We all suffer Stress and Anxiety at some point in our lives

A lot of us take stress in our stride BUT for others it can be totally debilitating.

In the United Kingdom alone there are thirteen million working days lost to stress, depression and anxiety.

83%of workers would rather say they were sick with flue rather than admit they were stressed.

49% of people are worried about the effect stress is having on their health.

17% say they have no one to talk to about work pressures.

(Figures supplied by the Samaritans)

This is not the whole story by any means, as it only takes into account the working population, A large number of school children are increasingly suffering with stress and Anxiety related illness. The unemployed and our senior citizens are also affected.

The symptoms of stress and Anxiety can be manifest physically, the most common include: • Headaches • Heart-related problems, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure • Muscle pains and back aches • Teeth grinding and jaw clenching • Stomach complaints • Sleep disruptions • Sexual dysfunction • Weight loss or gain issues.

If stress and Anxiety symptoms are not controlled, over time, they can lead to serious medical conditions. Heart disease, strokes and even cancer have been linked to stress. Keeping the symptoms under control by tackling stress is often the best way to avoid complications.

Managing stress and Anxiety is something almost anyone can do. The best methods for doing so depend a lot on the person in question and the kind of stress; they face. Tackling some forms of stress directly is very feasible, but in other cases, it is nearly impossible. Managing stress almost always, however, initially starts with a conscious decision to do so.

For many people, they need more than to simply 'get over it.' They need guidance in relation to their thoughts and their behavior, even medications and therapy at times.

Just because you need help for your anxiety doesn't mean that you're a weak person or someone that can not be cured.

If you start to feel that you're getting stressed – take a step back. Give yourself some space, take some time every day doing something you enjoy and not thinking about anything else.

Impossible! Most people will claim.

Not so. Everyone has 15 minutes in a day that they can reserve for themselves. It might just be a walk round the block, a bit of gardening or a bath with the door locked and some earplugs in. The important thing is that you get the time to yourself for yourself.

Anxiety is a very treatable condition, though the treatments vary per case and per person.

There are a few different ways that can help people manage stress. Sometimes a combination of them works very well for an overall improvement.

At some point in thinking about your own anxiety or in talking to your primary care doctor, the idea of therapy may have come up. Some people will immediately dismiss therapy as being useless, but when you think about it, anxiety is often a set of behaviors that are interfering with our lives. In order to learn how to control these behaviors and reactions, we need someone to teach us the proper ways to react – that's all a therapist will do.

HOW LONG WILL YOU NEED THERAPY?

The easy answer to this question is that you will need to be in therapy until you feel like you can function well enough on your own.

So, as soon as you feel like you don't need it anymore, you should be done.

However, this isn't always a clear cut decision to make. Often, the therapist will come up with a tentative plan for the overall length of the therapy. For example, some forms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy run for sixteen sessions.

At the end of this time, the improvement of the patient is evaluated and then new timelines are made or the patient is able to leave the therapy setting.

What you will want to do is come up with a list of goals between you and your therapist that you are working toward. When you have begun to check these items off, and you feel confident that you can handle stressful situations, you might want to bring up the idea of discontinuing active treatment.

At that point, you will probably work on ways to handle certain situations as you re enter your normal life.

For most patients, therapy will begin to show benefits between eight and ten weeks, but for others it can be shorter or longer.

For anxiety, it's considered that treatment should be about three months to six months, depending on the severity and the goals. You, however, may need a longer time before you feel confident.

Disclaimer: Any information in this article is not meant to substitute a doctor's medical advice or provide a diagnosis for anxiety. This is meant to be a source of information for you to consider. In order to receive a proper diagnosis, you should speak with your doctor.