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 Normal?
Anxiety is a normal response to stress. We expect to have anxiety in our lives; it is part of our human makeup. Major stressful life situations and significant losses all contribute to high anxiety. Maybe you have too much on your plate and you have little time to recharge. When we become overwhelmed can’t control things, it can take over our lives. If we don’t have strong mechanisms to release stress on a regular basis, anxiety is likely to build up to a more severe level. Anxiety can intensify when a balance in diet, exercise, sleep, fresh air, sunlight, and pleasure related activities is lacking.
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.
What Are the Symptoms of an Anxiety Disorder?
A “generalized anxiety disorder” is classified as persistent thoughts of fear or worry with tension for little or no reason. Common symptoms of any anxiety disorder are fear, panic, uneasiness, feelings of doom or danger, sleep problems, not being able to remain calm or to concentrate, and physical symptoms: shortness of breath, excessive sweating, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, dizziness, nausea, and tension in the body. With more severe anxiety one may experience panic attacks.
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?
Anxiety treatments range from individually designed stress management techniques to more focused highly researched anxiety therapies. I often use a combination of all of these to treat anxiety. It is well known that emotional stress builds up physiologically in the body. Exercise causes a release of this excess stress, so I always recommend regular exercise as the first line of defense. There are several mindfulness techniques that slow down the rate at which the body holds onto this extra stress. Meditation and focusing the mind on one point of concentration slow the heart rate and breathing which in turn signal the brain to mentally release stress and physiologically turn off the body’s response to stress.
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 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, ANSRS™ (Advanced Neurological Shifting Relief Solution), a faster and more powerful method for healing traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. ANSRS™ 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 know what it is like to be stuck in the grip of anxiety. I have had tremendous success with a countless number of clients and they find they walk out of the office with a big weight lifted from their shoulders. The panic attacks stop and they can move forward with life. Let me spare you some of the pain. I can help you get through this.
I can help you with anxiety so that you can live the amazing life you were meant to have.
