useful, and it usually settles once the moment passes.

Anxiety becomes a problem when the alarm keeps sounding after the danger is over, or goes off for things unlikely to cause harm. Worry may take up hours of the day, the body may stay on edge, and some people start arranging their week around avoiding the feeling. Around one in four Australians will experience an anxiety condition in their lifetime.

Common forms of anxiety

Generalised anxiety is persistent worry about everyday matters such as work, money or health. Panic attacks are sudden surges of intense fear that peak within minutes, and they can feel so physical that people fear a heart problem. Worry about the next attack often follows. Social anxiety centres on a fear of being judged, health anxiety on worry about serious illness, and specific phobias on particular things or situations, such as heights or needles. Some medical conditions can mimic anxiety, so new physical symptoms should be checked by a doctor.

Anxiety often occurs alongside low mood or chronic pain, and it is common after trauma. For some autistic people and people with ADHD, it is linked with sensory overload or the effort of masking (hiding or toning down natural ways of doing things) in settings not designed for them. Jess has a particular interest in working with neurodivergent people, and therapy can include changes to surroundings and routines as well as ways of coping.

How avoidance keeps anxiety going

Cancelling a daunting plan or asking someone else to make a call brings quick relief, and the brain registers that avoiding seemed to keep you safe. The relief is short-lived, and you miss the chance to learn that you could have coped or that the feared outcome did not happen. Next time the anxiety can feel stronger, and more situations start to feel off limits.

Avoidance can also be subtle. Sitting near the exit, rehearsing what to say, repeated checking and seeking reassurance are known as safety behaviours. They make sense in the moment but can take the credit for getting you through, so someone who always carries water in case they feel faint may never learn they would have been fine without it. Recognising these patterns is often an early focus of therapy.

What therapy for anxiety involves

An assessment comes first and, where it helps, can include a diagnosis such as panic disorder or generalised anxiety disorder. From it Jess develops a formulation of the patterns keeping your anxiety going, such as avoidance, and a treatment plan agreed with you and reviewed as therapy progresses.

Treatment draws on evidence-based therapies and may involve testing the predictions anxious thinking makes, such as asking a colleague whether anyone noticed your hands shaking during a presentation. It can also include ways to settle the body, graded exposure (spending time in avoided situations, step by step) and making room for anxious feelings so they have less say over your choices. Someone kept awake by worry might focus more on thinking patterns, and someone who has stopped catching the train more on graded exposure.