Unfortunately, there are very many forms of abuse – financial, sexual, psychological, physical and neglect. It may have happened to you as a child, or it may be happening now. It may cause you to have disturbing thoughts, distress and confusion. Your behaviour might also be affected.

Your addiction might have started as a way to manage your feelings or a difficult situation. It could also be that it started as something fun and is now taking you’re your life. Whatever started it, you would now like to stop and be able to change your behaviour – in our work we will develop strategies for now and for a clearer future.

Anxiety includes feeling nervous or unsettled, phobias, and fears of doing certain things. It can also be linked to specific events, or to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A panic attack is an exaggerated response from your body to something that scares you, stresses you or excites you. The physical sensations can include a pounding heart, sweating, feeling sick, breathing problems or lack of clear vision.

The death of someone close will affect us. However, sometimes it can feel overwhelming and all-encompassing. Coping and adapting can feel unachievable.

Depression is not just ‘feeling depressed’ – that implies we are feeling sad and miserable, something which most often will simply go away. Depression doesn’t go away – it stays with us, interfering with our lives, and making everything more difficult, and less interesting.

If you are not on a regular balanced diet, or if you are constantly thinking about your food intake, it will make things difficult in your life. The most common forms of eating problems are bulimia, anorexia, binge eating and over-eating.

Relationships are complex and challenging. Our mental health affects how we connect with others. It can also be that the nature of the relationship is the key factor affecting our state of mind. Looking more closely at the issues enables us to decide what is important to us and how we can impact our relationships.

When we are unable to focus on what we need or want to do it leaves us stressed , disappointed and unhappy. Lack of focus is often the symptom that something is not going well in our life. By finding and addressing the real issue we can refocus on what we want to do.

So many events can disrupt our life – from personal issues like divorce, significant birthdays or health issues, to external events such as a change at work or financial problems.

How do you feel about yourself? The better you feel the more positive you will feel towards your life, your challenges and your opportunities.

Are you hurting yourself on purpose? Are you doing it as a way of dealing with things? You might want to deal with the emotional pain behind this coping mechanism and change the behaviour.

Stress is meant to be a healthy reaction to a dangerous situation. If you were faced by an angry tiger, stress would enable you to gather your strength and resources and hopefully mange to escape. Stress becomes a problem when it becomes overwhelming, preventing us from taking proper decisions because we are not thinking rationally – or preventing us from acting at all.