Anxiety Treatment
Are You Afraid You Will Never Be Free Of Anxiety?
Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time? Is your anxious mood putting a strain on your primary relationship and you worry no one really understands you? Do you vacillate and second guess yourself when making important decisions?
Anxiety makes you feel like you can barely keep your head above water. Perhaps the demands of life—work, school, kids, social life—feel like too much to bear. Your racing thoughts and constant worry often lead to panic.
You wish you knew how to relax, but when your mind won’t turn off, it keeps you up at night. And even though your brain never stops, when you try to express yourself, it may seem like you’re empty and have nothing to say.
Physically, you may experience rapid breathing, a racing heart, cold sweats, and difficulty thinking. When your symptoms get to be too much, you might turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substances, for relief.
You May Have Lost Confidence That There Is Help For Your Anxiety Symptoms
If you struggle to communicate your needs and desires to your partner, you might be afraid they misunderstand you. Maybe you don’t feel taken care of in the relationship which, in turn, leads you to keep checking in with them to make sure things are okay. However, when you do this, you can sense your partner pulling away, which only serves to heighten your anxious thoughts.
It might be hard for you to believe that anyone can help you with your anxiety. Because you’re independent, relying on other people may feel risky because of the disappointment you’ll face if they reject you. You might worry that change is impossible and you will be stuck with this pain forever.
Fortunately, treatment for anxiety can help you examine the longstanding thoughts and feelings you’ve been struggling with so you can better learn how to understand yourself.
Anxiety Is On The Rise In The Hectic World We Live In
Anxiety is a normal part of life that we all experience, but when it becomes more intense and disruptive, it can make coping with it particularly challenging. Although anxiety has been a longstanding problem in America, recent studies indicate an increase in the percentage of adults who reported symptoms of an anxiety disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those of us who live in the Bay Area and suffer from anxiety, our distress is often fueled by the highly competitive fields in which we work. We may feel like we’re responsible for everything and everyone. Anything short of excellence feels like failure to us. Our anxiety is exacerbated by the high cost of living, relationship struggles, and feeling lost trying to figure out who we are amid daily demands.
Dealing with the pandemic in addition to our normal concerns has pushed many of us to our tipping point. The ongoing uncertainty about basic safety and security is relentless, leaving us exhausted. Perhaps we take solace in the knowledge that everyone is experiencing the pandemic together, but that is cold comfort.
We May Think Overcoming Anxiety Can Be Done Alone
Many of us feel more comfortable going it alone rather than confiding in others about our struggles. Or maybe we feel too frightened to admit that what appears to be a successful life from the outside doesn’t feel that way to us. Hoping that anxiety will go away on its own or that with enough research and commitment to change, we convince ourselves that we alone can single-handedly transform how we feel and experience life. But this seldom works.
The good news is anxiety treatment with a trained professional helps guide you through a process of self-discovery and healing. Whether you seek treatment for panic attacks, social anxiety, or addressing relationship challenges, therapy can provide you with the answers you’ve been looking for.
Treatment Can Address The Root Causes Of Anxiety
The discomfort of anxiety can make you question every aspect of your life. Therapy gives you a safe place to explore what is going on inside of yourself and develop a greater curiosity about what has led you to where you are presently.
As a therapist who specializes in treating anxiety, I aim to help you better understand what contributes to both your distress as well as your enjoyment in life. By acknowledging the longstanding troubling thoughts, feelings, and behaviors you’ve experienced, you will gain clarity about what living a more satisfying life could look like.
What To Expect In Sessions
After our initial phone call, we will schedule a consultation to give us a chance to get to know each other, describe what you’re looking for, and determine the next steps together. I will address any fears about therapy you may have and check in with you throughout sessions to make sure we’re making the progress you were expecting.
If your anxiety symptoms are severe or causing panic attacks, initial treatment will focus on breathing to ensure that a lack of oxygen is not further compounding your physiological distress. Intentional breathing will not only help with hyperventilation but will also remind you that everything you’re experiencing is interconnected. As we work together, we will continue to address your anxiety holistically.
It’s normal to want to run away from distressful thoughts rather than confront them. In ongoing sessions, we will expand your capacity to sit with uncomfortable feelings rather than look for ways to escape from them. By naming what you are feeling, you will learn to determine if it aligns with what's actually happening in the moment or if past experiences are influencing the current situation.
Exploring Past Relationships Will Help You Find Clarity
As a psychoanalyst, I aim to cultivate lifelong development and growth for my clients. The therapy I practice is primarily exploratory, allowing for your previously hidden thoughts, feelings, and experiences to emerge. With curiosity and gentle guidance, our therapeutic conversations will help promote spontaneous self-understanding as well as the ability to integrate these insights into your sense of self and your life.
By learning more about your relationships, both past, and present, you will gain an awareness of how they impact you in ways that may not be clear at first glance. For example, the relationships you formed within your family growing up may still be impacting your capacity to trust others or feel confident in yourself. As these themes and patterns appear and we acknowledge how they have affected your experience of intimacy, we can then address solutions and strategies for change within our therapeutic relationship.
Through self-discovery, you can find ways to develop greater ease in coping with anxiety so that it becomes a part of life rather than the focus of it. All it takes is making the first step—acknowledging that professional help could be beneficial to you.
But You May Wonder Whether Anxiety Treatment Is Right For You…
Why do we have to meet weekly for anxiety therapy?
Considering the benefit anxiety counseling provides, a weekly 50-minute session isn’t a lot of time to invest to address the issues holding you back from a more calm and enjoyable life experience. Regularly scheduled appointments will not only add a supportive structure to therapy conducive to overcoming anxiety, but will also reflect your commitment to making positive change.
Am I crazy?
Anxiety can sometimes make you feel like you’re coming unglued, but you’re not crazy. “Crazy” is a pejorative term that reflects intensely negative feelings—like shame— that may hinder you from seeking help. I understand that the idea of coming to therapy can be scary. But I also think your fear about it is an indicator that you want and need to feel better. It’s what brought you here so that we can work together to help you feel less distressed.
Why does anxiety treatment cost so much?
Anxiety therapy is an investment in yourself worth making. If you are having trouble with your feelings—especially when it comes to feeling safe—therapy is a place to help you sort out complicated and mixed emotions. I have spent over 25 years practicing as a trained psychotherapist and feel confident that if we’re the right fit, I can help you. The cost may seem high, but it’s hard to put a price on the lifelong benefits that come from therapy.
You Don’t Have To Live With The Discomfort Of Anxiety
With a commitment to self-exploration, the solutions you are looking for are within reach. For a free, 15-minute consultation, please call me at 415-522-7393 or click here to contact me.
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