What is Anxiety?

It is normal for most people to feel anxious at some point in their life, and is actually a normal reaction to stressful situations. Anxiety can become abnormal or problematic if it begins to interfere with your day-to-day life over a prolonged period of time. We say that anxiety becomes abnormal when it is out of proportion to the stressful situation, persists when a stressful situation has gone, or if it appears for no apparent reason when there is no stressful situation.

What are the
Symptoms of Anxiety?

Physical Symptoms

Increased Heart Rate
Heart Palpitations
Feeling Breathless
Sweating
Feeling Dizzy
Headaches
Feeling tense
Tightness in chest
Nausea
Dry Mouth
Shaking

Emotional and Behavioural Symptoms

Feeling Irritable
Finding it hard to concentrate
Loss of Appetite
Loss of Confidence
Isolating yourself / Feeling lonely
Low Self Esteem
Difficulties in sleeping
Becoming socially withdrawn
Avoiding certain situations
Nervous Energy
Difficulty switching off and relaxing

Cognitive Symptoms

Feeling unable to cope
Feeling overwhelmed
Getting easily distracted
Racing thoughts
Intense Worry
Feeling overwhelmed

What are some of the
different types of anxiety?

There are various different screening tools that we recommend using prior to booking an appointment. For Generalized Anxiety Disorder we recommend using the GAD-7, and for Social Anxiety Disorder we recommend using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. By filling in these screening tools prior to treatment, we will have a baseline in order to assess your response to treatment.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

This is primarily characterized by a persistent and excessive worrying /nervousness in a number of different domains. You do not have Generalized Anxiety disorder if your anxiety is about one specific thing.

Social Anxiety
Disorder

This is sometimes referred to as social phobia. This is where you become very anxious about what other people may think of you resulting in difficulty in social situations that can affect your day to day life.

Phobias

Phobias are an intense fear of a situation, object, animal, or activity. They are irrational and disproportionate to the actual danger posed by the object or situation and can be debilitating, and prevent individuals from living life to the fullest.

Panic Attack

This is where there is a sudden onset, overwhelming feeling of anxiety and fear. It occurs without warning. It becomes known as panic disorder when you have repeated panic attacks.

Acute Stress Reaction

This typically occurs after an unexpected life event such as bereavement, trauma, or anxiety. The symptoms develop quickly, but do not last long (often resolving in 2-3 days).

How can we treat anxiety disorders?

There are various different ways of treating anxiety disorders, and these will be discussed with you at your appointment with one of our friendly clinicians.

Generally speaking these can be divided into Non-Medication,
and Medication Treatments.

Non medication treatments often involve pursuing counselling, anxiety management courses, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or Self-Help. We can discuss these at your appointment.

There are a number of different medications that can be prescribed for anxiety that will be discussed at your appointment with your clinician. It is often the case that people respond differently to medications, and therefore at Harley Street Mental Health, our clinicians like to discuss treatments in depth and come to a shared decision on which treatment plan would be most appropriate.

What we can't Treat

Please note that due to the nature of our service, unfortunately we are unable to see any psychiatric emergencies, or individuals with any suicidal ideations. We would advise anyone to take the following steps.

If you are under the care of a community mental health team, please get in touch with them or their crisis helpline.
Phone the Samaritans, who operate an always open service where you can talk to someone in confidence. They can be contacted on 116 123
Contact the NHS on 111.
Request an emergency appointment with your GP.
Phone 999 or visit your local A&E if there is a life threatening mental health emergency.

What is the process for Anxiety Assessments

At Harley Street Mental Health we pride ourselves on listening to our service users experiences and creating treatment plans base on their needs.

Our Initial Psychiatric Assessments are conducted by one of our expert clinicians and last around 1 hour.

After this assessment you will be provided with a report outlining the assessment, any diagnosis if this has been made and a proposed treatment plan including recommended follow up.

Unlike most services, we aim to get our reports sent out within 48 hours.

Anxiety