What is Anxiety?
Fear and anxiety are common and normal emotions that can be very helpful when navigating difficult or dangerous situations. However, anxiety can become a problem when it stops you from enjoying a normal life by affecting work, school, family, relationships, friendships, or social life.
Problematic anxiety is like a “false alarm.” The mind and body feel as if they are in a dangerous situation that requires some type of decisive action. This is known as “fight or flight.” However, despite this distressing state, most people simultaneously recognize that their heightened concerns and reactive bodily sensations are excessive, even irrational. Unfortunately, anxiety is progressive in many cases.
This is because natural instincts, like avoiding stressful situations, or constantly seeking reassurance, only makes this problem worse over time.
WHAT ARE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY?
Anxiety can come in many forms. It can show up as:
Physical sensations (such as a tight or heavy chest, butterflies or feeling sick, shakiness, muscle tension or pain especially in the head and neck)
Thoughts (you can’t seem to stop the worrying and negative thoughts, making it hard to concentrate on other things)
Behaviors (avoiding or escaping situations that trigger unpleasant anxiety; you may stop doing things all together that worry you, excessive repetition or checking, inability to make decisions, asking others for reassurance, using alcohol/drugs/food to cope)
The experience and meaning of anxiety can vary. Effective treatment of anxiety first involves understanding it, why it happens, and its common symptoms and impact on your life. Depending on the how anxiety shows up in your life (panic, specific fears, social anxiety, general & pervasive worry) I will teach you different treatment techniques (CBT and otherwise) to practice and incorporate into your every day life.
when should i get help?
Every person has their own threshold for how much anxiety they can (and want to) endure. A good rule of thumb is to consider seeking professional help when your level of inner distress and avoidance behaviors are increasing, when you might be doing unhealthy things to cope with your stress, and when it feels like anxiety is ‘taking over your life’ by negatively affecting your education, job, or relationships.