Imagine you are lying in bed, ready for sleep. Instead of comfortably settling in, you find your mind races. It settles on a worry about a deadline at work, then spirals into a series of “What Ifs”: What if I don’t finish in time? What if it isn’t good enough? What if my colleagues laugh at my presentation? What if my boss doesn’t like it and decides to take me off the project? What if my boss fires me? How will I pay my bills? As your mind spirals, your body begins to respond. Your muscles tense, your breath shortens until i feels like you can’t breathe, your heart races, you feel hot and sweaty, maybe even numb. Your stomach tightens and you feel slightly nauseous. Sleep evades you and you toss and turn for most of the night. You feel far from rested the next morning.
Have you ever felt this way? Do you find that this feeling follows you throughout the day, making it difficult to concentrate and complete even simple tasks? Does it seem your body is in a constant state of alert? Maybe you find it hard to be in crowded places, feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated by the noise and lights. Perhaps you have had times where you feel like you are having a heart attack and fear that happening again. Maybe it has even sent you to the hospital. These continuous feelings of anxiety and panic may be signs that you should seek anxiety treatment.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is the feeling your body has when it feels threatened. Everyone experiences anxiety to some extent. In its most basic form, it motivates a person to complete tasks, be on time and work to do a good job. It is normal to feel anxious about starting a new job, waiting for news about a medical test, or meeting a date. Typically, this feeling passes and does not intrude on life.
While these may not seem like threats in the physical sense, your body and brain act as an alert system. The threat is a perceived threat, meaning even if it is something positive, your body reacts to the stress of the situation.
In its more extreme forms, when anxiety treatment may be necessary, anxiety persists throughout the day, and never really leaves. Your body and brain signal constantly that things are a threat and your thoughts spiral constantly to the worst scenario. Day-to-day life becomes overwhelming.
How do I know that I have anxiety that may require anxiety treatment?
Anxiety appears in many different ways. Your body raises the alarm through physical signs and your mind may focus on worries and fears and spiral and spin. You cannot disrupt the thoughts or have your body be calm. Some of the common things people with serious anxiety experience may include:
- shortness of breath
- heart racing
- ringing in ears
- muscle tightness
- sweating
- feeling hot or warm/flushing
- jelly legs
- nausea
- vomiting/diarrhea
- butterflies
- poor concentration
- difficulty completing tasks
- irritability
- fear of something terrible happening
- poor sleep
- obsessive thoughts
- panic attacks
- avoidance of places
- avoidance of social situations
- inability to make decisions
- fear of specific things
- sense of disconnect with surroundings
- changes in relationships due to anxiety
- changes in activities due to anxiety
These signs, when experienced daily, may indicate that you would benefit from anxiety treatment.
How does counseling help with my anxiety?
At Outside the Lines Counseling, anxiety treatment addresses the physical signs of anxiety and the thoughts and feelings that come with anxiety. After a good assessment of what your stressors are and how you experience anxiety, an individualized plan will be created to target this.
Techniques such as breathing exercises, visualization and relaxation may be taught to help calm the physical signs of anxiety. This way, your body can begin to feel calm and know what the opposite of anxiety feels like. Looking at stressors and finding ways to build self-care into your lifestyle can help to build a more mindful lifestyle. Learning to challenge worst case scenarios and irrational thoughts and fears can help to calm the mind.
Sometimes, it may be recommended that you seek a medication evaluation with a qualified professional. Medication can help to tone down some of the physical signs of anxiety, and may be useful for those who need to address that before they can feel ready to work in counseling. Outside the Lines Counseling is happy to coordinate with outside providers and find the best individualized anxiety treatment for you.
Counseling may make me more anxious.
It is true that if you have anxiety, you may experience more anxiety initially. This is normal and part of the process. If you have ignored your anxiety and this is the first time you are truly tuning in to how it feels, it can be overwhelming. Sometimes you may feel even more anxious. Outside the Lines Counseling is committed to creating a safe space to hold those feelings, tools in which to manage them and a way to wrap them up when you leave. At the same time, Outside the Lines Counseling respects that each person needs to go at his/her own pace. Sometimes this requires baby steps and that is okay.
Sometimes, you may not be ready for anxiety treatment, or may not be able to tolerate it. You may decide to stop coming to counseling. If this is the case, please speak with your therapist. It may be a matter of adjusting the pace or type of anxiety treatment.
For some people, it may take several tries before being able to engage in anxiety treatment. This is okay,too. The door is always open for you to return and try at a different time.
For a free 10 minute consultation or to schedule an appointment call:
Outside the Lines Counseling
410-245-9722