Anxiety Therapy

Have you felt anxious after a traumatic event or loss?

Anxiety is a common reaction to loss, traumatic events and feeling out of control...

And often, it looks something like this:

Frequent panic attacks
Generalized anxiety
Social anxiety
Feeling unsafe
Fear of intimacy
Distrust of others
Worrying about yourself or your loved one's health, etc.

Anxiety disorders usually don't just come out of nowhere

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common types of mental disorders in the USA, and 19.1% of adults have it at some point of their lives, according to the NIMH. Adolescents, on the other hand, have higher rates of anxiety disorders, with an estimated lifetime rate of 31.9%. The most common types are Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, phobias (e.g., spiders, claustrophobia, etc.), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

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scared woman on bus; Image by Pourya Sharifi

Anxiety disorders can make you miserable!

Scared African American man in striped shirt and sweater, holding the sides of his face; Image by Bansah Photography

Many things can cause anxiety, including:

Genetics (people in your family like parents, grandparents, etc. have anxiety disorders);
Brain Chemistry;
Personality traits (like perfectionism, neuroticism, and low self-esteem);
Stressful events in your life (like traumatic events, losses, chaotic and unpredictable events, or having too much to do in a short amount of time without any support); or
Having a health condition like arrhythmia can make people anxious.

It may be tempting to make the symptoms of anxiety “go away” by abusing substances like alcohol and drugs, but that rarely helps in the long run. You need help to change the way you think and feel, which substances do not change over a long period of time. In fact, they tend to make you avoid what’s bothering you, which worsens your anxiety long term.

Anxiety is important for helping you survive traumatic situations, or alerting you to the fact that someone important to you is gone. Often, they raise a feeling of insecurity that could have started in your attachment to your parents or caregivers when you were very small. As you know, it is exhausting and unhealthy to live with anxiety on an ongoing basis. When your thoughts race with "what if..." and you find yourself short of breath, dizzy, or agitated, it's a sign that you're living in the future emotionally rather than the present. It's understandable to want to avoid getting hurt or having something bad happen to you if it's already happened in the past. The problem is, the worry keeps you prisoner because that is all you can see for yourself. Anxiety blocks out the positive possibilities.

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Anxiety treatment can help you feel calmer, safer, and more at ease

The good news is that you can receive therapy for anxiety that changes the way you think and feel about the world. Additionally, when you address your prolonged grief or trauma head on, you're less overwhelmed by stress and can think more rationally. It also helps clear out the emotional and physical leftovers from terrible events in the past that make you react so strongly, or numb out and avoid things that remind you of the painful past.

Even if your anxiety isn't from a traumatic event or loss, it can make you feel like you're out of control or losing your mind. Having a panic attack can feel like that, and then you start to avoid things that remind you of the panic attack. It makes your world smaller and smaller. Anxiety therapy can all help you regain a sense of control and make things easier to cope with in the present. You deserve to feel calmer and more in control, don't you?

Solution Focused Therapy, Ericksonian hypnosis, and EMDR therapy all address anxiety disorders effectively. Anxiety therapy can help you:

learn to relax,
observe your thoughts and emotions,
change your thinking,
expect a greater range of possibilities, and
sooth yourself in healthy ways, and
get the upper hand on your anxiety.

You don't have to live the rest of your life in fear!

People of all ages seem to become increasingly anxious. Maybe it's something to do with the stressful world we live in. Children, adolescents and adults can all struggle with uncertainty, social anxiety, and worry. There's a saying, "you can't control the waves, but you can learn how to surf." You can't change the fact that bad things happen in the world, but you can learn to ride the waves of uncertainty and trouble, so you don't drown in your emotional response to it.

Let's give you tools that help you handle uncertainty better. Don't let anxiety push you around and scare you anymore. Please give me a call or click the button below.

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