a common mental health concern, affects countless individuals worldwide. Red Light Therapy For Anxiety And Depression … As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I have experienced the impact of anxiety on many lives. In this short article, I will share a thorough expedition of anxiety through the lens of a current treatment session with a client, highlighting signs, treatment techniques, and my individual journey as a therapist with my own experiences of stress and anxiety In addition, we will go over a term paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the multifaceted nature of anxiety.|Anxiety, a prevalent psychological health issue, affects millions of people worldwide. As a Licensed Clinical Social Employee (LCSW), I have actually witnessed the effect of anxiety on numerous lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial approaches to resolving anxiety and while those are wonderful you understand I believed perhaps we should look at you understand what’s some of the present research study so I entered into PubMed which is I do not know it’s playground for me it’s where you discover a lot of the journal articles and you can sort and I sorted by short articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past five years so that gives us an idea about present research I mean there’s a great deal of things that is still the very same like some of the medications that were known to work ten years back are still known to be you know great first-line treatments but there are also some newbies that we’ll talk about 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 really need to and obviously this does play into the biopsychosocial element we really require to understand sort of what causes it since stress and anxiety that’s brought on by for example somebody having a racing heart may be different than stress and anxiety that’s triggered for somebody who has desertion issues so we’re gon na treat the two things in a different way so we want to take a look at some of the typical causes we’re gon na take a look at some typical triggers for stress and anxiety you know what are a few of these common styles that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the themes that you see that highlight or underlie a lot of your clients anxiety and identify current best practices for stress and anxiety management including counseling interventions medications physical interventions and helpful treatments so we care since anxiety.
can be incapacitating and a great deal of our clients have anxiety a lot of our customers have anxiety comorbid with depression and they’re taking a look at us going how can I feel nervous 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 great deal of times people who are have both problems actually wish to sleep however they can’t so I want to assist clients understand that likewise in some cases stress and anxiety when people are anxious for long enough the body starts sort of holding on to the cortisol the body really acknowledges at a certain point this is a losing battle I’m not going to put energy into this anymore so it begins with drawing a few of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and people will begin to feel depressed generally the brain has currently said this is hopeless this is you’re you’re defenseless to change the circumstance so then individuals begin feeling helpless and helpless which is sort of the meaning if you will of depression low-grade chronic stress and anxiety developed energy and people’s ability to focus so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we need to help them determine how to attend to anxiety not simply generalized overwhelming debilitating stress and anxiety however likewise panic social anxiety and those small anxiety triggers that come along that may not meet the threshold for a diagnosis anxiety is a major trigger for dependency relapse if you have a customer who is self
medicated before or had a dependency for some reason anxiety is a significant trigger increased physical pain when stress and anxiety goes up people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more pain I suggest consider when you’re stressed you tend to have more pain like in your neck in your back and things that already harmed might injure more why due to the fact that serotonin which is among our significant anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise among our significant pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low because stress and anxiety is high then our pain understanding is going to be more acute and individuals can have sleep issues if you’re stressed your body believes there’s a hazard you’re not going to have the ability to get into that deep peaceful sleep you may have you might sleep you may sleep a lot but it’s most likely 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 tired the body knows that we may 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 again you might be resting kind of like when you have a brand-new child in the house those first number of months that my children were home from the healthcare facility I slept however I didn’t sleep well I suggest the tiniest little noise and I was awake and I was looking around and you understand I felt it I felt tired and a great deal of brand-new moms and dads do so activates for stress and anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to discuss ways we might want to deal with these things but a few of the underlying styles that I’ve seen in a great deal of clients and when I do the research what a lot of what styles that come out consist of low self-esteem
