a common mental health concern, impacts countless people worldwide. I Need A Therapist For My Anxiety … As a Certified Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have actually experienced the effect of anxiety on countless lives. In this article, I will share an in-depth exploration of stress and anxiety through the lens of a current treatment session with a client, highlighting symptoms, treatment strategies, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of anxiety In addition, we will talk about a research paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the diverse nature of anxiety.|Anxiety, a widespread psychological health issue, affects millions of people worldwide. As a Certified Medical Social Worker (LCSW), I have seen the impact of stress and anxiety on numerous lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial techniques to addressing stress and anxiety and while those are wonderful you understand I believed perhaps we should take a look at you understand what’s some of the current research study so I entered into PubMed which is I don’t know it’s play area for me it’s where you discover a lot of the journal short articles and you can arrange and I arranged by articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that provides us an idea about existing research I mean there’s a lot of things that is still the very same like some of the medications that were known to work ten years earlier are still known to be you understand great first-line treatments however there are likewise some newbies that we’ll discuss and there are likewise some modifications that we’re going to speak about so we’re going to explore some common causes for anxiety signs in order to treat it we really need to and obviously this does play into the biopsychosocial aspect we truly require to understand kind of what causes it since anxiety that’s caused by for example somebody having a racing heart may be different than stress and anxiety that’s triggered for someone who has abandonment problems so we’re gon na deal with the two things differently so we wish to look at some of the typical causes we’re gon na look at some common triggers for stress and anxiety you know what are a few of these typical themes that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the styles that you see that underline or underlie a lot of your clients stress and anxiety and identify present finest practices for anxiety management consisting of therapy interventions medications physical interventions and helpful treatments so we care due to the fact that anxiety.
can be debilitating and a lot of our customers have anxiety a great deal of our clients have anxiety comorbid with depression and they’re looking at us going how can I feel anxious and stressed out 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 concerns actually want to sleep however they can’t so I want to assist clients comprehend that also in some cases stress and anxiety when people are anxious for long enough the body begins sort of holding on to the cortisol the body actually recognizes at a specific point this is a losing battle I’m not going to put energy into this any longer so it begins with drawing a few of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and individuals will begin to feel depressed generally the brain has actually already 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 anxiety low-grade chronic tension and anxiety emerged energy and individuals’s ability to focus so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we require to help them figure out how to deal with anxiety not just generalized frustrating devastating anxiety however likewise panic social anxiety and those small stress and anxiety activates that occurred that might not satisfy the limit for a medical diagnosis anxiety is a significant trigger for addiction regression if you have a customer who is self
medicated prior to or had a dependency for some reason anxiety is a significant trigger increased physical discomfort when anxiety increases people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more pain I indicate think about when you’re stressed out you tend to have more pain like in your neck in your back and things that already hurt might harm more why because serotonin which is one of our major anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise one of our major pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low since stress and anxiety is high then our pain understanding is going to be more acute and individuals can have sleep problems if you’re stressed out your body thinks there’s a danger you’re not going to have the ability to enter that deep relaxing sleep you may have you may sleep you might sleep a lot however it’s probably not quality sleep which suggests your neurotransmitters may leave whack your hormonal agents make it out of whack and your body is going to begin viewing your itself in a consistent state of stress when we’re tired the body understands that we might be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to secrete cortisol to keep keep you on alert a little bit so you might once again you may be resting sort of like when you have a brand-new baby at home those first couple of months that my children were home from the hospital I slept but I didn’t sleep well I suggest the tiniest little noise and I was awake and I was browsing and you know I felt it I felt exhausted and a great deal of new moms and dads do so activates for stress and anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to discuss methods we may want to deal with these things however a few of the underlying styles that I have actually seen in a great deal of customers and when I do the research what a great deal of what themes that come out consist of low self-esteem
