a common mental health concern, impacts millions of individuals worldwide. Anxiety Therapist Questions … As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I have experienced the effect of anxiety on numerous lives. In this post, I will share an in-depth exploration of anxiety through the lens of a recent therapy session with a patient, highlighting signs, treatment strategies, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of stress and anxiety In addition, we will discuss a term paper by Harvard University that clarifies the multifaceted nature of stress and anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a common mental health issue, affects millions of individuals worldwide. As a Licensed Medical Social Employee (LCSW), I have witnessed the effect of anxiety on countless lives.}
discussion on strengths-based biopsychosocial approaches to addressing stress and anxiety and while those are terrific you understand I believed maybe we should look at you know what’s some of the current research so I entered into PubMed which is I do not know it’s play ground for me it’s where you discover a great deal of the journal posts and you can arrange and I sorted by posts that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that offers us an idea about current research I imply there’s a great deal of things that is still the exact same like a few of the medications that were known to work ten years back are still known to be you understand great first-line treatments but there are likewise some newbies that we’ll discuss and there are likewise some modifications that we’re going to talk about so we’re going to explore some typical causes for stress and anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we truly need to and naturally this does play into the biopsychosocial element we truly need to understand type of what triggers it since stress and anxiety that’s triggered by for instance somebody having a racing heart might be different than anxiety that’s triggered for someone who has abandonment concerns so we’re gon na treat the two things in a different way so we wish to look at a few of the common causes we’re gon na take a look at some typical triggers for anxiety you understand what are some of these typical styles that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the styles that you see that underlie a lot or highlight of your clients anxiety and determine present best practices for anxiety management consisting of therapy interventions medications physical interventions and supportive treatments so we care since stress and anxiety.
can be disabling and a lot of our customers have stress and anxiety a great deal of our customers have anxiety comorbid with depression and they’re looking at us going how can I feel nervous and stressed and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you know when you’re depressed you’re expected to want to sleep well a lot of times individuals who are have both problems really wish to sleep but they can’t so I want to help clients understand that likewise sometimes anxiety when individuals are anxious for long enough the body starts type of holding on to the cortisol the body in fact recognizes at a particular point this is a losing battle I’m not going to put energy into this any longer so it starts with drawing some of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and people will begin to feel depressed essentially the brain has actually currently said this is hopeless this is you’re you’re powerless to change the circumstance so then people start feeling helpless and defenseless which is sort of the meaning if you will of depression low-grade persistent tension and stress and anxiety arose energy and individuals’s ability to focus so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we need to help them figure out how to attend to anxiety not simply generalized overwhelming incapacitating stress and anxiety however likewise panic social anxiety and those small stress and anxiety sets off that come along that might not meet the limit for a medical diagnosis anxiety is a major trigger for addiction relapse if you have a client who is self
medicated before or had a dependency for some reason stress and anxiety is a significant trigger increased physical pain when anxiety goes up people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more discomfort I indicate think of when you’re stressed you tend to have more discomfort like in your neck in your back and things that already hurt may harm more why due to the fact that serotonin which is one of our significant anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise among our significant discomfort modulators so when serotonin levels are too low due to the fact that stress and anxiety is high then our pain understanding is going to be more acute and people can have sleep issues if you’re stressed out your body thinks there’s a hazard you’re not going to be able to enter into that deep peaceful sleep you might have you might sleep you might sleep a lot however it’s probably not quality sleep which indicates your neurotransmitters may leave whack your hormones make it out of whack and your body is going to start viewing 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 little bit so you might once again you might be resting type of like when you have a new infant in your home those very first number of months that my children were home from the health center I slept but I didn’t sleep well I imply the tiniest little sound and I was awake and I was looking around and you understand I felt it I felt exhausted and a great deal of new moms and dads do so activates for stress and anxiety abandonment and rejection and we’re going to speak about ways we might want to deal with these things but a few of the underlying themes that I’ve seen in a great deal of clients and when I do the research study what a lot of what themes that come out include low self-esteem
