Anxiety and Mental Health

Anxiety is the feeling of excessive worry or dread. It’s normal to feel some anxiety when experiencing a stressful situation, however, anxiety becomes a disorder when it causes impairment in your daily functioning. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety, phobias, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. PTSD is another diagnosis that includes symptoms of anxiety, but it is categorized in the DSM-5 under Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders. 

Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety presents in various ways. Below are some of the more common symptoms of anxiety that people report experiencing:

• Constant worry or fear 
• Ruminating or obsessive thoughts 
• Difficulty sleeping 
• Nervousness in social situations/fear of being judged 
• Intense dread or feelings of impending doom 
• Difficulty breathing, accelerated heart rate, sweating, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, numbness, tingling 
• Feelings of panic or panic attacks 
• Expecting and fearing the worst-case scenario in most situations 
• Tics and/or repetitive behaviors/compulsions 
• Feeling a need to control situations/struggling when routine is interrupted

How Therapy Can Help with Anxiety

Anxiety is exhausting and can prevent a person from enjoying daily life. Many people aren’t aware they have anxiety, and even more people feel it’s their responsible to manage anxiety on their own. Therapy can help you find relief from symptoms and give you hope for the future.

Through Therapy You Can:

• Recognize what anxiety is: A therapist may administer assessments to determine if you are struggling with anxiety. They will then offer psycho-education to teach you how to recognize triggers and symptoms.
• Learn how to calm your nervous system: Through therapy you will learn coping skills, relaxation techniques, and other research-based exercises to help you decrease the physical symptoms of anxiety.
• Reframe the way you think and view the world: Through therapy you can learn to recognize unhelpful thought patterns that trigger anxiety and find ways to challenge and reframe unhelpful thoughts. 
• Learn how to defuse intrusive thoughts: Your therapist can teach and guide you through exercises to help you accept troubling thoughts while limiting the judgment and meaning you assign to those thoughts. 

Getting Started with Therapy

I use an integrative approach to treat individuals struggling with anxiety, which includes techniques from CBT, ACT, and EMDR therapy. These modalities focus on increasing your understanding of anxiety and teaching you how to manage it.

Please contact me today to schedule an appointment. 

Online Locations: Nashville, Tennessee – Brentwood, Tennessee – Atlanta, Georgia – Sandy Springs, Georgia – Greater Tennessee and Georgia Area