a common mental health concern, impacts countless people worldwide. Why I Saw A Therapist For My Debilitating Anxiety … As a Licensed Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have actually seen the impact of anxiety on countless lives. In this post, I will share a thorough exploration of anxiety through the lens of a current treatment session with a patient, highlighting symptoms, treatment strategies, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of stress and anxiety Additionally, we will go over a research paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the diverse nature of anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a prevalent mental health issue, affects millions of people worldwide. As a Certified Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have experienced the impact of anxiety on countless lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial techniques to resolving anxiety and while those are terrific you understand I thought perhaps we should look at you know what’s some of the current research so I entered into PubMed which is I do not understand it’s playground for me it’s where you find a great deal of the journal articles and you can arrange and I sorted by short articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past five years so that provides us an idea about present research I indicate there’s a great deal of stuff that is still the very same like some of the medications that were understood to work 10 years ago are still understood to be you understand great first-line treatments however there are also some newbies that we’ll talk about and there are likewise some modifications that we’re going to discuss so we’re going to explore some common causes for anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we really require to and obviously this does play into the biopsychosocial element we really need to comprehend type of what causes it because stress and anxiety that’s triggered by for example somebody having a racing heart might be various than stress and anxiety that’s caused for somebody who has desertion concerns so we’re gon na treat the two things in a different way so we wish to take a look at some of the common causes we’re gon na take a look at some common triggers for stress and anxiety you understand what are a few of these common themes that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the themes that you see that underline or underlie a lot of your clients stress and anxiety and identify present finest practices for anxiety management including counseling interventions medications physical interventions and helpful treatments so we care because anxiety.
can be disabling and a lot of our customers have stress and anxiety a lot of our clients have stress and anxiety comorbid with anxiety and they’re taking a look at us going how can I feel nervous and stressed and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you understand when you’re depressed you’re expected to wish to sleep well a lot of times people who are have both issues truly want to sleep but they can’t so I want to help clients understand that likewise often anxiety when people are anxious for long enough the body starts type of hanging on to the cortisol the body in fact acknowledges at a specific point this is a losing fight I’m not going to put energy into this anymore so it begins with drawing a few of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and people will start to feel depressed basically the brain has currently stated this is hopeless this is you’re you’re defenseless to alter the scenario so then people start feeling helpless and defenseless which is sort of the definition if you will of depression low-grade chronic stress and stress and anxiety emerged energy and people’s ability to concentrate so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we need to help them determine how to address anxiety not simply generalized overwhelming devastating stress and anxiety however also panic social stress and anxiety and those minor stress and anxiety activates that occurred that might not meet the limit for a diagnosis anxiety is a major trigger for addiction relapse if you have a customer who is self
medicated before or had a dependency for some reason stress and anxiety is a major trigger increased physical pain when stress and anxiety increases people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more pain I suggest think about when you’re stressed you tend to have more pain like in your neck in your back and things that already injured may injure more why because serotonin which is one of our major anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is also one of our major discomfort modulators so when serotonin levels are too low because anxiety is high then our pain perception is going to be more intense and people can have sleep problems if you’re stressed out your body believes there’s a hazard you’re not going to have the ability to enter into that deep peaceful sleep you might have you may sleep you might sleep a lot but it’s most likely not quality sleep which implies your neurotransmitters might get out of whack your hormones make it out of whack and your body is going to begin perceiving your itself in a consistent state of stress when we’re exhausted the body knows that we may be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to produce cortisol to keep keep you on alert a bit so you might again you may be resting sort of like when you have a new baby in your home those very first couple of months that my kids were house from the medical facility I slept but I didn’t sleep well I suggest the smallest little noise and I was awake and I was browsing and you understand I felt it I felt tired and a great deal of brand-new parents do so sets off for anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to discuss methods we might wish to handle these things however a few of the underlying styles that I have actually seen in a great deal of clients and when I do the research study what a great deal of what themes that come out include low self-esteem
