Is anxiety impacting your relationships, work, or sleep?

Have you noticed increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, racing heart, and/or unexplained nauseousness or sweaty palms? Or maybe you suffer from intense fear of what “may” happen, causing you to have racing thoughts, sensations of panic, and limiting what you allow yourself to do.

Sometimes we don’t realize that we are anxious, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s become quite normalized for us to operate from an anxious, busy state of mind as we try to get things done or figure things out. BUT, we don’t have to constantly be in a state of anxiety that significantly inhibits our ability to relax, feel calm and present, and engage in meaningful moments.

There are numerous negative consequences associated with anxiety, making it important to understand, manage, and decrease as much as possible. A few of them include:

Inability to relax or feel calm, easily overwhelmed, difficulty making decisions, depression, sleep disturbances, isolation/withdrawal, strained relationships, negative self-talk, increased agitation/irritability, high blood pressure, unexplained pain, headaches, reduced support systems, reduced ability to find pleasure, inability to engage in daily activities to your usual capabilities, obsessive thoughts, intense fear… and the list can go on.

Bottom line, anxiety is exhausting and even debilitating.

Can therapy actually help my anxiety? Can’t I fix it myself?

Going to therapy helps us to not normalize these unhealthy thinking patterns and triggers that contribute to anxiety. It’s hard to gain a different perspective and new understanding of these unhealthy thinking patters all by yourself. Through talk therapy we can identify triggers to your anxiety, process the impact of it on your life, identify new healthy thought patterns, and learn new skills to better manage it.

Some things that have been proven to help manage anxiety include:

• CBT/DBT skills that help us to become aware of our thinking patterns and cognitive distortions that feed our anxiety, fear, and overwhelm

• Healthy coping skills to utilize in the moment of anxiety, as well as before/after, to decrease and better manage (mindfulness, breathing exercises, self-care, healthy distractions, distress tolerance)

• Learning about emotion regulation and how much control we DO have with our thoughts and emotions!

• Radical acceptance - learning to let go of what you can’t change

• Challenging perfectionistic tendencies and identifying their root cause

• Identifying your specific triggers to better manage, decrease or eliminate

For a free consultation to discuss how we can help you lessen your anxiety, stress, burnout, and overwhelm, call us at 208.207.4022 or email us at therapy@wholehealthcounseling.live