if somebody has low self-confidence they’re looking to be externally confirmed oftentimes they’re searching for someone else to tell them you’re adorable you’re alright so that can result in anxiety about not having people to tell them you’re okay that makes their relationships tenuous and can make them dysfunctional irrational thoughts and cognitive distortions might lead people to think that if I’m not best for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to take a look at some illogical thoughts and cognitive distortions unhealthy social supports and relationships when you’re in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your client is relatively psychologically and physically healthy if they remain in an inefficient relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other individual is constantly saying if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other person is always cheating on them or whatever so relationships can set off abandonment anxiety and ineffective social abilities can lead to relationship turmoil and social exile if our customers are in relationships even if they’re not totally 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 conflict takes place in every relationship then they might begin to argue more which might cause fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I enter ends which implies I should not be lovable so they begin fearing desertion and rejection so these are four areas that we can look at another assessing customers another problem is the unknown and loss of control a great deal of times negative 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 unfavorable others when customers hang out or when people socialize with negative people it sort of wears on you after a while you notice that people who are tend to be more unfavorable pessimistic conspiracy minded tend to hang out with people who are likewise negative 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 sort of penetrate physical grievances can lead people to be anxious due to the fact that they don’t understand what’s triggering it like I said previously often if your heart starts to race if you do not know what’s causing it you can start believing I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na die when people have panic attacks for instance they really believe they’re having a cardiac arrest and
it’s I have actually had them they are extremely really unpleasant experiences but 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 do not understand what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it disappear they start considering all the worst-case situations and going on the internet and getting on WebMD which typically gives you all the worst-case situations um so physical problems are essential we require to stabilize the truth that nobody’s pain-free all the time and you understand the fact that you might have a discomfort or an ache or a swelling or a bump or you understand a cough most likely you know when we take a look at likelihood the probability of it being something significant is pretty small now do you wish to get it had a look at most likely but you understand the likelihood that is anything to be fretted about is is fairly small and a sense of powerlessness can activate fear of the unknown and loss of control for someone who does not seem like they have any firm in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt taken advantage of all of their life then they might fear not remaining in control they may be holding on and saying okay this is the one location of my life I can manage when I grew up 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 control these things and I am going to hold on with white knuckles and if I can’t manage everything then that frightens me death and loss are other triggers for anxiety and it can be people or animals and animals are necessary I don’t want to lessen family pets due to the fact that you understand they are little parts of a great deal of our households so making certain we check that my daughter’s pet dog for example is it’s getting old she’s getting older she’s 14 now I believe and you understand she remains in decent health we took her to the vet and the vet said yeah she’s got a little heart whispering but that’s expected for a 14 years of age dog and however when she heads out if she doesn’t return when I call her I have this rush of stress and anxiety for a second oh my gosh I hope this wasn’t the day so stress and anxiety around losing individuals and you understand if she when she crosses the bridge she will and and you understand
I’m fine with that I’m I have a more difficult time handling my child’s psychological chaos when that takes place and since she’s grown up with this dog so you know those are the kinds of things that we want to speak about with our clients what things are weighing on you that you may not even be thinking about because I understand in the back of my mind there’s constantly that stress over one of our donkeys and her dog jobs and promotions can trigger anxiety if individuals are afraid they’re gon na lose their job if they’re constantly afraid that you understand they’re gon na walk 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 require to do in order to achieve and keep your task and in some cases it’s not easy to answer I mean the very first idea that a lot of us have is well you understand if you’re doing the right thing so simply do it but there are those bosses out there and I have actually had some actually remarkable employers a great deal of them and I have actually had 2 truly horrendous employers and those 2 managers I might never ever I never felt like I was able to do anything ideal therefore going to those tasks there was always this stress and anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you want to talk with people about does your task cause stress and anxiety what can you do to moderate that stress and anxiety the very same thing with promos individuals might get anxious about whether they’re going to get promoted security and security you know when you lose security and security you can feel actually anxious so if there’s a break-in at the house next door or a shooting down the road or you begin watching the news you can feel really risky and unsecure really quickly so we wish to assist individuals find out how safe and safe and secure are you truly and a great deal of it returns to really looking at facts when people lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can begin to get anxious you understand they have this dream that they’re going to be a medical professional or I simply completed the presentation on assisting high school students transition to college and a great deal of high school students for example start college with these wide eyes and wishes to save the world and they wish to be physicians and engineers and this and that and they get into it and they recognize that it’s a lot harder than they thought or they realize that you understand what I truly do not like this but I’ve currently 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 understand for me I figured 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 anxiety it resembled alright what am I gon na do now you understand what profession ought to I choose so assisting individuals figure out do you have dreams that have perhaps sort of crashed and burned and you need to find brand-new ones you know all right that a person we’ve got to accept it find out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now individuals
