Anxiety

As a general matter, anxiety is normal – protective, even. It’s often compared to an alarm system, activating when there’s a threat in the environment, letting you know it’s time to be aware, to get ready to act. But when our body’s alarm system goes off too often – or when the sirens blare for a really long time, even after any sign of threat has passed – that’s when we want to think about getting some help.

It’s really hard to think straight when the alarm system in your mind is blaring. It’s hard to hear what anyone else is saying – even those loving, reassuring words that are coming from people we love and trust and whose job it is to care for us. It’s hard to make reasoned decisions. All you want to do when the alarm system in your mind is blaring is make it stop, to get to safety – whatever that means. And in the effort to get yourself to a quieter, safer place as fast as possible you might not always make the best choices.

Just to be clear, anxiety is not the same as just being “really stressed.” Anxiety is persistent. It interferes. It’s dangerously convincing: if you think a thought THAT many times, it must have at least a kernel of truth to it, right? (Wrong!) Anxiety saps you of the mental and emotional bandwidth you need to be present in school, or in your job, with friends, with family members, or with your romantic partner. Anxiety. Is. Exhausting.

Anxiety is also treatable.

Therapy can help you learn how to recognize when your personal “alarm system” is going off unnecessarily. It can help you identify your triggers – what sets your alarm system off. Therapy can help you learn more about the thoughts that race through your head when you’re feeling threatened or unsafe in a particular situation. It can help you see clearly the connection between those racing, sometimes intrusive thoughts, the feelings that come up for you, and the actions you take to make those uncomfortable feelings go away.

If you or your child is suffering from anxiety, make the choice to stop suffering. There are treatments that have shown to be effective in significantly reducing anxiety and setting you or your child up with the skills to avoid going down that rabbit hole in the future. Treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy, one of the gold-standards in the treatment of anxiety, not only have a lot of evidence to back them up, but they’re short-term, too. Many people who enter treatment for anxiety start to wind down therapy within 4 to 6 months.

Reach out to schedule a free initial consultation call. We’ll see if we’re a good match for each other, and if the treatment I provide is something you think could help your child – or you.