Anxiety
1 in 7 people experience anxiety in the United States according to the CDC. Anxiety is “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” It’s a mechanism that is very helpful to us as humans. We benefit from being worried about something because it generally pushes us to take action. Chronic anxiety is another story.
Anxiety can show up in a bunch of different ways.
It can be paralyzing, leading people to question their decisions, conversations, work and relationships. It can create sleeping issues, difficulty connecting with friends, even GI issues. Some people report feeling weak or low energy, others experience a racing heart beat and sweating.
How you might be feeling...
Many people with anxiety are fearful of engaging in conversation in a social setting, dread visiting with family, and live in what can feel like an exhausting loop of thoughts. Anxiety holds people back from making the decisions they truly want to make and leaves them questioning themselves and their actions.
Do you lay in bed at night recalling conversations and feeling worried that what you said was misunderstood? You may get stuck in your thoughts for days or find yourself ruminating about the same thing over and over. The cycle starts when something causes doubt or a question. You may be fearful of what could happen to your baby or child. You may be terrified of going to school. You may feel too uncomfortable to post on social media for feat that people will make fun of you. You may be not taking a career leap that you would’ve liked to have taken at this point. Anxiety can be so difficult when living in it every day because it is so exhausting and frequently leaves a person with little energy to think about anything else.
How We Can Help
Our therapists help this process by guiding clients to understand what anxiety looks like and how it’s affecting their life. We discuss thoughts and how they are the precursor to emotion, which in turn, lead to behavior. Once we understand your thoughts and how they create behavior, we gently challenge and reframe your thoughts. We use mindfulness training as a way to slow people down and have them be more present in the moment and we walk through holistic methods that are proven to decrease anxiety.
Anxiety is treatable, it’s something that people recover from every day. We know that you can get better and we are here to join you on the journey to a more connected and fulfilled life where you can better understand yourself.
Reach out now - we are here to do this with you.