Heather Bellamy spoke with psychotherapist Peter Mockford about the causes and symptoms of anxiety disorders and how they would be dealt with in psychotherapy.

Peter Mockford

Do you suffer from panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, unrelenting worries or phobias? According to the Mental Health Foundation, anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health problems in the UK. To find out more about anxiety disorders and how they can be overcome, Heather Bellamy spoke with psychotherapist Peter Mockford.

Heather: What is anxiety?

Peter: Anxiety comes in many different forms. When you're talking about an anxiety disorder, then someone is living with a constant current of anxiety, that doesn't seem to dissipate whatever you do. With normal anxiety, if I'm worried about something like not having enough money in the bank and my pay comes in, then my anxiety dies down.

Heather: What sort of symptoms would you get with an anxiety disorder?

Peter: To be living in constant anxiety will inevitably make you very touchy. It could make you very angry; your capacity to relax is very low; you may want to try and relax by taking drugs, or alcohol, or using some kind of outside stimulant. It gives life an absence of peace and there's very little sense of being calm, or being okay in your environment.

Heather: Why do anxiety disorders develop?

Peter: An anxiety disorder develops, because when we're very young we're brought up in very anxious environments. Our whole upbringing and childhood is very fearful and anxious making. If that anxiety is then triggered in everyday life, it can run constantly. Often we don't put it in the right places either. We think so and so has caused it, or such an event and so on. Because we don't address where it's really coming from, it just runs and runs and runs. It disturbs our sleep and it can be really very upsetting.

Heather: How big a problem are anxiety disorders in the UK?

Peter: I can't give you the figures. However given the fact that there's an increasing amount of relational breakdown, with more and more children being brought up in more stressful environments, I suspect that they're increasing all the time.

Heather: Is the first port of call a doctor when you're experiencing anxiety?

Peter: I'm not sure about that. If you're becoming aware that your anxiety level is continually running, then I think you need to tell the person that you're closest to and tell them how it feels. But certainly if it's ongoing and making life very difficult to handle, then the first port of call should be the doctor. A doctor would refer you to a counsellor if necessary, or use medication as well, or a combination of both.

Heather: We hear a lot about people being on antidepressants. Is the role of medication overshadowing therapeutic treatments for anxiety disorders?

Peter: At the risk of being very controversial, the problem here is finance, certainly within the Health Service. The reality is that the talking therapies are very expensive and are very rarely short term. So in some ways it's much easier to give someone antidepressants or tranquillisers and hope it resolves itself. Research shows that medication is only 30% effective. I think part of the reason is that when people are on the medication, it does reduce the level of anxiety, and that's obviously a good thing. The trouble is when they come off it. The medication has tended to mask the basis of where the anxiety is and so it can easily re-occur. I think the answer is a combination of both the talking therapies and in cases of severe anxiety, medication is sometimes necessary.

Heather: As a psychotherapist, how would you treat someone with an anxiety disorder?