Anxiety Counselling & Therapy in Calgary
Anxiety
Do you worry about a lot things all the time? Is it hard for you to control or stop the worry? Do you often find yourself caught up in fear and uncertainty? Thinking about what might happen, and imagining the worst-case scenario. All. The. Time.
Are you tense and on edge? Is your heartbeat shallow and rapid? Are you easily irritated and have difficulty concentrating? Do you avoid certain situations or activities because they make you anxious?
Do you use unhealthy coping mechanisms to reduce anxiety?
Everyone feels anxious from time to time.
Anxiety involves worried or anxious thoughts, feelings such as fear, bodily sensations, such as muscle tension an increased respiration, and trouble concentrating or focusing. Anxiety is a normal response to stress and affects almost everyone at one time or another. It is a survival response where the mind is trying to protect us from real or perceived threat or danger. In a clinical sense, anxiety refers to excessive worry, fear or dread that does not subside and becomes an unwanted part of your daily life. It can interfere with your ability to engage in things that matter to you and be the sort of person you want to be.
Is anxiety stopping your from living the life you want?
Anxiety is one of life’s most common challenges. Therapy is a highly effective way to help you feel better.
Anxiety versus Fear: Is there a Difference?
Fear serves an important function from an evolutionary perspective: it’s a vital warning system that alerts us to danger and enables our survival by mobilizing our stress response (aka the fight-or-flight response)—triggering a surge of wide-ranging and intense physiological sensations (e.g. increased blood pressure and heart rate, breathlessness, dizziness), along with an impulse to act (e.g. fight or flee). Fear is often adaptive as it motivates and mobilizes us to take action.
Anxiety, in contrast, tends to involve pervasive and persistent feelings of apprehension, worrisome thoughts, along with physiological activation (e.g. muscle tension, chest tightness). Anxiety can be triggered spontaneously by a realistic external threat and internal psychological threats. Living in a state of intense and prolonged anxiety can be debilitating and impede physical, emotional and psychological well-being. Left unchecked and untreated anxiety may lead to phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic attacks—severe episodes of anxiety that occur in response to specific triggers. When anxiety becomes a constant companion, causes ongoing distress, or interferes with your ability to do what you love, and be who you truly want to be, it may be time to explore new ways of coping and get some professional help.
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychological disorders, affecting an estimated 264 million people in the world.
What are the Symptoms of Anxiety?
Anxiety involves a broad range of psychological and physical symptoms that vary from person to person. Common symptoms include:
Physical: muscle tension, feeling too hot or cold, feeling restless or on edge for no reason, dizziness, weakness, rapid breathing, racing heart, sweating, shaking, nausea, chest pain, digestive issues, headaches, ringing in the ears, fainting, sleep problems, panic attacks in severe cases
Psychological: excessive worrying, irrational fears, a sense of dread, apprehension, distress, nervousness, uneasiness, feeling overwhelmed, social phobia or other phobias
Cognitive: catastrophizing, obsessive thinking, overestimating the potential for severe consequences, difficulty concentrating, confusion, poor memory
Behavioral: avoidance of everyday situations or activities that make you anxious, unhealthy or compulsive coping mechanisms, difficulty falling or staying asleep
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety may develop from a combination of complex factors, including:
Genetics: Indviduals with a family history of anxiety disorders are more likely to develop anxiety
Environmental and/or Social Factors: Work stress, life transitions, interpersonal problems, traumatic events, childhood developmental issues, or financial difficulties can all contribute to anxiety.
Brain Chemistry: A history of severe stress or traumatic events can alter brain structure and function, impacting symptoms of anxiety.
Medical Conditions: Side effects of certain medications, thyroid problems, chronic disease or chronic pain, head trauma, neurological conditions, inflammatory conditions, or misuse of/withdrawal from alcohol or drugs can all provoke symptoms of anxiety.
How is Anxiety Treated?
If you are suffering from anxiety I can help you make real changes and start living the life you want. Treatment aims at uncovering what is driving and maintaining your anxiety, and developing practical skills that enhance resilience so you can respond to anxiety flexibly, while building the life you want.
You will learn how to:
quiet your mind and stop worrying about everything
calm your body and regulate the physical symptoms of anxiety
be present
be less reactive
do what matters
**I see clients for anxiety treatment in my Calgary office and/or online.
Types of Anxiety
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Is characterized by at least six months of persistent and excessive anxiety and worry along with difficulty controlling the worry. These worries can interfere with everyday life, including work, relationships, and health and are often associated with difficulty concentrating and physical symptoms such as headaches, irritability, restlessness, fatigue, and sleep difficulties.
Social Anxiety Disorder: also called social phobia, is one of the most common anxiety disorders, and is the fourth most common psychiatric disorder. It involves anxiety provoked by being exposed to social or performance situations, often with intense anxiety and discomfort about being embarrassed, humiliated or rejected in social interactions. Common examples of social situations that can cause fear and worry include:
extreme fear of speaking in front of others
meeting or interacting with strangers
starting conversations
going to work
dating
People with social phobia will often isolate themselves to avoid certain situations, or endure situations with tremendous anxiety. This can lead to extreme loneliness, desolation and avoidance or limitation of common, everyday experiences and situations.
Panic Disorder: involves recurrent, unexpected panic attacks that involve the onset of sudden, intense, overwhelming fear with symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain or discomfort, feelings of choking, dizziness, nausea, feeling faint or light-headed, numbness or tingling, and feeling hot or cold. Psychological symptoms include constant fear or worry of experiencing another attack. People experiencing a panic attack may feel like they are going crazy or are about to die.
If a person experiences recurrent panic attacks, has persistent fears about having a panic attack, and significantly changes their behavior to avoid a panic attack (e.g. avoiding places or activities for fear of a panic attack), they may have a panic disorder.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): This disorder is characterized by intrusive, unwanted thoughts that cause distress and are alleviated by some behavior (e.g. hand washing, counting). The thoughts are the obsessions (e.g. constant undesirable thoughts, urges, or images that cause distress and anxiety), and the behaviors are the compulsions (e.g. repetitive behaviors or mental acts in response to the obsession) meant to reduce the anxiety caused by the thoughts.
People with OCD try to ease the anxiety caused by their obsessive thoughts with repetitive behaviors or rituals such as frequent hand washing, cleaning, organizing, checking or counting. When these compulsions are time consuming (e.g. occur more than 1 hour per day), and interfere significantly with daily functioning, you might be suffering from OCD.
Phobias: When fears are intense or irrational, and out of proportion to the actual threat caused by the situation or object, they may be considered phobias. Phobias intense feelings of fear about objects or circumstances such as animals (e.g. spiders or snakes), environments (e.g. storms, heights, or dark places), situations (e.g. flying in a plane, public transportation, being in a confined space), blood/injection/injury (e.g. seeing blood or needles), and being in public places (e.g. malls, movie theatres, or concerts). People with phobias often recognize that their fears are unrealistic, but are unable to manage their reactions.
Symptoms of phobia include:
excessive and irrational worry or fear about encountering the feared object or situation
avoidance of the object, activity or situation that triggers the phobia. As people who have phobias realize that their fears are exaggerated, they are often ashamed or embarrassed about their symptoms, and avoid phobia triggers to prevent anxiety or embarrassment.
physical symptoms such as tremors, palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea or other symptoms related to the body's "fight or flight" response to danger upon encountering the feared object or situation.