if somebody has low self-esteem they’re looking to be externally verified usually they’re trying to find somebody else to tell them you’re adorable you’re all right so that can cause stress and anxiety about not having individuals to tell them you’re fine which makes their relationships tenuous and can make them inefficient unreasonable thoughts and cognitive distortions may lead individuals to believe that if I’m not best for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to take a look at some irrational thoughts and cognitive distortions unhealthy social assistances and relationships when you remain in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your customer is relatively psychologically and physically healthy if they remain in a dysfunctional relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other person is always saying if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other individual is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can activate desertion anxiety and inefficient interpersonal skills can result in relationship turmoil and social exile if our clients remain in relationships even if they’re not totally inefficient if our customers are unable to request what they require and set appropriate limits and manage conflict efficiently due to the fact that conflict takes place in every relationship then they may begin to argue more which may cause fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I get into ends which indicates I need to not be lovable so they start fearing desertion and rejection so these are four locations that we can take a look at another evaluating customers another problem is the unknown and loss of control a lot of times negative self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I don’t have control of everything then it’s all going to be a disaster negative others when clients hang out or when individuals socialize with unfavorable people it kind of endures you after a while you observe that people who are tend to be more unfavorable downhearted conspiracy minded tend to socialize with individuals who are likewise negative downhearted and conspiracy minded so if you’re socializing with somebody who tends to be nervous then the stress and anxiety can be palpable and it can kind of penetrate physical grievances can lead individuals to be nervous due to the fact that they don’t understand what’s triggering it like I said earlier often if your heart begins to race if you don’t understand what’s causing it you can start thinking I’m having a cardiac arrest or I’m gon na die when people have panic attacks for instance they really believe they’re having a heart attack and
it’s I have actually had them they are really extremely unpleasant experiences but when individuals start having physical grievances and it can be you know they have an unusual rash that they can’t get to disappear or it whatever but when they do not know what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it disappear they start considering all the worst-case scenarios and going online and getting on WebMD which generally provides you all the worst-case scenarios um so physical grievances are important we require to normalize the fact that no one’s pain-free all the time and you understand the reality that you may have a discomfort or an ache or a swelling or a bump or you know a cough more than likely you understand when we look at possibility the likelihood of it being something substantial is pretty little now do you wish to get it checked out probably but you know the likelihood that is anything to be worried about is is relatively little and a sense of powerlessness can set off fear of the unknown and loss of control for somebody who does not seem like they have any agency in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt taken advantage of all of their life then they might fear not being in control they might be hanging on and stating okay this is the one area of my life I can manage when I matured you understand I matured in an extremely chaotic environment I had no control I was bounced around in the foster system yadda yadda yadda now that I’m an adult you understand I can manage these things and I am going to hang on with white knuckles and if I can’t control everything then that frightens me death and loss are other triggers for anxiety and it can be pets or individuals and animals are important I do not want to minimize pets since you know they are little parts of a lot of our families so making certain we check that my daughter’s dog for instance is it’s getting old she’s getting older she’s 14 now I believe and you know she remains in decent health we took her to the veterinarian and the veterinarian stated yeah she’s got a little heart murmur but that’s anticipated for a 14 year old canine and however when she heads out if she doesn’t come back when I call her I have this rush of stress and anxiety for a second oh my gosh I hope this wasn’t the day so stress and anxiety around losing people and you understand if she when she crosses the bridge she will and and you understand
I’m okay with that I’m I have a harder time dealing with my child’s psychological turmoil when that occurs and due to the fact that she’s grown up with this dog so you know those are the kinds of things that we want to talk about with our clients what things are weighing on you that you may not even be thinking of due to the fact that I understand in the back of my mind there’s always that stress over among our donkeys and her pet dog tasks and promotions can trigger stress and anxiety if people are afraid they’re gon na lose their task if they’re constantly scared that you understand they’re gon na walk in and get a pink slip or get fired you understand we wish to help them look at how sensible is that are you doing what you require to do in order to accomplish and keep your task and sometimes it’s difficult to answer I imply the very first idea that a great deal of us have is well you know if you’re doing the right thing so simply do it however there are those bosses out there and I have actually had some actually fantastic employers a great deal of them and I have actually had 2 actually horrendous bosses and those 2 managers I might never ever I never seemed like I was able to do anything ideal therefore going to those jobs there was always this anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you want to talk with individuals about does your task cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the very same thing with promos people might get distressed about whether they’re going to get promoted security and security you know when you lose security and security you can feel actually nervous so if there’s a burglary at your home next door or a shooting down the road or you start viewing the news you can feel unsecure and very risky truly rapidly so we wish to help individuals figure out how safe and secure are you really and a great deal of it returns to truly taking a look at realities when individuals lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can start to get anxious you understand they have this dream that they’re going to be a doctor or I just finished the discussion