Issues We Treat | Anxiety and Panic
Anxiety/Panic
Anxiety is an emotion we all experience at times, particularly when we feel tense and worried about something. However, if you experience this emotion excessively, with intrusive thoughts and concerns accompanied by physical symptoms like sweating, shaking, dizziness, and a rapid heartbeat, you may have an anxiety disorder.
Long term goals of treatment for anxiety will include helping you experience these symptoms less frequently and less intensely, so that you everyday life is not hindered. To do this, we will work on stabilizing your anxiety levels while increasing your ability to function on a daily basis. Anxiety often comes from life tension or root conflict, so we will prioritize that core issue. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness techniques such as body awareness and breathing are scientifically proven to help with anxiety.
Anxiety can be very common in children too. Excessive worrying about school, health, safety, or the future may be combined with physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, muscle tension, or fatigue. If these symptoms are affecting your child’s emotional health, social interactions, or academic performance, we can help them through anxiety counseling.
Panic disorder is a more severe form of anxiety, but they are similar in that they may surface in times in your life that are particularly stressful. Panic attacks are sudden episodes of overwhelming and irrational fear that happen unexpectedly and without obvious reason, often lasting for a few minutes. Some physical symptoms you will experience during a panic attack: rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, a paralyzing terror (sometimes thinking you are going to die), dizziness, lightheadedness, or nausea, shaking, sweating, choking, chest pains, hot flashes or sudden chills and “pins and needles” in fingers and toes.
Panic disorder can be debilitating because it can make you feel as if you are going crazy and can put you in a constant state of fear of having another panic attack. Most importantly, we will help you develop resiliency to be able to deal with all the different kinds of life’s anxieties, worries, and challenges. Because we all get stressed out sometimes, both clinical anxiety and panic disorder may be highly misunderstood and trivialized, and this can cause anger and depression in those suffering from this condition. We will help you to cope with these emotional side effects as well.
