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NLP & Anxiety

Anxiety is a term for disorders that cause nervousness, fear or worrying. It is usually defined as "excessive, irrational fear or dread" that is out of proportion to the situation, according to Medterms.net. NLP (or "Neuro Linguistic Programming") is a form of therapy which involves changing thought patterns and reactions, and it can be used as a treatment for anxiety.

  1. What is NLP?

    • Neuro Linguistic Programming involves changing an individual's language and behavior in order to change his experiences. It often works by drawing attention to negative thought patterns, which can cause negative behavior. "Neuro" refers to the relationship between the mind and body, and "linguistic" means language. "Programming" refers to an individual's daily behaviors, or "program". NLP can be used in therapy and is also popular in the self-help industry.

    Types of Anxiety

    • There are various types of anxiety disorder, and most cause real physical symptoms. One of the most common is "Generalized Anxiety Disorder", an ongoing condition that involves excessive, long-lasting anxiety, and can cause panic attacks. Panic attacks are brief or sudden attacks of intense terror or dread, and usually manifest themselves physically: in shaking, confusion, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing. Another type of anxiety is the phobia, which can be defined as an irrational fear of a single object or situation. Those with phobias often don't suffer from other types of anxiety disorder in everyday life; their anxiety is confined to that object or situation.

    Features of NLP

    • A key idea of NLP is that "The Map is Not the Territory": the way we perceive the world is not reality. NLP works on changing people's perceptions of reality, by changing their use of language and daily behavior. Making these changes can theoretically change the way people experience their lives. NLP looks at the relationship between the body and the mind in terms of "systems": a way of modeling the mind's effect upon the body (and vice versa). It can also be used to examine the relationship between the individual, her company or community.

    Benefits of NLP

    • NLP can be effective at increasing an individual's positive habits and reducing negative ones. Improving someone's daily behavior can have a beneficial effect on their levels of anxiety. Because anxiety often involves a skewed perception of the world, which creates excessive, irrational reactions to events, NLP can be of help in reducing anxiety by challenging that perception. NLP also focuses on the mind's effect upon the body, which can be useful when treating the physical effects of anxiety.

    Warning

    • NLP isn't accepted as a useful form of therapy by the medical profession as a whole. There have been many studies of NLP's benefits, but none have successfully proven that NLP works: in 1988, The National Research Council commitee decided that NLP has no demonstrable benefit, as they reported in their 1991 publication "In the Mind's Eye". There is also no professional body monitoring practitioners in NLP: after a short course, anyone can set themselves up as a "Practitioner" or a "Master Practitioner". It is important to be cautious and careful when researching NLP as an option for treating anxiety.

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