on assisting high school trainees transition to college and a great deal of high school trainees for example start college with these broad eyes and hopes to conserve the world and they want to be doctors and engineers and this and that and they enter it and they understand that it’s a lot more difficult than they believed or they recognize that you know what I actually do not like this but I have actually already committed to it so what do I do or I want to assist individuals but I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you understand for me I figured out in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school because I wasn’t going to pass calculus which triggered a lot of anxiety it was like all right what am I gon na do now you understand what profession must I pick so assisting people determine do you have dreams that have perhaps type of crashed and burned and you need to find new ones you know okay that a person we have actually got to accept it determine that it’s not going to be and what can you do now individuals
might likewise have dreams about relationships they enter into relationships and they see themselves with this individual forever and then this relationship ends and or begins to get rocky and they’re like however that’s my dream what takes place if my that’s got to occur since it’s my dream I do not understand how to function if that disappears we wish to assist people have the ability to rewrite their narrative and after that sickness spiders and other fears sort of shares death a great deal of times when people get sick they begin getting anxious that oh my gosh what if this is terminal oh my gosh what if this is you know incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na kill me and which is rare you know there are very few spiders that are really that poisonous exact same thing with snakes discussing bridges I have actually shown you all that is not one of my irrational fears you understand I am simply horrified that you understand something’s going to take place and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is entirely unreasonable however we require to assist individuals look at those and identify the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those fears and handle that stress and anxiety failure is another trigger for stress and anxiety particularly in this culture our culture American culture in in big part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when individuals recognize that they’re not ideal they may start to get anxious due to the fact that they seem like if I’m not best then I’m a failure you know those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they start with that negative self-talk you know you can’t do anything right so those are some of the concerns that you understand we frequently see in therapy sessions so what do we do you understand somebody comes in and it like I can’t live this way doc anxiety depression and compound disorders in addition to a series of physical disorders are often comorbid so this is the first thing we need to understand we require to understand that we’re really rarely handling an extremely basic diagnosis you know when someone comes in we require to figure out you understand if they come in and they’re presenting with anxiety all right let’s discuss that and
Comprehending Stress And Anxiety: A Patient’s Experience:
In my recent session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old lady, I had the opportunity to delve into the elaborate layers of anxiety. These signs were interfering with her everyday life, relationships, and total well-being.
Emma’s Treatment Plan:
To address Emma’s anxiety, we established a comprehensive treatment plan tailored to her special requirements. Here are some key elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about anxiety and its psychological and physiological manifestations assisted her gain a deeper understanding of her symptoms. This understanding empowered her to acknowledge and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based method that focuses on determining and challenging illogical thoughts and beliefs. Emma discovered to reframe negative ideas and develop a more balanced viewpoint, gradually reducing anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Strategies: Incorporating relaxation methods such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma control her stress response and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Therapy: As Emma revealed avoidance habits associated with certain triggers, we slowly exposed her to those circumstances in a regulated way. This exposure enabled her to confront her fears and establish strength versus anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Lifestyle Adjustments: Emma recognized the significance of self-care practices in managing her anxiety. She prioritized regular workout, healthy consuming, quality sleep, and taking part in activities she enjoyed to promote total wellness.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My decision to end up being a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with anxiety. When working with customers facing comparable obstacles, my personal journey has provided me with distinct insights and compassion. Having actually experienced stress and anxiety firsthand, I am able to connect to my clients’ fears, concerns, and the effect anxiety can have on numerous elements of life.
Harvard’s Research study on Anxiety:
An influential term paper titled “Comprehending the Intricacy of Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University supplies important insights into the intricacy of anxiety disorders. The study followed a mate of individuals over a span of ten years and examined different factors adding to the advancement, maintenance, and treatment of stress and anxiety.
The paper emphasized that anxiety disorders arise from a mix of hereditary, environmental, and mental elements. It highlighted the significance of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic methods in managing stress and anxiety effectively. The findings further highlighted the significance of a restorative alliance and individualized treatment plans in addressing stress and anxiety. Why I Saw A Therapist For My Debilitating Anxiety
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a deeply personal and complex experience that affects individuals in extensive methods. Through healing interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation methods, exposure treatment, and self-care practices, people like Emma can acquire control over their stress and anxiety and lead fulfilling lives.