Fear is something that all human beings experience from time to time. Our experience of fear originates as early as our experience in the womb and is a primary, natural and universal human emotion. One way of describing fear is as our instinctual, internal alarm system, designed to keep us safe by alerting us to potential harm or danger. Fear is perhaps the reason why the human race has survived so far as it alerts us to threats and life-threatening danger. It is an important stimulus and it provides important information to the individual enabling them to activate protective responses, for example avoiding dark alleys, having regular medical check-ups, or slowing down when driving towards dangerous bends.
Yet for many people, this natural fear response or protective mechanism becomes overactive, persistent, and overwhelming, leading to a constant sense of unease that can interfere with day-to-day life. This is essentially where fear turns into anxiety – where our internalised relationship with fear and fear situations gets associated with wholly negative and bad experiences and outcomes. When anxiety becomes chronic or disproportionate to the situation at hand, it can evolve into conditions such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or manifest through acute episodes like panic attacks, social anxiety, obsessive compulsiveness, phobias or post-traumatic stress disorder. These experiences can take a toll on emotional, physical, and psychological wellbeing, but the good news is that they are highly treatable. Counselling and psychotherapy offer powerful, evidence-based ways to understand, manage, and reduce the impact of anxiety and panic on mental health.
Understanding Anxiety and GAD
Generalised Anxiety Disorder is characterised by persistent, excessive worry about a range of everyday events—health, work, relationships, finances, or even minor tasks. Unlike the normal ebb and flow of stress, GAD creates a continuous undercurrent of fear or anticipation that something might go wrong. This constant mental vigilance is exhausting, often accompanied by physical symptoms such as muscle tension, headaches, restlessness, irritability, and disrupted sleep. People with GAD frequently describe their anxiety as uncontrollable, and the internal narrative of worry can feel like a loop they cannot switch off. GAD also shapes behaviour. It may lead to avoidance of situations that trigger anxiety, over-preparation to prevent feared outcomes, reassurance-seeking from others, or difficulty making decisions. Over time, these coping strategies can reinforce the anxiety cycle, making the world feel increasingly unpredictable or unsafe.
Panic Attacks and Their Impact
Panic attacks are sudden, intense surges of fear that typically peak within minutes. They may occur in response to a trigger—such as a stressful event or a feared situation—but can also appear unexpectedly. During a panic attack, the body’s fight-or-flight system activates rapidly, leading to symptoms like a racing heart, trembling, shortness of breath, dizziness, chest discomfort, sweating, or a feeling of detachment from oneself. Many people describe the sensation as terrifying, sometimes mistakenly believing they are experiencing a heart attack or losing control. The fear of having another panic attack can become a major source of distress. This anticipatory anxiety may lead to avoiding certain places or situations, such as crowded shops, public transport, or being far from home. In some cases, recurrent panic attacks paired with avoidance behaviours may develop into panic disorder or agoraphobia.
How Counselling & Psychotherapy Helps
Counselling provides an empathetic, non-judgemental space where you can explore your thoughts, feelings, and experiences at a pace that feels safe. For those struggling with anxiety, simply articulating what feels overwhelming can be a significant first step. Many people with GAD spend much of their time trying to manage or suppress their worries internally, and sharing them with a trained professional can offer relief, perspective, and clarity. Counsellors help you identify what triggers your anxiety, how it affects your body and mind, and which patterns of thinking or behaviour may be maintaining it. Through this process, you develop greater emotional awareness—recognising the early signs of anxiety before it becomes unmanageable. Counselling also offers tools to manage symptoms in the moment, such as grounding techniques, breathing exercises, or relaxation strategies that help calm the body’s heightened stress response.
While counselling focuses on present-day difficulties, psychotherapy often goes deeper, exploring the roots of anxiety. This might include unresolved experiences, patterns learned in childhood, or traumatic events that shaped how you respond to stress. Understanding these deeper layers can help you break long-standing cycles of fear or worry. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), one of the most effective therapeutic approaches for anxiety, helps you recognise unhelpful thinking patterns—catastrophising, black-and-white thinking, or overestimating danger—and replace them with more balanced perspectives. CBT also uses behavioural strategies, such as gradual exposure, to help you confront feared situations safely and reduce avoidance over time. Other psychotherapeutic approaches, such as psychodynamic therapy, mindfulness-based therapies, or compassion-focused therapy, support emotional regulation, self-understanding, and resilience. Each approach can be tailored to match the individual’s needs, history, and goals.
Managing and Reducing Panic Attacks
For people experiencing panic attacks, therapy offers both immediate coping tools and long-term strategies. Learning how the body responds during panic can help demystify the physical symptoms and reduce the fear attached to them. Techniques such as slow, diaphragmatic breathing, grounding through the senses, and muscle-relaxation exercises can help regain control during an attack. Therapy also works on the broader context—identifying triggers, understanding the relationship between thoughts and physical sensations, and reducing the fear of fear itself. As you build confidence in your ability to manage panic symptoms, both the frequency and intensity of attacks often decrease.
Moving Toward Lasting Change
Anxiety and panic are difficult experiences, but they do not have to dictate your life. With professional support, you can learn to understand your patterns, develop healthier coping strategies, and build resilience. Counselling and psychotherapy offer a pathway toward calmer, more grounded living—helping you regain control, reduce the impact of anxiety on your mental health, and move forward with greater confidence and emotional wellbeing.
At LifeChange, we recognise the importance of attending to anxiety in the life of the individual, particularly when it gets out of control. We understand how paralysing and debilitating a life lived in fear and anxiety can be. We may find ourselves stuck in constant ruminating or worrying cycles that drains us of life, creativity and vitality. Our minds can wind up getting stuck in some serious kinds of confusion, suffering, or we can feel lost. We are either projecting ourselves into the future, catastrophising on what could happen or we may find ourselves stuck in the past. When we get into a panic spiral, of regretting the past or worrying about the future or start competitively comparing ourselves to others; we miss out on the present moment and the safety and the groundedness of what that can offer us. We can be our own worst enemies how we actually speak to ourselves, indeed our self-talk can be just negative and downright judgmental even vicious. At LifeChange we see it as is important to look to the root causes as well as devise a personalised treatment plan that supports you.
Mindfulness Counselling: Evidence-Based Mental Health Care
