Ian Jackson

Thoughts hold the key to many types of anxiety! It is how we think about things that defines them as problems or not. Anxiety thrives on distorted thinking. In this series of blogs we are going to explore 15 types of distorted thinking. The topic for this first blog is “filtering”. “All I could see was negative

Thoughts hold the key to many types of anxiety! It is how we think about things that defines them as problems or not. Anxiety thrives on distorted thinking. In this series of blogs we are going to explore 15 types of distorted thinking. The topic for this second blog is “Polarized thinking”. When we are

Sound Familiar? “I’ll never ever find love”, “I am so so stupid, everything was perfect until I made that mistake”, “I can’t believe I said that, now that whole group hates me”, “The last person like this hurt me, they are not to be trusted”. Overgeneralizing is a cognitive distortion that results in some

Mind Reading is an automatic negative thought that is very common in social anxiety and in many other types of anxiety. The anxious mind in order to head off feared reactions from others anticipates what others might be thinking or even what they think when they see us. In the case of social anxiety, we automatically conclude

Today’s topics: Making excuses not to go out in a group Anxiety is so common these days it’s as common as the common cold. It doesn’t discriminate who it comes after and just like any disease it builds itself up from a niggling issue into a much more infectious problem. Anxiety can start subtly.

Just as common today as anxiety are stomach problems associated with conditions such as IBS. More and more this is affecting young people who would try anything to avoid the discomfort and the embarrassment. Needing the bathroom all the time in work, while out or just not being able to eat the foods we

Catastrophizing is an irrational thought a lot of us have in believing that something is far worse than it actually is. Catastrophizing can generally can take three different forms: making a catastrophe out of something that just happened, a current situation happening in the now or imagining a catastrophe out of a future situation.

Check one more time I sent that email, check again the house is locked. Did I turn off the oven? The work alarm is it on? Sound familiar? In this third blog of the series we are going to look at the possible secret sign of anxiety of finding ourselves double and even triple

In today’s age of digital interactions we have all experienced a partner, a spouse or even just a potential love interest not texting us back as fast as we’d like. The worry and the twang of anxiety waiting for the text back can begin subtly, but then build and build. It is not necessary

Is my headache a brain tumour? What does this dot on my skin mean? I feel funny today… is this feeling normal for someone my age? How do I check without going to the doctor? Doctor Google is free and open 24 hours! In today’s world we seem to be hearing more and more

Personalization: “Everyone thinks this is my fault!”, “He said he was still hungry, I must be an awful cook and a failure”, “Compared to my friends, I am going nowhere in life”. Personalization is the tendency to relate everything around us back to ourselves. This distortion comes in many different shapes and forms. At its

Why do we worry about work the night before we go in? When we go to work things tend to work out fine. We know this because we still have a job, yet our worry about work can be toxic. In times when we know trouble is going on at work, sure we worry.

Control Fallacies: The idea of being helpless or responsible for our lives are very important narrative elements in all our lives, as is our sense of cause and affect. Wanting to know what causes things to happen to us and around us is a very human thing and it can form the rational for

Seeing things our own way is generally always where we start to look at interactions with other humans. We see come from our own point of views and then perhaps attempt to reach a middle ground, or we can stick to our guns when we know what we are seeing isn’t right. Yet when

At the root of the emotional reasoning distortion is the belief that what we feel must be true. If we feel like a loser, then we must be a loser. If we feel guilty, then we must have done something wrong. If we feel ugly, then we must be ugly. If we feel angry, someone must have done

Panic attacks are the definition of not having our feet on the ground! During an attack we need a grounding technique for panic attacks. Our body’s alarm system has kicked into overdrive and our senses are overwhelmed by our sense of danger. We often lose our heads in these situations as we feel we are

Feeling powerless and at the mercy of other people and circumstances when it comes to happiness and fulfilment? When we live by the fallacy of change we think that if only others would change then we would be happy. Only then will we be appreciated, loved, supported, able, motivated, etc. This is very different to asking

Spending too long in front of the mirror? Turning up late or not wanting to go out because of worrying about our appearance? We all have features that we are prouder of than others. That applies to both men and women. Whether it is having to get make up right, hiding spots or rashes,

Need help dealing with difficult people? Tips and advice on how change our relating patterns. We all have that one person or personality type that fills us with anxiety or with anger. “That one boss just fills me with “dread”. If they say anything to me again I’m going to burst into tears. That

Three ways we all Global Label and why it causes so much pain. My supermarket stocks rotten food at rip-off prices. A person who refused to give me a lift home is a total jerk. A quiet guy on a date is labelled a dull clam. Our boss is a gutless imbecile. Each of

We never think Anxiety or our emotions cause body pain! But they do, here’s how! “I’m as stiff as a board when I have to go in there and face them”. “I get tension headaches all the time from the stress”. “I feel weak at the knees”. “I get unexplained lower back pain”. These

Like emotions, beliefs are one of four key areas in our lives that affect how we manage anxiety. Our emotions, thoughts/beliefs, physical bodies and our behaviours. Each has an impact on the other and they all are crucial to understanding how we get anxious. The link between beliefs/interpretations and emotions is undeniable. Take for instance what happens when

Our emotions are one of four key areas in our lives that affect how we manage anxiety. Our emotions, thoughts/beliefs, physical bodies and our behaviours. Each has an impact on the other and they all are crucial to understanding how we get anxious. The term Anxiety is often bandied about these days like is