Anxiety Treatment
Effective therapy for anxiety
Does Anxiety Have A Stronghold On Your Life?
Do you suffer from the consequences of constantly saying “yes” when you really want to say “no”? Is your head steadily spinning as you try to stay focused on your work responsibilities? Has the stress you feel impacted your personal relationships?
The effects of anxiety can take their toll on your life in many ways. Maybe you struggle with being mentally present for your friends or family. Or perhaps you experienced accelerated heart rate, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, or even a panic attack at work because you took on too many projects. You might also be running on empty when it comes to your zest for life, and the fire you once had inside is slowly becoming more and more extinguished.
Of course, anxiety in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it is an ancestral inheritance that for millennia has protected humans from environmental threats. But what happens when you experience symptoms at the wrong time, such as when the stress is low and you shouldn’t have anxiety? Or if you experience them for prolonged periods of time?
Persistent anxiety—be that low-grade anxiety or a clinical disorder—can rob you of your capacity for joy and affect your relationships at home and work. You may become irritable more easily or have unwanted intrusive thoughts. And not only is your quality of life affected by anxiety, but your body also suffers. Your immune system can weaken from being on constant high-alert, and the common cold might not be as easy to fight off.
Regardless of symptoms, anxiety can have a negative impact on your life. Yet there is hope for a freer existence. Anxiety treatment can help you to calm yourself in the midst of stress, build boundaries that allow you to say “NO,” and access your potential to be more present and productive.
Anxiety Is The #1 Mental Health Issue In The U.S.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, nearly one in five people suffers from anxiety in the United States.1 This statistic translates to about 40 million people—anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the country.2
Anxiety might be so common because so many of us struggle with stressful events in our lives and then fail to address them. Nor do we practice the self-care needed to neutralize the effects of stress. In turn, we may develop anxiety because we’ve ignored our own need to feel better, and the stress we feel inside begins to manifest itself externally. Perhaps we can’t sleep. Our muscles may twitch, and we breathe rapidly. Or maybe we develop compulsive behaviors.
And it’s not just one stressful event that may have led us to struggle with anxiety—it can also be the daily onslaught of life. It might be the steady consumption of politics or the news cycle angled to highlight the negative. It could be social media posts that innocently lure us in, and as a result, we can’t help but to compare ourselves to others. Or perhaps it’s the stress that might show its face at a red light in an hours-long commute. And let’s not forget to add to the list our work expectations, parenting duties, and the need to make time for ourselves and our partners.
If it could be as simple as turning off the television or making time on a calendar, why is overcoming anxiety so difficult? Again, perhaps it’s because we don’t hold enough space for ourselves and instead let others inhabit the space that should be ours—at home, at work, in social situations.
While some stressors are out of your control, others can be avoided when you start to honor your experiences. Anxiety treatment can help you find a happy medium between honoring yourself and honoring others, offering you a chance to identify your triggers and build coping skills to manage them.
Anxiety Treatment Is The Key To Accessing A Healthier Self And Your Full Potential
Many might think that anxiety is a short-term issue that improves with time. Yet in reality, anxiety can become a serious medical condition that can persist for years and harm your health if it goes untreated. As a therapist, I’ve seen how treatment can help a person look at their experiences objectively and make changes to lead the life they deserve.
If you’re persistently anxious, therapy offers you a space to breathe deeply, reflect on your life, and gain feedback that can help you to overcome your struggles with anxiety. This is why I offer a warm and empathetic space without judgment—a space where you have the freedom to express your fears and frustrations and explore what may be contributing to your anxiety.
We begin treatment with an intake process, reviewing your paperwork and background information. During this time, we’ll also identify your goals, and then construct a personalized treatment plan to graciously tackle these goals. Your plan will be tailor-made to fit your individual experiences, needs, and challenges.
Ongoing sessions will focus on checking off the different items on your plan, as well as making space for new challenges as they appear. Over the course of treatment, we will also identify your anxiety symptoms and the coping strategies you currently use. And as we proceed, we will replace the strategies that don’t work with ones that give you better results. Your treatment plan is adjustable; we can add or take away goals depending on how you progress and how many issues you can handle at once.
Our approach to anxiety treatment may use modalities that include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical-Behavioral Therapy (DBT), solution-focused therapy, and mindfulness. CBT helps you replace negative thoughts with more positive ones and thus improve how you react to difficult situations. Additionally, research shows that CBT can be used to treat social anxiety and is a more effective treatment than medication.3 Similarly, DBT can help you regulate your emotions through the use of opposing ideas (i.e. acceptance and change). For example, accepting emotions while also working to change them has helped a number of my clients to alleviate some of their anxiety symptoms.
In solution-focused therapy, we look at your problems and develop solutions to manage them—the solutions are the key. Last but not least, mindfulness can cultivate a stronger awareness of yourself and your surroundings so that you’re more in tune with your stressors, how you respond to them, and how to mitigate their effects.
Ultimately, anxiety treatment can help you find a safe space within yourself. With the help of a supportive ear, you can gain awareness of your triggers and find the inner strength to address them.
Maybe you still have questions about anxiety treatment...
I don’t have the time for therapy--nor do I have the money.
Yes, we understand that therapy adds an additional cost to your laundry list of expenses. However, we’d like to encourage you to look at therapy as a good investment because what you invest today can yield an exponential return tomorrow. Consider the ways your life is now impacted by anxiety and what you would be able to do if you were able to alleviate that pain. Then ask yourself, Would treatment be worth it?
I can deal with anxiety on my own.
You can likely deal with a number of anxiety symptoms without professional help, but are your coping strategies constructive or healthy? If you want to be sure to cope in a healthy way, working with a therapist will give you an edge. Therapy can also introduce you to evidence-based tools that you can apply in your day-to-day life beyond sessions. You can certainly address some of your anxiety on your own, but it is a serious medical condition, and an anxiety counselor has the training and scientific expertise to fully support your healing.
I’m not comfortable sharing my personal issues with strangers.
This is a powerful and valid objection. You deserve to feel safe, and therapy is a good place to begin to feel a sense of safety. Our therapists do not pry and only work with what you choose to share. This is your treatment, so you decide the topics we discuss.
One thing to note is that you have a legal right to your privacy. Therefore, our online sessions are HIPAA-compliant, so what you say in sessions stays in the therapeutic space.
Are You Ready To Free Yourself From Anxiety And Take Flight?
Everyone deserves to live a life free from the weight of anxiety. If you’re ready to face your challenges—and overcome them—I invite you to email us at info@enteave.com or contact us via our website at www.enteave.com to schedule an appointment.
NOTE: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Enteave Counseling only offers teletherapy.
1 https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html
2 https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html
3: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925205629.htm