might also have dreams about relationships they get into relationships and they see themselves with this individual forever and after that this relationship ends and or begins to get rocky and they’re like however that’s my dream what occurs if my that’s got to take place due to the fact that it’s my dream I do not understand how to work if that goes away we want to assist individuals be able to reword their narrative and after that illness spiders and other fears type of shares death a great deal of times when individuals get sick they start getting anxious that oh my gosh what if this is terminal oh my gosh what if this is you understand incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na kill me and which is rare you understand there are very few spiders that are in fact that harmful same thing with snakes discussing bridges I have actually shared with you all that is not one of my unreasonable fears you understand I am just frightened that you know something’s going to take place and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is totally illogical but we need to assist people take a look at those and recognize the ideas that they’re telling themself about those phobias and deal with that anxiety failure is another trigger for stress and anxiety specifically in this culture our culture American culture in in large part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when people realize that they’re not best they might begin to get anxious since they seem like if I’m not ideal then I’m a failure you understand those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they begin with that unfavorable self-talk you know you can’t do anything right so those are a few of the concerns that you know we often see in counseling sessions so what do we do you understand someone is available in and it like I can’t live in this manner doc stress and anxiety depression and substance disorders along with a range of physical conditions are typically comorbid so this is the first thing we need to recognize we require to understand that we’re very rarely handling an extremely easy diagnosis you understand when somebody comes in we require to figure out you know if they can be found in and they exist with depression all right let’s discuss that and
Understanding Anxiety: A Patient’s Experience:
In my current session with Emma (name altered for privacy), a 32-year-old woman, I had the chance to explore the detailed layers of stress and anxiety. Emma explained experiencing persistent concern, a racing heart, and invasive thoughts. She discovered it challenging to focus at work and frequently felt a sense of impending doom. These symptoms were interfering with her life, relationships, and general wellness.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To deal with Emma’s stress and anxiety, we developed a detailed treatment plan tailored to her special needs. Here are some key elements of her strategy:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about stress and anxiety and its physiological and mental manifestations helped her gain a deeper understanding of her signs. This knowledge empowered her to recognize and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based technique that concentrates on identifying and challenging unreasonable ideas and beliefs. Emma found out to reframe negative ideas and develop a more balanced point of view, slowly lowering anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Techniques: Incorporating relaxation techniques such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation helped Emma regulate her stress response and promote a sense of calm.
Direct exposure Therapy: As Emma revealed avoidance habits related to certain triggers, we gradually exposed her to those situations in a controlled way. This direct exposure allowed her to face her fears and develop durability versus anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Lifestyle Modifications: Emma recognized the significance of self-care practices in handling her anxiety. She focused on regular workout, healthy consuming, quality sleep, and taking part in activities she took pleasure in to promote overall wellness.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My choice to end up being a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with stress and anxiety. My individual journey has supplied me with unique insights and compassion when working with customers dealing with comparable difficulties. Having experienced stress and anxiety firsthand, I have the ability to connect to my clients’ fears, worries, and the impact stress and anxiety can have on different aspects of life.
Harvard’s Research on Anxiety:
A seminal research paper titled “Comprehending the Complexity of Stress And Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Research Study” by Harvard University offers important insights into the intricacy of stress and anxiety disorders. The research study followed a friend of people over a span of 10 years and taken a look at various factors contributing to the advancement, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper highlighted that anxiety conditions occur from a combination of hereditary, ecological, and psychological factors. It highlighted the value of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic techniques in handling anxiety effectively. The findings further underscored the significance of a restorative alliance and customized treatment plans in attending to stress and anxiety. Red Light Therapy For Anxiety And Depression
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a deeply personal and complex experience that impacts people in profound ways. Through therapeutic interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, direct exposure therapy, and self-care practices, people like Emma can gain control over their stress and anxiety and lead fulfilling lives. As a therapist, my personal journey with anxiety allows me to offer compassionate and reliable care to my customers. The research study conducted by Harvard University clarifies the intricate nature of anxiety, reinforcing the value of customized treatments and early intervention in promoting psychological well-being. Together, we can browse the labyrinth of anxiety and find the path to a more tranquil and empowered presence.