Everyone has anxiety and there are many every day circumstances where it
is a perfectly normal response. Anxiety disorders involve anxiety that is more intense (panic attacks),
longer lasting, and
often leads to phobias
that interfere with your life.
How Much is Too Much Anxiety?
If your anxiety and worry seems to others, and yourself, to be out of proportion
to the reality of the situation, then it probably is excessive. Do you have any of the following symptoms?
- Restlessness-feeling keyed up
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty sleeping
- Irritability and outbursts
- Fear of losing control
If you are unable to exercise much control over your symptoms, and find it
hard to "switch gears" after an anxious event, then counseling can help.
What is a Panic Attack?
A panic attack is usually characterized by intense feelings of fear that
seemingly comes on "out of the blue". This usually last for just a few minutes or in "waves" lasting several hours.
Usually several of these symptoms will be experienced during an attack:
- Shortness of breath
- Heart palpitations and chest pain
- Dizziness, trembling, shaking
- Nausea
- Sweating, hot or cold flashes
- Numbness or tingling in extremeties
- Feeling of unreality, losing control, or going crazy
- Fear of dying
Medication can be very helpful for people experiencing panic attacks frequently.
Although they often return after medication is stopped unless coping skills are aquired in counseling.
What is a Phobia?
A phobia is a strong fear or avoidance of one particular situation or object.
This can be animals, or events, like flying where the fear is strong enough to interfere with normal routines and behavior.
There is also Social Phobia where the fear of embarrassment prevents you from meeting or speaking to others
and developing relationships. Agoraphobia is the most common phobia. Agorophobic individuals are so
fearful they will have a panic attack in public, they avoid leaving the house at all.
How Counseling Can Help
Talking with a non-judgmental counselor in a confidential setting can be a
relief in itself. However working with me, we can try and determine the causes of your anxiety and develop coping strategies
that will help reduce the over-reacting and excessive worry that causes distress in yourself and the ones around you. Tools
and insight into your anxiety will help you reduce your symptoms and be able to live the life you want to.
