You are where you are in life because of the decisions you make. But what if you are so anxious, stressed or depressed that you can’t make decisions?
People can argue that you are in the mental state you are because of your decisions. When you have mild anxiety, stress or depression this is true and by making a decision to snap out of it you can go back to balance.
When you are suffering extreme or long term stress, anxiety or depression you are stuck in survival mode and the only decisions you will make are to survive and making decisions to snap out of it are almost impossible. Often the symptoms of stress, anxiety and survival are expressions of unresolved trauma and stress from the past. Until these are resolved all you will want to do is survive, get through the next hour, the next day.
When we suffer trauma or stress the body goes into survival mode. You are offered the choice of flight, fight or freeze. You can run away from the event; you can fight the event or you can just freeze. To do this the body takes blood away from the brain and gut and sends it to the muscles and the body is flooded with chemicals to ready the muscles to burst into action, your muscles tense up and you become extremely tense. After the event is over the brain turns the event into a memory and we come back to calm and our muscles relax.
For various reasons some events are not turned into a memory and you end up reliving these events all the time, consciously or unconsciously. This means that blood to the brain is being diverted and the ability to make decision is reduced. The body is constantly tense and it comes out as anxiety, stress and depression.
For a past trauma or stress to be resolved the brain needs to know that it is over and you are safe and that you have power over the unresolved events. The Richards Trauma Process uses hypnosis to do this quickly and effectively.