
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders affect 18.1% of adults in the U.S. (approximately 40 million adults between the ages of 18-54). Furthermore, 3 in every 10 Americans will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. These staggering statistics underscore the magnitude of the problem we're confronting.
Understanding Anxiety: A Dive Into Our Brain's Functioning
To address anxiety effectively, it's crucial to grasp its origin and how our brain functions at a basic level. Though I've discussed this in previous posts, it bears repeating in this context

The Conscious vs. The Subconscious Mind
The conscious mind, often dubbed the “modern” human brain, is analytical and logical. It primarily deals with external problem-solving and doesn't play a significant role in our anxiety experiences. On the other hand, the subconscious mind, our “old” survival-centric brain, is pivotal in this discussion. This part of our brain has historically ensured our survival by triggering “fight, flight, or freeze” reactions during imminent threats. Moreover, it's the storage house for emotions connected to traumatic experiences.
There are a couple of vital aspects to understand about the subconscious mind:
It doesn't recognize time: For the subconscious, past traumas can feel as immediate as current events.
Real vs. Imagined: It doesn't differentiate between a real threat and an imagined one, resulting in similar emotional and physical responses for both.

Modern Day Dangers: Perception vs. Reality
In times past, our survival-driven responses protected us from tangible threats, like saber-toothed tigers. However, today's "dangers" are often intangible and stress-induced. Yet, our brain reacts to these modern stressors as though they're immediate physical threats. As a result, we can find ourselves trapped in a repetitive cycle of stress and anxiety, severely compromising our quality of life.
Breaking the Anxiety Loop
How can we escape this unending cycle of anxiety?
First and foremost, it's essential to recognize that anxiety primarily concerns anticipated events – essentially, it's a dread of the future. An enlightening perspective I recently encountered involves the contrast between “what if?” and “what is?”. When we focus on the present and confront our anxieties head-on, our logical, conscious mind can intervene, shifting our perspective from the speculative "what if?" to the grounding "what is?"

Hypnotherapy: A Potential Solution for Anxiety
For those seeking a more lasting solution to mitigate anxiety, stress responses, and their physiological implications, hypnotherapy could be invaluable. Gateway Hypnotherapy, for instance, could potentially provide long-term relief from chronic anxiety. A particular study consisting of seventeen trials revealed that hypnosis helped reduce anxiety in participants significantly more than conventional methods. In the longer term, hypnosis-treated participants showed improvement rates surpassing 84%, compared to control participants. Gateway sees great results in using hypnotherapy for the pervasive issue of anxiety
Reference: Valentine KE, Milling LS, Clark LJ, Moriarty CL. THE EFFICACY OF HYPNOSIS AS A TREATMENT FOR ANXIETY: A META-ANALYSIS. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2019 Jul-Sep;67(3):336-363. doi: 10.1080/00207144.2019.1613863. PMID: 31251710.
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Great read!
totally makes sense!!
i am a believer and hope others try it too.