Anxiety Therapy

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a common human reaction that can include physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. It can be thought of as a normal physiological response to a perceived threat. Some of the symptoms of anxiety include:
– Increased heart rate
– Overwhelming or irrational fears
– Sweaty extremities
– Stomach discomfort or digestive problems
– Racing thoughts or overthinking
– Feeling shaky or weak
– Tight muscles
– Trouble falling or staying asleep

What Are The Subtle or Lesser Known Symptoms of Anxiety?

Many people struggle with anxiety and don’t know it until it has reached a breaking point. It is important to identify the subtle symptoms of anxiety as all people experience it at some point in their lives. Some of these lesser known symptoms of anxiety include:
– Thinking a lot about the future
– Trouble relaxing or sitting still
– Fidgeting
– Having a jam packed schedule
– Little appetite
– Zoning out on the phone or social media
– Jaw clenching or grinding
– Trouble concentrating
– Avoiding crowded places

While these symptoms may indicate anxiety, it is important to discuss your symptoms with a mental health professional and get clarity on whether this is related to an anxiety disorder. Understanding your symptoms is the first step toward healing.

What Causes Anxiety?

Anxiety is a natural and primal response to a perceived threat. However, anxiety becomes a problem for people because it lasts for too long and occurs too often. Factors that can contribute to or cause problematic anxiety are trauma, genetics, high stress, growing up in a dysfunctional household, medical conditions, brain chemistry, and drug use.

What Are Anxiety Attacks or Panic Attacks?

Anxiety or panic attacks typically occur when a person has been living with high stress or anxiety for too long. Typically people report difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, racing thoughts, and overwhelming fear. Other symptoms may include fears of death, a pounding or racing heart, sweating, chills, trembling, weakness or dizziness, tingly or numb hands and chest pain.
Panic attacks are common. Up to 35 percent of the population experience a panic attack at some time in their lives. Panic attacks can be severely disabling, especially when they occur often. The person will often avoid people, places, or things that they fear will trigger another panic attack. This can impair a person’s overall life functioning.

Our practice offers Rapid Resolution Therapy, which has been shown to be extremely effective for treating anxiety or panic attacks.

What is Social Anxiety?

Social anxiety occurs in social settings where the person fears how they will be perceived or judged. The physical symptoms are the same as general anxiety, but occur in social settings. Other symptoms may include fear of being embarrassed, feeling like they don’t fit in or lack confidence, or concern about offending someone. People with social anxiety may avoid certain social gatherings or replay past social interactions in their head to evaluate how they think they did.

What is A Phobia?

A phobia is an excessive fear and anxiety about specific thing, people, or place. Typically a person with a phobia disorder will avoid the place or thing that causes anxiety such as a plane or elevator. Other common phobias are that of animals or insects. Most people can identify that the fear is excessive and irrational, but can’t manage to contain the anxiety when presented with the thing that causes it.

What is The Treatment For Anxiety?

People may try to reduce their anxiety symptoms with supplements, exercise, medication, self help books, holistic treatments, or social support. People may also self medicate or numb through drug or alcohol use, gaming, social media, sex or porn, binge eating or eating junk food, and other unhealthy coping behaviors. All of these can provide some relief, but the effects are short lived. This is why we strongly recommend anxiety treatment with a mental health professional.
Anxiety is very treatable with mental health therapy. There are many therapeutic modalities that have been shown to decrease anxiety. In our practice, we have found EMDR, Rapid Resolution Therapy, and Somatic Therapies to be most effective at treating anxiety. These work at addressing the root cause and get your primal mind to get that it can shut off that alarm system. If you have been struggling with anxiety and would like to address it and improve your life, please reach out to us to learn more about our treatments and how they can help you live the life you want.