if someone has low self-esteem they’re looking to be externally confirmed frequently they’re trying to find somebody else to tell them you’re adorable you’re fine so that can cause anxiety about not having people to tell them you’re fine that makes their relationships rare and can make them inefficient irrational ideas and cognitive distortions might lead people to believe that if I’m not best for example I am not lovable so we’re going to look at some illogical ideas and cognitive distortions unhealthy social supports and relationships when you’re in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your customer is reasonably psychologically and physically healthy if they are in an inefficient relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other person is constantly stating if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other individual is always cheating on them or whatever so relationships can trigger abandonment anxiety and inefficient interpersonal abilities can result in relationship turmoil and social exile if our customers are in relationships even if they’re not completely dysfunctional if our clients are not able to ask for what they need and set proper borders and handle conflict successfully due to the fact that dispute takes place in every relationship then they might start to argue more which might cause fearing may cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I get into ends which suggests I should not be adorable so they begin fearing abandonment and rejection so these are four areas that we can look at another evaluating clients another issue is the unknown and loss of control a lot of times unfavorable self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I do not have control of everything then it’s all going to be a catastrophe negative others when customers hang out or when people socialize with negative individuals it type of wears on you after a while you see that individuals who are tend to be more negative downhearted conspiracy minded tend to hang out with individuals who are likewise negative downhearted and conspiracy minded so if you’re hanging out with someone who tends to be anxious then the anxiety can be palpable and it can type of permeate physical complaints can lead individuals to be nervous since they don’t understand what’s causing it like I stated earlier sometimes if your heart begins to race if you don’t know what’s causing it you can start believing I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na pass away when people have anxiety attack for instance they truly think they’re having a cardiac arrest and
it’s I have actually had them they are very extremely unpleasant experiences but when people start having physical problems and it can be you understand they have an unusual rash that they can’t get to go away or it whatever but when they do not understand what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it disappear they start thinking of all the worst-case circumstances and going online and getting on WebMD which usually gives you all the worst-case scenarios um so physical complaints are important we require to normalize the fact that no one’s pain-free all the time and you understand the fact that you might have an ache or a pain or a lump or a bump or you understand a cough most likely you understand when we look at probability the probability of it being something significant is pretty small now do you wish to get it had a look at most likely however you understand the probability that is anything to be stressed over is is reasonably small and a sense of powerlessness can activate worry of the unknown and loss of control for someone who doesn’t seem like they have any company in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt taken advantage of all of their life then they may fear not remaining in control they might be hanging on and saying okay this is the one area of my life I can manage when I matured you know I grew up 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 know I can manage these things and I am going to hang on with white knuckles and if I can’t manage whatever then that frightens me death and loss are other triggers for anxiety and it can be animals or people and pets are necessary I don’t wish to lessen family pets since you understand they are little parts of a lot of our families so making certain we check that my daughter’s canine 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 vet stated yeah she’s got a little heart murmur however that’s anticipated for a 14 year old pet and but when she heads out if she doesn’t return when I call her I have this rush of anxiety for a second oh my gosh I hope this wasn’t the day so anxiety around losing people and you know 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 handling my daughter’s psychological turmoil when that takes place and since she’s matured with this dog so you know those are the kinds of things that we wish to talk about with our customers what things are weighing on you that you may not even be thinking of since I understand in the back of my mind there’s constantly that fret about one of our donkeys and her pet jobs 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 know they’re gon na stroll in and get or get a pink slip fired you know we wish to help them take a look at how realistic is that are you doing what you need to do in order to achieve and keep your job and in some cases it’s difficult to address I imply the very first thought that a great deal of us have is well you know if you’re doing the right thing so just do it but there are those managers out there and I have actually had some really fantastic employers a lot of them and I have actually had two truly horrendous employers and those 2 employers I might never I never ever felt like I had the ability to do anything best therefore going to those jobs there was always this stress and anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you wish to talk with individuals about does your task cause stress and anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the same thing with promos individuals might get distressed about whether they’re going to get promoted safety and security you know when you lose security and security you can feel actually nervous so if there’s a burglary at the house next door or a shooting down the road or you start watching the news you can feel unsecure and very risky actually quickly so we wish to help people figure out how safe and safe are you truly and a lot of it returns to actually 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 distressed you know they have this dream that they’re going to be a physician or I just finished the discussion on helping high school students transition to college and a great deal of high school trainees for instance start college with these wide eyes and wants to save the world and they wish to be physicians and engineers and this and that and they get into it and they understand that it’s a lot more difficult than they thought or they understand that you understand what I really don’t like this but I have actually already dedicated to it so what do I do or I want to help people however I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I figured out in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school since I wasn’t going to pass calculus and that caused a lot of stress and anxiety it resembled all right what am I gon na do now you understand what career ought to I pick so helping individuals find out do you have dreams that have perhaps kind of crashed and burned and you have to find new ones you know all right that a person we’ve got to accept it figure out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now people
