Common Concerns

Anger Management

Anger is a destructive emotion. Anger can alienate people, and result in individual, emotional, physical, and financial stress. When we are angry, we lose the real perspective of regular situations because we are not thinking rationally and this makes us less effective in what we are doing. When we are angry, we sometimes surrender power to others who can decide simply not to deal with us. However, anger is manageable. Behavior is a product of thinking. If we change our thinking so as not to expect to control others, we are far less angry. People who are realistic about life, who deal with adversity constructively rather than by trying to control that which is beyond their control are usually calm and effective. Individuals who work on anger management are not burying their anger but learning how to control it.

Through the right technique you would be able to learn:

• Responsibility
• Self-Control
• Respecting & Valuing Self
• Respecting & Valuing Others
• Tolerance & Allowing
• Justice & Fairness
• Valuing & Respecting Authority
• Leadership

Anxiety

Anxiety, is a normal emotional response to danger is an uncomfortable feeling of fear or imminent disaster. What makes one person anxious may not create the same response in someone else. Things like breaking up, concern about exams, or a fight with a friend may cause you to feel anxious, worried or scared. Everyone feels some anxiety at different times during their life. However, anxiety becomes a problem if you feel so anxious that it interferes with your normal day-to-day activities. If this occurs it is important that you seek help.

Types of Anxiety

There are many different types of anxiety disorders, each with their own symptoms:

General anxiety

is an extreme and uncontrollable anxiety and worry expectation that is not specific to any one thing.

Social anxiety

/ social phobia involve a fear of social or performance situations (such as meeting new people) in which an individual may be embarrassed. People with social anxiety commonly avoid social situations.

Agoraphobia

is anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing if an individual has a panic attack. It usually leads to avoidance of certain places and situations.

Claustrophobia

involves the fear of enclosed or confined spaces. People with claustrophobia may experience panic attacks, or fear of having a panic attack, in situations such as being in lifts, trains or small confined spaces.

Insomnia

is the chronic inability to sleep normally, as evidenced by difficulty in falling asleep, frequent waking during the night and/or early morning waking with attendant difficulty in falling back to sleep.

Panic disorder

also known as panic attacks are when you have regular panic attacks. Some people may develop agoraphobia as a result of the panic attacks.

Specific phobias

involve intense and ongoing fear of particular objects or situations. If they see the object they are afraid of or is in a situation that scares them, they may have a panic attack. Usually the object or situation is avoided.

Hypochondria

refers to an extreme concern or worry about having a serious illness. People with hypochondria have a constant fixation with their body and self-examining and self-diagnosing.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) involves unwanted thoughts and impulses (obsessions) and repetitive, routine

behaviors (compulsions).

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

is an anxiety disorder triggered by a major traumatic event, such as rape, an accident where you were direct or indirect involved, or been part of a disaster. It is marked by upsetting memories, “blunting” of emotions, and difficulty’s sleeping.

Anxiety symptoms

Anxiety can affect your physical and mental health, therefore, your behavior and feelings will change. This is a list of some common ways that anxiety might affect your mental:
• Bad moods, irritability, overreact over a simple situation such as little mistakes, or changes in the routine.
• Have difficulty concentrating.
• Feeling constantly worried, thinking that something bad is about to happen, felt restless.
• Being pessimistic all the time.
• Require constant reassurance and validation, asking many unnecessary questions.
• Changes in your social life, like suddenly being a loner, feeling uncomfortable with big groups.
• Being an unreasonable perfectionist, taking a long time to complete tasks because you try to have it absolutely correct.
• Being argumentative in order to avoid a feared situation.

Some common ways that anxiety might affect your physical health may include:

• dry mouth and/or difficulty swallowing
• nightmares
• difficulty getting to and staying asleep
• muscle tension and headaches
• rapid heart rate and breathing
• sweating and trembling
• felt easily tired
• diarrhea had muscle pain (e.g. sore jaw or back)
• flare-up of another health problem or illness (e.g. dermatitis, asthma)

What is depression:

Is a medical illness that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Depression can cause physical symptoms, too. Also called major depression, major depressive disorder and clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave. Depression can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and depression may make you feel as if life isn’t worth living. Depression can be treated using a combination of medication and counselling. There are many different types of depression, like mentioned above major depression, and bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness), dysthymic disorder, cyclothymic disorder, postnatal depression and seasonal affective disorder. It‘s important that you get support if you think you might be depressed. The consequences of untreated depression can often be quite serious and can include under-performing at school and/or work, losing friends and family supports, substance abuse and risk of suicide.

Some symptoms of depression include.

• Feelings of unhappiness, moodiness and irritability, and sometimes emptiness or numbness.
• Having dark and gloomy thoughts, including thoughts of death or suicide.
• Losing interest and pleasure in activities that you once enjoyed
• Loss of appetite and weight or the opposite ‗comfort eat‘ and putting on weight
• Either trouble sleeping, or over-sleeping and staying in bed most of the day
• Tiredness, lack of energy and motivation
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• Feeling worried or tense
• Being self-critical and self-blaming
• Feeling bad, worthless or guilty.