if somebody has low self-esteem they’re looking to be externally verified oftentimes they’re searching for someone else to tell them you’re lovable you’re fine so that can cause anxiety about not having people to tell them you’re alright which makes their relationships rare and can make them inefficient cognitive distortions and illogical thoughts may lead people to believe that if I’m not perfect for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to take a look at some irrational 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 remain in an inefficient relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other individual 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 desertion anxiety and inefficient social skills can result in relationship chaos and social exile if our clients remain in relationships even if they’re not completely dysfunctional if our customers are unable to ask for what they require and set appropriate 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 lead to fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I enter ends which means I must not be lovable so they begin fearing abandonment and rejection so these are four areas that we can look at another examining clients another problem is the unknown and loss of control a lot of times unfavorable self-talk and cognitive distortions can add to that if I don’t have control of everything then it’s all going to be a catastrophe negative others when clients hang out or when individuals socialize with unfavorable individuals it type of wears on you after a while you discover that people who are tend to be more negative downhearted conspiracy minded tend to hang out with people who are likewise unfavorable cynical and conspiracy minded so if you’re socializing with somebody who tends to be distressed then the anxiety can be palpable and it can type of permeate physical grievances can lead people to be anxious since they do not understand what’s causing it like I said previously often if your heart begins to race if you do not know what’s triggering it you can start believing I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na pass away when people have panic attacks for example they genuinely believe they’re having a cardiovascular disease and
it’s I’ve had them they are really extremely unpleasant experiences however when individuals begin having physical grievances and it can be you understand they have a strange rash that they can’t get to disappear or it whatever but when they don’t understand what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it go away they start considering all the worst-case scenarios and browsing the web and getting on WebMD which normally provides you all the worst-case circumstances um so physical problems are very important we require to normalize the truth that nobody’s pain-free all the time and you understand the truth that you might have a discomfort or a pains or a swelling or a bump or you know a cough probably you understand when we look at likelihood the likelihood of it being something considerable is pretty little now do you want to get it took a look at probably but you understand the likelihood that is anything to be fretted about is is fairly small and a sense of powerlessness can activate worry of the unknown and loss of control for somebody 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 stating alright this is the one area of my life I can manage when I grew up you understand I matured in a very 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 control everything then that horrifies me death and loss are other triggers for stress and anxiety and it can be family pets or people and pets are important I don’t wish to decrease pets due to the fact that you understand they are little parts of a lot of our households so making sure we examine that my child’s pet dog for instance is it’s getting old she’s growing older she’s 14 now I think and you know she remains in decent health we took her to the veterinarian and the veterinarian said yeah she’s got a little heart whispering but that’s anticipated for a 14 years of age dog and however when she goes out if she doesn’t come back 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 individuals 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 more difficult time dealing with my daughter’s psychological turmoil when that happens and because she’s matured with this pet so you know those are the types of things that we want to talk about with our clients what things are weighing on you that you might not even be thinking of because I understand in the back of my mind there’s constantly that fret about among our donkeys and her pet dog tasks and promotions can trigger stress and anxiety if individuals hesitate they’re gon na lose their job if they’re constantly afraid that you know they’re gon na walk in and get or get a pink slip fired you know we want to help them look at how practical is that are you doing what you need to do in order to achieve and keep your job and often it’s hard to address I indicate the first thought that a lot of us have is well you understand if you’re doing the right thing so just do it however there are those employers out there and I have actually had some actually remarkable employers a great deal of them and I’ve had 2 actually horrendous bosses and those two managers I could never ever I never felt like I was able to do anything ideal therefore going to those tasks there was constantly this 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 job cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that stress and anxiety the same thing with promotions people might get distressed about whether they’re going to get promoted security and security you understand when you lose security and security you can feel truly anxious so if there’s a burglary at your house next door or a shooting down the road or you start watching the news you can feel very hazardous and unsecure actually rapidly so we wish to assist individuals find out how safe and protected are you really and a lot of it goes back to truly looking at truths when people lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can start to get anxious you know they have this dream that they’re going to be a physician or I simply ended up the discussion on assisting high school trainees transition to college and a great deal of high school trainees for example start college with these wide eyes and wants to conserve the world and they wish to be medical professionals 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 don’t like this but I have actually currently devoted to it so what do I do or I wish to assist people however I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I found out in my second year that I wasn’t going to medical school since I wasn’t going to pass calculus which caused a lot of stress and anxiety it resembled alright what am I gon na do now you understand what profession must I select so helping people determine do you have dreams that have maybe sort of crashed and burned and you have to find brand-new ones you understand alright that a person we’ve got to accept it find out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now people
