Are You Struggling with Anxiety & Stress?
Are financial, health, career, or relationship problems causing you profound anxiety? Do you suffer from anxiety and you don’t know why? Or are you just afraid something bad is going to happen? Because we’ve experienced major difficulties in the past, we feel they could happen again any time soon. It’s hard not to worry about problems you can’t solve. I want to help you.
Is Anxiety Helpful or Harmful?
Anxiety is a normal part of the human experience and serves as a response to stress. In fact, a certain level of anxiety is considered a healthy emotion; it keeps us alert and prepared to face challenges. This “healthy anxiety” is what we expect to encounter in our daily lives. It helps us stay focused and aware, especially in situations that demand our attention or involve new experiences.
However, too much anxiety can interfere with our ability to handle these situations. When stress becomes overwhelming and we feel unable to control our circumstances, anxiety can grow and negatively impact our lives. This is what we refer to as “unhealthy anxiety.” It often arises from major stressful life events, significant losses, or handling too many things simultaneously with no time to recharge. When unhealthy anxiety persists, it can take a toll on our mental and physical health.
Implementing strong mechanisms to regularly release stress is essential in preventing the escalation of anxiety. Recognizing the difference between healthy and unhealthy anxiety is the first step towards managing it effectively and maintaining a balanced, fulfilling life.
When Do I Need Anxiety Treatment?
There are many degrees of anxiety, ranging from mild to severely overwhelming. It is time to address anxiety when it becomes so intense that it interferes with your productivity, relationships with people and enjoyment of life. It is possible to have severe recurrent anxiety and not be aware of what is triggering it. When this kind of anxiety becomes so debilitating that it negatively impacts every area of life and prevents you from doing daily activities, it is often diagnosed as an anxiety disorder.
Common Symptoms of an Anxiety Disorder?
Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Here are some common symptoms to be aware of:
- Excessive Worrying: One of the most common signs of an anxiety disorder is worrying too much about everyday things, large or small.
- Feeling Agitated: Persistent anxiety causes the sympathetic nervous system to go into overdrive. This can lead to symptoms like a racing pulse, sweaty palms, shaky hands, and dry mouth.
- Restlessness: Often seen in children and teens, restlessness is an inability to relax or sit still, indicative of anxiety.
- Fatigue: While anxiety can cause hyperactivity, it can also lead to exhaustion due to the intense energy anxiety demands.
- Difficulty Concentrating: Anxiety can interrupt the flow of thoughts, making it hard to focus on tasks.
- Irritability: Increased irritability is a common symptom, especially if anxiety interferes with sleep or daily activities.
- Tense Muscles: Chronic muscle tension, such as clenching your jaw or balling your fists, can be a physical manifestation of anxiety.
- Trouble Sleeping: Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep is often linked with anxiety disorders.
- Panic Attacks: These are characterized by sudden feelings of terror that one can’t control. They can feel overwhelming and include symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath.
- Avoiding Social Situations: Anxiety can lead to avoidance of situations or activities that are perceived to be triggers, such as social gatherings and being among people.
If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms regularly, it’s important to seek professional help. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, and a variety of treatments, including therapy and medication, can be effective.
What are the Symptoms of a Panic Attack?
Panic attacks are a real, physical experience and activate the body’s “flight or fight” response; the body’s response to a perceived imminent threat of danger. It is one thing to have a panic attack once in a while, but intense panic attacks on a regular basis are a problem and need to be addressed in treatment. Symptoms of panic attacks often include experiencing a rapid heartbeat, feelings of not being able to breathe, shaking, excessive sweating, and tingling sensations in the arms or fingers. These symptoms are real and can be so intense that they make you feel like you are having a heart attack. I can’t tell you how many of my patients have run to the ER in an emergency, convinced they are having a heart attack, only to be sent home after being told they are having a panic attack.
Many people feel like they are having a heart attack when they are actually having a panic attack.
Because panic attacks are physiological, the body remembers what it’s like to not have control. Once you’ve had a panic attack, having another experience that increases your heart rate can actually trigger one at that moment, even if you don’t know what is making you anxious. Substances that affect the central nervous system, including various street drugs and prescribed stimulants, can trigger a panic response. Even a mixture of caffeine with an energy drink or novocaine at the dentist can trigger the physical symptoms of a panic response.