might likewise have dreams about relationships they get into relationships and they see themselves with this person permanently and then this relationship ends and or begins to get rocky and they resemble however that’s my dream what takes place if my that’s got to occur due to the fact that it’s my dream I don’t understand how to function if that disappears we wish to assist people be able to reword their story and after that illness spiders and other phobias kind of shares death a great deal of times when people get ill they begin getting distressed 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 understand there are really couple of spiders that are actually that harmful same thing with snakes going over bridges I have actually shown you all that is not one of my illogical fears you know I am just horrified that you understand something’s going to happen and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is entirely irrational however we need to assist individuals take a look at those and identify the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and handle that anxiety failure is another trigger for anxiety especially in this culture our culture American culture in in large part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when individuals recognize that they’re not ideal they might begin to get distressed since 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 unfavorable self-talk you understand you can’t do anything right so those are a few of the problems that you know we typically see in therapy sessions so what do we do you know somebody can be found in and it like I can’t live in this manner doc anxiety depression and substance conditions along with a variety of physical disorders are typically comorbid so this is the first thing we need to realize we need to understand that we’re very seldom dealing with a really basic diagnosis you know when somebody is available in we require to find out you know if they come in and they’re presenting with anxiety all right let’s speak about that and
Understanding Anxiety: A Patient’s Experience:
In my current session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old female, I had the opportunity to explore the complex layers of anxiety. Emma explained experiencing consistent worry, a racing heart, and intrusive ideas. She discovered it challenging to focus at work and often felt a sense of impending doom. These symptoms were hindering her daily life, relationships, and total well-being.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To attend to Emma’s anxiety, we developed a thorough treatment plan customized to her unique needs. Here are some crucial elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about stress and anxiety and its psychological and physiological symptoms helped her gain a deeper understanding of her symptoms. This knowledge empowered her to acknowledge and confirm her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based technique that focuses on identifying and challenging irrational thoughts and beliefs. Emma found out to reframe negative ideas and develop a more balanced viewpoint, slowly decreasing anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Strategies: Including relaxation methods such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation helped Emma regulate her tension reaction and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Treatment: As Emma revealed avoidance habits associated with particular triggers, we gradually exposed her to those circumstances in a regulated manner. This direct exposure enabled her to confront her worries and establish resilience against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Way Of Life Modifications: Emma recognized the value of self-care practices in managing her stress and anxiety. She prioritized regular workout, healthy consuming, quality sleep, and participating in activities she enjoyed to promote overall wellness.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My decision to end up being a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with stress and anxiety. My personal journey has provided me with unique insights and empathy when dealing with clients facing comparable challenges. Having experienced anxiety firsthand, I have the ability to connect to my clients’ worries, concerns, and the impact stress and anxiety can have on different aspects of life.
Harvard’s Research study on Anxiety:
A seminal term paper entitled “Understanding the Complexity of Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University supplies important insights into the intricacy of stress and anxiety conditions. The research study followed a mate of people over a span of ten years and taken a look at numerous elements contributing to the advancement, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper stressed that anxiety conditions arise from a combination of hereditary, ecological, and psychological elements. It highlighted the importance of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic techniques in managing anxiety successfully. The findings even more underscored the significance of a therapeutic alliance and customized treatment strategies in dealing with anxiety. Anxiety Therapist Questions
Conclusion:
Stress and anxiety is a multifaceted and deeply individual experience that affects individuals in profound ways. Through restorative interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, direct exposure treatment, and self-care practices, individuals like Emma can get control over their anxiety and lead fulfilling lives.