What is anxiety? In everyday life anxiety can be a helpful feeling. It can encourage you to finish the work or school assignment, push you to get the oil changed in your car, or help you notice when something important has been forgotten. Typical anxiety may be unpleasant, but it is usually short lived and goes away once the target of the anxiety has passed. How do you know what normal anxiety is? When anxiety is happening more often then not, is not attached to a specific thing or floats from one thing to another and is causing you distress, it might be time to get some help. Constant anxiety is not a fun way to live and change is possible.
Signs & Symptoms of Anxiety
Inability to Relax - you always need to be doing something; resting, day dreaming, doing nothing feels like torture.
Catastrophizing - you often jump to the worst possible outcome, no matter how remote a possibility it might be.
Dread & Distress - you often feel dread and distress and cannot pinpoint it to a particular reason.
Free Floating - sometimes it feels like the anxiety will lock onto any thought and turn it into a problem to worry about.
Physical Symptoms - Fatigue, headaches, stomach aches, and sore muscles can be symptoms of anxiety.
Inability to Concentrate - you feel agitated and can't concentrate on anything for very long.
Therapy for Anxiety
In therapy we can start with some tools that will help to alleviate some of your suffering as soon as possible. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness are excellent, evidence based practices that are effective with anxiety. After some tools are in place we will start to go deeper and see where the anxiety may have originated. We will focus on your feelings, behaviors, thoughts and goals.
The real purpose of alleviating your anxiety symptoms is to be able to live the life you've imagined. So we will also explore your goals, values, purpose and passions so that you can design the life you want.
