Therapy for Anxiety

Everyone worries sometimes. It is normal and adaptive to worry in stressful situations. Worry helps us identify danger, keeps us safe, and can act as a motivator to take action.

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Anxiety is different. Anxiety is that constant companion that fills your mind with worries and unease, makes you feel like your mind is racing, and can cause your body to feel like it is wound tight and that you are on edge, restless, and overwhelmed. Anxiety is an overly active fight or flight response. Anxiety affects millions of people around the world, and it's a valid struggle.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) also is anxiety driven, but it involves unwanted, intrusive thoughts or worries (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (compulsions). The compulsions are aimed to calm the anxiety caused by the obsession, but only end up feeding the worry creating a vicious cycle that can be very disruptive and disturbing.

 

If you experience any of these symptoms, you may be suffering from anxiety:

• Persistent worrying or anxiety about a number of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events

• Overthinking plans and solutions to all possible worst-case outcomes

• Perceiving situations and events as threatening, even when they aren't

• Difficulty handling uncertainty

• Indecisiveness and fear of making the wrong decision

• Inability to set aside or let go of a worry

• Inability to relax, feeling restless, and feeling keyed up or on edge

• Difficulty concentrating, or the feeling that your mind "goes blank"

• Intrusive thoughts or images that are unwanted or scary

 

You may also experience some of these physical signs and symptoms:

• Fatigue

• Trouble sleeping

• Muscle tension or muscle aches

• Trembling, feeling twitchy

• Nervousness or being easily startled

• Sweating

• Nausea, diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome

• Irritability

 

Psychotherapy can help you manage your anxiety in a number of ways.

Therapy can help you:

• Gain insight into the patterns of thinking that result in anxious feelings

• Learn to look at situations in new, less frightening ways

• Learn to identify the thoughts that trigger anxious feelings

• Learn to be more mindful and present in the moment instead of focused on future what-ifs

• Teach you more effective coping skills

• Teach you how to take control of your anxiety

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