Help for Anxiety and Panic

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is the physical symptoms we experience when we are fearful.  These physical symptoms can include some combination of the following:

            1. Accelerated heart rate                                 6. Worry

            2. Sweating                                                     7. Fear of losing control

            3. Shortness of breath                                     8. Numbness or tingling

            4. Nausea                                                        9. Chills or hot flushes

            5. Dizziness or light-headedness                     10. Restlessness

Anxiety can be experienced as mild (periodic worry and concern), more serious (generalized anxiety), or severe (panic attacks, phobias, and withdrawal from normal activities). 

What Causes Anxiety?

While anxiety can be a distressing experience, it's actually an important and needed physical reaction.  It alerts us to the fact that something is wrong or dangerous.  Sometimes anxiety is a reasonable response, as in the case of being in the presence of real danger.  In these situations the anxiety leads us to protect ourselves. 

Sometimes anxiety occurs as a result of physical problems (hormonal imbalances, alcohol or substance use, or other chemical imbalances).  Here anxiety serves as a signal that we need to address the physical concerns.  People, who experience anxiety as a result of physical problems, benefit from an evaluation by their physicians.  Physicians can address the core problems and the physical symptoms (anti-anxiety medication).

Sometimes, anxiety occurs as a result of problematic ways of thinking.  .  Sometimes our standards are unrealistically high.  We may have too many "have-to's and "musts" in our way of thinking.  Too often we think only of the worst-case scenarios (catastrophizing).  Sometimes we fear our own emotions (anger) or fear losing control (which we almost never do).  Often we irrationally dread letting others down or not living up to their expectations.  Overestimating danger, i.e., thinking that situations will be intolerable when they are merely uncomfortable increases stress.   When we think in these ways, we experience anxiety. 

Counseling Can Help You Feel Better

Cognitive-behavioral counseling helps people identify those ways in which our own thinking creates anxiety.  It can provide the necessary skills to correct the core thought patterns as well as their symptoms.  You can learn such tools as becoming aware of negative automatic thoughts, distraction techniques, decatastrophizing, visual imagery, systematic desensitization, substituting positive imagery, relaxation methods, accepting feelings, and more.  You don't have to feel anxious!   You can feel better.