might likewise have dreams about relationships they enter into relationships and they see themselves with this individual permanently and then this relationship ends and or starts to get rocky and they’re like but that’s my dream what occurs if my that’s got to occur since it’s my dream I don’t know how to work if that disappears we wish to help individuals have the ability to rewrite their narrative and after that sickness spiders and other fears sort of goes in with death a great deal of times when people get sick they begin getting nervous 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 eliminate me and which is rare you know there are very few spiders that are really that dangerous exact same thing with snakes reviewing bridges I have actually shown you all that is not one of my irrational fears you know I am simply horrified that you understand something’s going to occur and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is completely illogical however we require to assist individuals take a look at those and identify the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and deal with that stress and 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 perfect they may start to get anxious since they feel like if I’m not ideal then I’m a failure you know those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they begin with that negative self-talk you know you can’t do anything right so those are a few of the problems that you understand we frequently see in therapy sessions so what do we do you know someone comes in and it like I can’t live in this manner doc stress and anxiety depression and compound disorders as well as a range of physical disorders are often comorbid so this is the first thing we require to understand we need to recognize that we’re very rarely handling an extremely easy diagnosis you know when someone can be found in we need to determine you know if they come in and they exist with depression all right let’s discuss that and
Understanding 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 intricate layers of stress and anxiety. These symptoms were interfering with her everyday life, relationships, and overall well-being.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To attend to Emma’s anxiety, we developed a detailed treatment plan tailored to her unique requirements. Here are some crucial elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about anxiety and its mental and physiological manifestations assisted her gain a deeper understanding of her symptoms. This understanding empowered her to acknowledge and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based technique that focuses on identifying and challenging irrational thoughts and beliefs. Emma learned to reframe negative ideas and develop a more balanced point of view, slowly lowering anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Methods: Incorporating relaxation strategies such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma control her stress action and promote a sense of calm.
Direct exposure Treatment: As Emma revealed avoidance habits associated with specific triggers, we gradually exposed her to those circumstances in a controlled manner. This exposure enabled her to challenge her worries and establish durability against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Lifestyle Modifications: Emma acknowledged the importance of self-care practices in handling her anxiety. She focused on routine exercise, healthy eating, quality sleep, and taking part in activities she took pleasure in to promote general well-being.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My decision to become a therapist was deeply influenced by my own struggles with stress and anxiety. When working with clients dealing with similar obstacles, my personal journey has offered me with special insights and compassion. Having actually experienced anxiety firsthand, I have the ability to connect to my patients’ worries, concerns, and the effect stress and anxiety can have on different elements of life.
Harvard’s Research study on Anxiety:
A critical research paper titled “Understanding the Complexity of Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Research Study” by Harvard University offers valuable insights into the intricacy of anxiety conditions. The research study followed a friend of people over a period of ten years and examined different aspects contributing to the advancement, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper highlighted that anxiety conditions occur from a combination of genetic, environmental, and mental aspects. It highlighted the significance of early intervention, evidence-based treatments, and holistic techniques in handling stress and anxiety efficiently. The findings even more underscored the significance of a therapeutic alliance and customized treatment strategies in addressing stress and anxiety. I Need A Therapist For My Anxiety
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a deeply individual and diverse experience that affects people in extensive ways. Through healing interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation methods, direct exposure therapy, and self-care practices, individuals like Emma can gain control over their stress and anxiety and lead satisfying lives. As a therapist, my personal journey with anxiety allows me to provide reliable and caring care to my clients. The research performed by Harvard University sheds light on the intricate nature of stress and anxiety, enhancing the importance of customized treatments and early intervention in promoting psychological well-being. Together, we can navigate the maze of stress and anxiety and discover the course to a more tranquil and empowered presence.