It’s more than just breathing.
Therapy To Decrease The Anxiety
Exclusively Online Therapy & Telehealth throughout Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts and Indiana.
You’re sweating, you’re hot, your stomach is in knots, your muscles are tight… and you may or may not know what’s going on.
What would it be like for you if you could live more in the present moment, instead of the past?
How would it feel to enjoy your friendships, instead of letting anxiety rob you of your time together? What would it mean for you to be able to talk in front of people without the desire to shrink into the earth or run? Or how would your life be affected if you were able to lie down at night and just sleep without being kept up by everything that’s happened in the yesterday, today, or what could happen tomorrow?
Most people with anxiety know the basic skills - let’s work together to actually treat the root issue while strengthening your ability to cope.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) anxiety can be categorized into four categories - Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Phobia-related disorders.
All anxiety disorders can have a similarities such as physical reactions of muscle tension, sweating, heart racing, gastrointestinal issues, feeling restless, feeling doomed, excessive worrying, attempting to avoid situations, and many others. No matter where you fall on the scale therapy can help you to process the past, where your subconscious learned that these responses were needed, so that you can live a peaceful future.
Anxiety can build in a multitude of ways but it’s typically hard to determine where it started. Sometimes it’s easy to identify such as being afraid of driving in cars after a car accident. However other times anxiety sneaks up on you and is a result of your subconscious trying to keep you alive in a really messed up way. Your subconscious’ whole job is to keep you alive but when it feels you’re in danger it will prepare your body for - Fight, Flight, or Freeze. Well, anxiety is basically this response but on steroids. Your subconscious has created danger signals where they shouldn’t be or sees them in areas that while uncomfortable are not physically dangerous. Therefore it’s our job in therapy to calm your subconscious down and allow you peace in “normal” situations.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
1st Degree of Change Therapy offers online anxiety therapy in Arizona, Florida and Massachusetts to equip you with coping strategies and techniques to manage anxiety symptoms effectively. Through therapy, you learn how to identify anxiety triggers, challenge and change unhelpful thought patterns, and develop skills to reduce stress and prevent overwhelming feelings.
Schedule a free consultation today so we can talk about how things can change for you.
Let’s make change together
Anxiety Therapy With Me Will Look Like:
Assess
In today’s world information is available instantaneously. I recognize that you have probably looked up anxiety, depression, panic attacks and tips. So instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel, we’ll see what skill you already use. As well as what has and hasn’t worked for you.
Create A Game Plan
You can’t reach a target if the target was never put on the range. The same is true for therapy - you can’t achieve goals in anxiety therapy unless you’ve set them. Together we’ll create large goals that will take a while - as well as small goals that will be achieved in a shorter amount of time. This way as you make small progress you’ll see it and be able to celebrate the awesome person that you are!
Sarcasm, Dark Humor & Work
“Sarcasm is my love language” is a quote I hear from clients frequently. And guess what? It’s mine too. When you’re dealing with the weight of the world it’s hard not to develop a dark humor or sarcasm. So let’s use it and have fun with it - anxiety and depression therapy is hard enough without having to hide a part of yourself. We’ll have fun - but we’ll also work. It’s not always going to be easy but my goal is that everyone that I meet with will at least think it was work their time to come here.
Common Questions About Anxiety & Anxiety Therapy
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Anxiety is excessive worry that is difficult to control . This worry can be just a general worry that you aren’t necessarily sure what you’re worried about - just that you feel worried. Or it can be about as something as specific of a fear of snakes.
Typically anxiety has physical symptoms such as muscle tension, sweating, heart racing, and gastrointestinal issues.
To be a diagnosable disorder the worry/anxiety has had to occur for more than six months.
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While it’s not always known why we develop anxiety we do know that it is your subconscious trying to keep you alive. Your subconscious is that part of your brain that stores memories and keeps your body functioning. Sometimes based on memories if creates what I call a “pin” that says you were in danger in a certain situation. Then your subconscious looks at other “pins” and sees if it can make any connection between the two.
Sometimes these pins can be helpful and appropriate - like learning to run when you hear a rattling while on the trail. Other times it can be counterproductive and unhelpful - such as believing anyone with a buzz cut is going to hurt you so you start becoming anxious when you see someone with this haircut even though they may be the safest person in the world. Your brain doesn’t process rationalization in the moment - it just knows that buzz cuts = danger.
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Anxiety to a degree can be a good thing. For instance if you’re hiking in AZ and you hear a rattle you want that anxiety to warn you and prepare for danger. So yes you will always have some anxiety - everyone does!
With therapy (and occasionally medication) you can live a relatively anxiety free life. I’ve had people tell me that they never thought they could do something and then after really working on themselves in therapy they can’t believe what they accomplished. For instance the person who couldn’t take tests took their test and aced it. The person who couldn’t drive in the passenger side of a car now drives themselves to work and school.
It may take time but you can live a “normally anxious” life where you’re just like everyone else… which can be boring but sometimes it’s nice to be boring.