Who Is Most Prone to Having Anxiety?
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), anxiety disorders are the most common psychological illness worldwide. Their research indicates 8.1% of the population suffers from anxiety every year, but only 36.9% of those people receive what they need. Gender research outcomes suggest that women are two times more prone to developing an anxiety disorder than men. However, anxiety disorders in men are greatly underreported. Men are less likely to talk about their feelings and are even less likely to seek out treatment.
Anxiety disorders in men are underreported.
Good research studies rely on subjects reporting symptoms, so naturally, men don’t get included in the research. In my practice, I find that men struggle just as much with anxiety disorders as women do. Their symptoms can be just as severe and intense, and they are equally able to respond to treatment for them.
If you experienced any maltreatment as a child, you might be more likely to have suffered from life-long anxiety. Research indicates that childhood abuse is linked to greater severity of anxiety symptoms and a poorer quality of life later in adulthood. Not only are you more likely to develop an anxiety disorder, but also post-traumatic stress disorder.
Adults who as children experienced some form of abuse are at a higher risk of developing an anxiety disorder.
Stressful traumatic events cause the brain to store material as if it is currently happening. That is why it’s so hard to get over anxiety related to events that aren’t happening anymore. Helping adult survivors of abuse break the cycle of persistent anxiety is the mainstay of my practice. Severe anxiety is highly treatable.
How is Anxiety Related to Depression?
Symptoms of anxiety and clinical depressive disorder can often look the same. Common overlapping symptoms are inability to concentrate, ruminative thoughts, irritability, inability to sleep, difficulty doing everyday things one used to do, persistent thoughts that interfere with joyful living, changes in eating patterns and weight, social anxiety, and other isolative behaviors (avoiding family gatherings, school, work and other social situations).
People with anxiety disorders often suffer from other mental health problems, such as depression.
If you have anxiety, it may or may not be part of clinical depression. Similarly, people who have depression may not be experiencing anxiety. Seeking out a professional’s evaluation will help you to understand what it is and how to treat it.
Is Medication Part of Treatment?
It is possible to seek out an evaluation with a medical doctor to explore medication options. I often consult with and refer to medical doctors to make sure my clients have access to comprehensive treatment if they need it. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in the mental health field. There are various classes of medications that are effective and can help. Often doctors will prescribe medications to be used “as needed” for fast-acting relief of severe anxiety. In other instances, doctors will prescribe medications to be taken on a regular basis at the same time each day so that symptoms are relieved in a more controlled manner. Antidepressants can actually help anxiety and many people benefit from this kind of treatment. Many of my clients find it helps them calm persistent heightened nerves in a way that’s difficult to do on their own.
Note: there are some anxiety medications that have the propensity to be addictive if overused. The doctor may prescribe these with caution depending on much and how often you are using them.
How Do You Treat Anxiety?
Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy or counseling, is a method of treating anxiety and stress by engaging in conversations with a mental health professional. Psychotherapy is one of the primary approaches for addressing anxiety, and it is often highly effective. Psychotherapists employ a combination of stress management techniques and cognitive-behavioral therapy tailored to the individual’s needs.
Anxiety is highly treatable.
There are powerful newer therapies for anxiety. These modalities are able to reach deeper levels of consciousness and help the brain to reprocess and desensitize anxiety. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a well-known, highly-researched therapy for traumatic stress management and has been the gold standard for many years in helping people heal from stress and overcome anxiety. I use a newer, cutting-edge neurological therapy, QPRX™, a faster and more powerful method for healing traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. QPRX™ scientifically pinpoints the source of anxiety which may not be in your conscious awareness and relieves it more rapidly and deeply than traditional therapies and EMDR alone. The results have been more astounding than any therapy I have seen.
I understand the challenges of being trapped in the grip of anxiety. I have achieved tremendous success with numerous clients who leave my office feeling a weight lifted off their shoulders. Panic attacks cease, allowing them to move forward with their lives. Let me help you alleviate some of this pain and guide you through this challenging journey.
I can help you with anxiety so that you can live the amazing life you were meant to have.
