What anxiety feels like; how anxiety affects you and will anxiety go away are some of the biggest search terms on the internet. Anxiety disorders are now the leading mental health condition in the world and are often experienced alongside stress and depression.
How anxiety effects your employees
As with any mental health condition, there is always a spectrum. Some employees may experience low level anxiety, a sense of feeling on edge, anticipation that ‘something’ is going to happen, but these employees have sometimes found ways to cope with the anxiety. They may consider themselves as having high functioning anxiety because they can, to a degree, still function.
There are employees whose anxiety will peak around very specific situations such as a fear of public speaking. This can impact employees in a variety of ways from a fear of speaking up in team meetings to a fear of speaking in front of a large group of people, and is often the case that the higher up the career ladder someone goes, the more the anxiety increases as the stakes become higher.
These individuals can spend weeks in advance worrying about the presentation or pitch they have to do, which impacts their sleep, their relationships at home, their focus and concentration and of course their health.
Some employees with anxiety disorders may have developed OCD as a way of ‘coping’ with how they were feeling only to find that their coping mechanism is now working against them as they are trapped in a cycle of having to carry out rituals such as hand washing, cleaning, checking things consistently throughout the day.
Some employees may experience anxiety along with panic attacks and a constant feeling of dread, struggle focusing, concentrating, worry about the future, worst case scenario thinking. Depending on how long someone has been struggling with anxiety they may feel they can’t continue and could even experience suicidal thoughts.
Employees in certain roles such as the police force can witness scenes which create trauma and without the right help and intervention to process the trauma can develop PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Discover – which holds them in the survival response, creates flash backs, compromises judgement , decision making, emotional responses, behaviour, overall performance and long term health.
The connection with all anxiety disorders
While there are different types of anxiety disorders, the one thing they all have in common is repetitive anxious thoughts.
Many people have been living with anxiety for so long that they have forgotten whatever made them anxious in the first place. And much of this is down to their mind being highjacked by repetitive anxiety fuelled thoughts.
Sadly people can suffer for years and years before getting help. Some people may believe that the anxiety is part of who they are, or that they are simply an ‘anxious person’. Some people don’t think they can overcome anxiety because they may have tried some methods of therapy before without success.
The fact is, no-one has to learn to live with anxiety or cope with anxiety. One of the biggest impact you can have on your employees who experience anxiety is to educate them.
When it comes to anxiety, many employees don’t really know what’s happening to them, why they feel anxious, often feeling there is something wrong with them or they are broken in some way.
How to support your employees with anxiety
In our employee webinars we focus on giving your employees the understanding and science of what is happening in the brain and body and help them to understand the nature of thought. This insight has seen hundreds of employees describe feeling lighter and hopeful afterwards.
We introduce your employees to leading edge knowledge about subtractive psychology to powerful techniques include EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping and put them on the pathway to positive mental health.
Mental Health Awareness Week in May 2023 is all about anxiety giving you the perfect opportunity to create a positive impact on your peoples mental health. Discover the different packages we have designed for you specifically for Mental Health Awareness Week.
Some of the feedback we’ve received from our employee webinar on ‘Anxiety is not the Enemy’ includes…
🌟 Sara has a way of making you not feel guilty to have feelings and it is refreshing. I have learned so much about myself and my thinking, where it came from and how to change unhealthy thinking into a different more positive view. This class was wonderful.
🌟 I found the training to be engaging and worthwhile! I walked away with a couple sustainable and realistic tips.
🌟This is an excellent presenter. DOC should entertain more of her trainings. The fact that we were able to do some tapping in this session was great. I plan on doing more of this as I saw a dramatic improvement of the areas where I hold stress or anxiety.
🌟 I don’t believe I have ever attended any training that held an impact more than Ms. Maude’s presentations in all my years
🌟 Sara is just a wealth of non judgmental knowledge. I cannot express how much I look forward to the classes as they not only allow me to learn but to come out of the class more relaxed and focused.
🌟The classes are by far the best that I have taken in terms of mental health support.• Have her offer more trainings on Mental Health• MORE, MORE, MORE•
🌟 I plan on doing a lot more of the tapping technique to take me out of my current headspace and help to de-dramatize the situation. I am hoping that will help to keep my emotions a little more in check and alleviate the tenseness I feel.
We would love to help your employees feel this way too! Schedule a call today and start planning for Mental Health Awareness Week 2023!