3 mins

Anxiety: The Hidden Epidemic

Everyone gets nervous or anxious sometimes. In fact, that anxious feeling is probably an important part of the fight or flight instinct which helped keep our ancestors safe. Realising there is danger and responding quickly was vital then and can even be life-saving now. Unfortunately, many of us experience anxiety that is far beyond what is helpful. This extreme anxiety can interfere with our ability to concentrate, sleep, and perform our day-to-day activities.

While we may know what it’s like to feel anxious, we need to recognise the seriousness of anxiety gone wrong. Too often people try to suffer through it on their own or are told to simply ignore what they’re feeling. The truth is untreated anxiety disorders can become worse. This stress can cause mental anguish, hurt relationships at work or home, and make other medical issues worse.

Not Just Stress

One of the problems with anxiety disorders is they are becoming increasingly common and yet people often don’t recognise the symptoms. Sleep problems caused by anxiety can be blamed on any number of other things. Panic attacks can be mistaken for heart attacks. Anxiety can take many different forms and of varying severity. Our psychology clinic London helps patients with a range of different forms of anxiety.

No Just for Adults

An increasing number of children are now suffering from anxiety disorders. This has impacted students so much that some schools now have dogs that are specially trained in relieving stress. These dogs will sit in the classroom when children are trying to read or perform other particularly high-stress activities.

Tackling anxiety problems can help students feel better about themselves and do better in school. Often, we are particularly reluctant to take anxiety problems seriously when they are experienced by children or teens. Kids may be told that they are worried for no reason or that they’ll grow out of it. Being anxious in certain settings can also be mistaken for attention deficit disorder rather that being recognised as a different problem that requires different treatment. Not only can delay in treating anxiety disorders cause additional problems for children, they may become less likely to trust adults if their symptoms are dismissed or ignored.

Solutions

Even though anxiety disorders are on the rise, the good news is anxiety is treatable. Psychologists are trained in identifying anxiety issues and effectively resolving them. Anxiety disorders can develop at any age. Adults may gradually develop them over the years or excess anxiety can be triggered by an event. The same is true for children but developmental changes as children mature can make it more difficult to distinguish an anxiety problem from the normal changes children experience.

That’s why it is important to have your child diagnosed by an expert rather than by a school administrator. While teachers, administrators, and even your family doctor may be well-intentioned, they may not have the specialised knowledge required to diagnose an anxiety disorder. If you’d like to know more, or book an appointment, you can contact us today.

Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni

8 March 2018

"Dr. Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced Consultant Psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector."

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Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced consultant psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector.


Having obtained a first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the American College of Greece, she completed her doctoral training at the University of Surrey. Dr Touroni is highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, adjustment disorder and relationship difficulties. She works with both individuals and couples and can offer therapy in English and Greek.


Dr Touroni has held a variety of clinical and managerial positions including as Head of Service in the NHS. Further she has held academic positions for the University of Surrey and the Institute of Mental Health lecturing on specialist postgraduate Masters and Doctorate programmes.


She is trained in several specialist therapeutic approaches such as schema therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based approaches and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT). As well as holding a variety of NHS positions, Dr. Touroni is the co-founder of a private practice in Central London that has been a provider of psychological therapy for all common emotional difficulties including personality disorder since 2002. She is the founder and one of two directors of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic.