Resolve Anxiety - Chest pain and Sweating: Make them a thing of the past
The NHS report that 1 in 20 adults suffer from and regularly experience some form of anxiety most days, and this ranges from mild to severe.
Two of the most prominent and troublesome features of anxiety are chest pain and sweating. These can be extremely unpleasant, and cause even greater panic as they can mimic symptoms involved in a cardiac arrest.
So how does Anxiety cause chest pain and sweating? And what can be done to resolve the symptoms in the long term?
SWEATING
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that the Amygdala (a primitive part of the brain) stimulates a chain reaction which leads to the release of a group of chemicals called catecholemines, also known as neurotransmitters, primarily dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine (adrenaline), as well as a specific protein.
The physical effect is that blood is moved away from the skin to support the heart and the muscle tissues. This would reduce blood loss in the case of a cut or a wound from an attack for example. However, the physical effects are cool, clammy, sweaty skin. The scalp also tightens and so hair seems to stand up.
CHEST PAIN
Chest pain from anxiety is estimated to last up to 20 minutes, and may include heart palpitations, breathlessness and dizziness. When the Amygdala perceives a threat, your nervous system initiates the fight of flight response, this is a part of our nervous system that adjusts our autonomic processes such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, and can dramatically increase activity. This can cause rapid contractions of the blood vessels in the lungs leading to hyperventilation and considerable chest pain.
So what causes this?
From a Body Mind Worker perspective, we are interested in what happens for the Amygdala to engage and initiate this chemical reaction in the first place.
If a lion jumps out of the bushes as we are walking through the jungle – it is essential to our survival that this mechanism works and allows us to fight or flee.
But what happens when we experience this response when we just are in a room of people? Or if we are about to speak in public? Or if it happens at work? Or even if it happens for no apparently reason at all?
This is where a principle unique to Body Mind Workers can help.
Our mind uses ‘The Screen’ to inform our system – so us in other words, as to what is going on. The screen is below our conscious awareness (you won’t know you have one!), and if you enter into an environment, or a certain context, where there is information ‘on screen’, the Amygdala can perceive the same type of threat as if there was a lion in the room. This then kicks off the cascade of chemical events I mentioned earlier, and all you are aware of is the feeling of anxiety.
How is this resolved - in the long term?
A Body Mind Worker session is aimed at teaching you how the mind works, so that you can engage and interact with your own screen, and update and upgrade the information on screen so that your Amygdala no longer perceives a threat... unless that lion makes an appearance!
Body Mind Workers utilise language and nonverbal communication to allow you to adjust the screen and move to a more resourceful state. Thus removing the root cause for the anxiety and providing you with tools to move on in life.
In order to help people get moving in the right direction, I am giving away a completely free Anxiety Audio Starter Pack, aimed at helping you become a calmer, happier you. Just click here.
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