Is the recession causing an 'anxiety epidemic'?

There is a very interesting and thought-provoking article in my Sunday paper this weekend about fears of 'an anxiety epidemic caused by the depression.'

One of my clients just brought it to my attention and I think it is a fascinating example of some of the ideas and feelings that are floating around in the ether right now. The article in The Observer is entitled 'Victims of recession to get free therapy: State aid planned to figh...'

OK, so first I found myself recoiling a little at the word 'victims.' My initial thought as a hypnotherapist is that it is not at all helpful to encourage people to view themselves as 'victims' of events and circumstances. After all, we do all have certain choices, don't we?

Of course, I have deep empathy for those curently experiencing the uncertainty and stress involved in losing one's job. I have written before in this blog about my own experience of being made redundant from my job in training and personal development at a large global corporation after 9/11.

However, I am so grateful that I could choose not to see myself as a 'victim.' Instead, I was able to use the opportunity to create a life that I love and that I get enormous satisfaction from. Each of us can make certain choices about how we represent external events to ourselves in our minds.

However, returning to the article in question, it states:

'Fears of a depression and an anxiety epidemic, caused by the recession, are forcing the government to offer psychological help to millions of people facing unemployment, debt and relationship breakdown. Sufferers will be referred to psychotherapists for expert counselling via an advice network linking Jobcentres, doctors' surgeries and a new NHS Direct hotline.

Under the plan, which will involve training 3,600 more therapists and hundreds more specialist nurses, psychotherapy centres will be established in every primary care trust by the end of next year.'

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, is quoted in the article as saying: "In the current economic downturn, the potential exists for more people to become anxious or depressed. If someone is feeling down after losing their job, the best solution is a new job and we are helping people find them wherever possible. But, in some cases, depression and anxiety can be a barrier to getting another job."

He will apparently soon 'announce that 81 "talking-therapy services", offering cognitive
behavioural therapy, a method by which people are encouraged to look more at potential solutions than the causes of their difficulties, will be set up this year - a 25% increase on the planned number.'

Whilst it is great to see the government taking psychological well-being seriously, I have some concerns when I read about this plan. I have noticed recently that therapists have been calling for a less rigid and wider approach to the problem.

Professor Richard Layard, a co-author of the London School of Economics' Depression Report and a former adviser to government, made a very strong economic case some time ago - and a long time before any whiff of 'the credit crunch - for the importance of pripritising the treatment of depression and anxiety in order to reduce the heavy burden to business of psychological problems. However, is was this report that began the trend towards cognitive behavior therapy or CBT, and many therapists are now questioning Layard's expertise and authority in this area. He is, after all, an economist. Is he necessarily equipped to advise about which particular therapies are most appropriate in the treatment of anxiety and depression?

And of course, as people and as therapists, we are all different. I work with many, many people who come to me after having received CBT through the NHS. There is currently a six to eight month waiting list for treatment in my Primary Care Trust and it seems that, having waited, the treatment available does not help a lot of people. These are the people who turn up at my consulting room in desperation.

Other people I work with have had years of counselling that has served to re-focus them on rumination over past problems rather than giving them skills to move forwards into the future.

Now, I am certainly not saying here that counselling or CBT are not useful therapies. However, if the government is about to spend lots of taxpayers' money on making more therapy available more quickly to address depression and anxiety, isn't it time we had more debate and discussion about what kinds of therapies might be best suited to this particular area?

Isn't it time we looked again at the evidence base for CBT and also at other solution-focused brief therapies such as hypnotherapy? How can we help people to help themselves as quickly and cost-effectively as possible? I'd love to see that particular discussion happening.

I know that I and many of my hypnotherapist colleagues are currently rushed off our feet with requests for help. It is wonderful to be able to help so many people to make changes in their lives right now. One really positive thing about this 'credit crunch' is that it seems to have refocused people's attention away from having more 'stuff' and towards developing themselves. Self-help, self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy with its focus on enabling the person themselves to make changes, are all very valuable to people right now.

We are discovering every day that, beyond the point where we can meet our basic needs and those of our families, having more material goods does not necessarily make us happy. Happiness is a way of being and experiencing. Perhaps it is more a particualr 'style' that can be learned rather than something that can be earned.

We don't need reasons to be happy. Instead we need to acquire the skills to look afresh at ourselves and the world, live in the now without worrying about the past or the future and value what we already have. So how can we best help people to do this? This is what I think we should be asking ourselevs right now.

And I'd love to hear what you think about this.

Have a very happy afternoon!