Anxiety
Anxiety is the issue that brings most people to therapy. There are different forms of anxiety, but they all share one thing in common. They suck to experience when they are too much!
The most common forms of anxiety I see with my clients are:
Social Anxiety
Generalized Anxiety
Situation-specific Anxiety (see Trauma page)
*** If there are specific situations that make you anxious or you avoid to avoid that feeling, then if you click on the Trauma link above you’ll read why calling it trauma makes sense, I promise!
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety, also called social phobia, is that horrible feeling you get around other people because you aren’t comfortable with how they may judge you.
This is really easy to diagnose. If you would do what you want if no one else was around, but you don’t because people exist, you probably have social anxiety.
You may think you are “just shy” or say, “I’m an introvert.” I’m not saying everyone should be a total social butterfly, but your DNA says you were born to be a social creature.
Your brain was trained to believe some things are dangerous when they really aren’t. The goal here is to rewire your programming to allow you to feel safe when it logically makes sense.
When you feel safe, you aren’t anxious and on guard. Instead, you smile, laugh and love your life!
Your true self is locked up and really wants to be free but needs to feel safe first. Until that happens, your nervous system will use anxiety as a tool to protect you from potential harm by making you feel so uncomfortable you don’t do what your spirit desires.
Therapy for social anxiety will include learning how to:
Reduce the physical and mental feelings of anxiety in the moment.
Lower your baseline anxiety.
Get back into your logical brain to determine if you are safe.
Be comfortable enough with setting boundaries that you actually set boundaries.
Make peace with yourself and the universe for the time spent not being free.
Generalized Anxiety
Generalized anxiety is very much like social anxiety described above, but isn’t limited to social situations. Oftentimes people recognize the worries in their heads that are too much. The “what ifs” kick in, then its all doom and gloom.
People experiencing generalized anxiety sometimes can’t say what made them anxious because they are so used to being anxious.
The formal diagnosis is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and it’s a spirit killer. You can only white-knuckle through life so long before it wears you down. We all have our limits to tolerate distress, and untreated GAD will keep you from living the life you would enjoy.
The really good news is that GAD is incredibly treatable!
We treat it much like social anxiety, just with a broader focus on where and when to be comfortable. You will learn to relax your nervous system in the moment and change your baseline anxiety. Once you feel confident that you can calm your body and mind, you are free to do things without horrible anxiety!