“Do I have anxiety?”
The answer is – “probably.” Most people experience a degree of anxiety during their lives. If your bodily reactions and thought patterns cause difficulty in daily living, online therapy for anxiety can help.
If you’re feeling restless, on-edge, increasingly irritable,
struggling to control your worries, and losing sleep -
you are not alone.
By Ellie Herman LCSW
Anxiety disorders are super common in the US. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH » Any Anxiety Disorder (nih.gov)) estimates that 31.1% of adults in the US will experience an anxiety disorder.
You might meet criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). GAD is one of the most common anxiety disorders; its symptoms must last at least 6 months. It can cause difficulty in daily living, especially in terms of achieving goals and maintaining certain relationships.
Other anxiety disorders include panic disorder and phobias, and certain adjustment disorders. Some people experience moments of anxiety so intense that they struggle to breathe, sweat excessively, and have an acute sense of fear. If experiencing a phobia, you have an intense fear of something that poses little threat. Some others may experience anxiety with an identifiable trigger, such as a life transition, which can last several months.
Living in a state of anxiety is challenging. Your bodily reactions may be making it difficult to go about your day. And your thoughts might make it difficult to make decisions or know what direction to take. Anxiety can feel lonely, frightening, and confusing.
No anxiety is too big or too small to deserve help. Online therapy for anxiety is a valuable tool. You can “meet” an online therapist like me in the comfort of your own home. This allows you to feel more at ease. Therapy is a nonjudgmental space for you to be openly you – whatever that looks like.
I often use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to address your anxious thoughts, strengths-based focus, and mindfulness practice to address your anxious physical symptoms.
CBT focuses on identifying your thoughts about a situation (or, as I like to say, the story you’re telling yourself about the situation). We will then learn to see situations with new perspectives. I will teach you to challenge the thoughts that race in your head, thereby meeting them with more rational replacements.
Mindfulness techniques are used to ground us in the present moment. They are especially useful when our body is reacting to anxiety and we need to calm it. By focusing on the here-and-now, we can eliminate some of the chatter in our headspace. When your body is soothed, our thoughts can be soothed too.