Is Anxiety Making It Impossible To Relax And Enjoy Your Life?
You may constantly worry over small, seemingly insignificant things. Or maybe you feel tense, on edge, or have trouble relaxing or falling asleep, and now you are too mentally or physically exhausted to keep up with relationships and daily obligations. You know you are your own worst critic, but you don’t want to settle for anything less than perfect. Perhaps you struggle to focus on the tasks in front of you because the worrying is so intense—possibly even spiraling into panic attacks. No matter how good things may seem in your life, you can’t stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And because these feelings of doubt and fear can become so constant, your sense of uncertainty and helplessness is heightened and confidence erodes. Maybe you can’t seem to escape the idea that you are doing something wrong or that someone is upset with you, and you find yourself walking on eggshells. With prolonged experiences of stress or worry, the physical symptoms of anxiety—such as tense muscles, headaches, stomachaches, and insomnia—can leave you too worn down to recognize and challenge harmful thoughts or negative beliefs that are holding you back. On top of it all, the fear of never being good enough may be affecting your personal, professional, and intimate relationships. The consistent pressure to perform well at work, home, and in social settings can make you want to isolate yourself from others, even if it means missing out on activities and events you used to enjoy.
Do you wish you could stop being so hard on yourself? Are you ready to work with someone who can help you manage your feelings of panic and anxiety?
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Anxiety Is One Of The Most Common Struggles Of Adults In America
No two people experience anxiety in exactly the same way or for the same reasons. And if your symptoms don’t look like those you have read about, or if people you trust have told you to “just be stronger,” you may believe you are the only one who is suffering in this way. Even worse, you might blame yourself for being anxious or begin to believe that you are broken in some way. The truth is that you are not alone, and you are not broken. An estimated 18.1% of the U.S. population has anxiety—that’s 40 million adults!
There are many reasons people struggle with anxiety. Some individuals are genetically predisposed to developing anxiety. Others experience a loss or disappointment that keeps them stuck in a pattern of doubt and worry. And many people don’t know why they are anxious; they just know they aren’t living their best life.
It doesn’t help that our fast paced culture requires us to be “on” all the time. We prize workaholics and tend to assess our worth based on how well we perform. But this obsession with performance-based worth can take a toll on both the mind and body. If the body isn’t able to relax, slow down, and reduce tension, it affects your ability to recognize and recover from stress and fear.
When you are anxious or fearful, your focus narrows and it becomes more difficult to see the bigger picture. This can make dealing with anxiety on your own—or even recognizing that you have a problem—much harder than many people initially expect. And the idea that willpower alone should be enough to feel better can be deflating, especially if you’ve tried and failed to reduce anxiety in the past.
Working with an experienced anxiety counselor can help you learn how to better manage symptoms and find relief by changing your response to fear, anxiety, and worry.
Reorienting Your Thinking Can Help You Find Relief
While everyone periodically experiences pressure at work and at home, anxiety has a way of making even the smallest concerns seem bigger and scarier than they really are. And while these unpleasant fears can be intimidating, they can also be enlightening. By allowing yourself to acknowledge your situation openly and honestly, you are taking back some of the power from anxiety. It’s okay for you to be right where you are right now—it will actually be helpful in our work together.
Throughout our work together, I tailor my approach to your unique needs and goals so you can cultivate a sense of peace even in the most turbulent times. I can show you how to pay attention to your nervous system so you can understand what your body needs in order to relax. We’ll also practice ways to slow things down, since it’s difficult to find solutions when you’re on high alert. Using a process known as “grounding,” you can learn to interrupt worried and anxious thoughts by focusing on something calm and neutral, like a picture on the wall or the sounds of birds outside.
Depending on your experience with anxiety, I may also incorporate mindfulness techniques and body-centered therapy into our work together. Mindfulness for anxiety can help increase your awareness about what triggered anxious thinking and how it is affecting your emotions and behaviors. With body-centered therapy, I can help you identify where you hold tension in the body, so you can recognize when anxiety is starting to build and take steps to find relief before anxious thoughts become overwhelming. You can gain a clearer sense of what calm feels like to you—so relief isn’t just a concept or idea anymore: it’s a realistic goal you can recognize and achieve. While you can’t always change the environment around you, you can change how you respond to stressful or high pressure situations.
Because anxiety affects the nervous system, effective treatment must take into account the physical factors as well as emotional triggers. Brainspotting is a scientifically validated approach that helps regulate the nervous system by directly accessing the limbic system (the emotion center of the brain), which is responsible for the fight, flight, and freeze sensations during moments of panic or anxiety. If your nervous system is constantly on high alert, brainspotting can help calm negative emotions and restore balance.
I have been providing anxiety treatment in Sacramento for 12 years. In that time, I’ve seen that regardless of the source of your anxiety, there is a path to hope and healing. Just calling me for an appointment can go a long way toward understanding what’s wrong and how you can foster greater self-confidence. With compassionate guidance and support, you can find fast and effective anxiety relief.
You May Have Some Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…
Isn’t anxiety counseling expensive?
Therapy is an investment in your physical and mental health. Imagine all the time you spend worrying at home or at work, and all the ways you could put that time to better use if you felt more confident in your ability to adapt. That said, I know that anxiety therapy can represent an unexpected or unwanted expense, and we’ll work together to address symptoms and concerns that are limiting your happiness right now. Many of my clients tell me how much better they feel after just one or two sessions. And while you may benefit further by meeting for a longer period of time, a small investment now can provide fast relief from negative thoughts and distressing anxiety symptoms.
Won’t talking about my anxiety just make me more anxious?
If you have been dealing with severe or chronic worry, the fear of feeling anxious can become as bad as the original source of anxiety. I create a safe, compassionate environment where you can feel comfortable sharing your experience. We’ll work together to set the pace so you won’t feel too overwhelmed to continue. And I help you practice healthy coping skills you can begin using from our very first session to manage distressing emotions and physical symptoms that are holding you back.
I’ve tried treating my anxiety before and it didn’t help. How will therapy with you be any different?
There is no one-size-fits-all treatment approach for anxiety. If a previous attempt to manage anxiety—like talk therapy—failed to deliver the lasting results you needed, I’d encourage you to keep trying. Many approaches focus on addressing one aspect of anxiety: symptoms or negative thinking, for example. I tailor my approach to your unique needs as an individual, incorporating mindfulness and a body-centered approach so you can receive the personalized support and guidance you need to manage symptoms and find healing in every area of your life that has been affected by anxiety.
Response To Anxiety
If you are ready to work with an anxiety therapist, you can text or call me at 916-542-1962 to schedule a free 15-20 minute phone consultation. You can also contact me directly through this website.