Counselling for Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek counselling. The presence of anxiety has been rising significantly over the last decade. Symptoms of an anxiety can include an inability to get to sleep or stay asleep, difficulty focusing on work or relationships that matter to us and a sense of paralysis that keeps us from taking action in our lives. Anxiety presents itself in many different ways. Many people suffer from crippling anxiety and don’t seek treatment however, you don’t need to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder to benefit from counselling and psychotherapy. Some of the more common anxiety disorders are:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

While all of us worry about things in our lives, people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) worry a lot more about a lot more things. It typically develops slowly, often showing up in the teen years, often not really seeming to be a problem until it begins to really take over a person’s life. People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder are often exhausted, struggle to maintain relationships because they are so distracted by worry and have difficulty concentrating. People with GAD often worry about worry. While this disorder is often not taken seriously, or can be easily dismissed by friends, family, and health care providers, GAD takes a significant toll on people. The amount of energy used up by this level of constant worry is exhausting and interferes significantly with one’s quality of life.

Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety is becoming more and more prevalent in society giving our increasing reliance on technology and consequent isolation due to increased screen time. We often get caught in negative self-talk that makes it increasingly difficult to interact with other people. Counselling for social anxiety can help us understand how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are linked, and learn new ways of calming our nervous systems so we can be more at ease interacting with others.

Panic

A panic attack is most often described as a sudden, overwhelming sense of impending doom or certain disaster, even when the likelihood of such an event is minimal. The fear is typically linked to a loss of control and this can lead to intense discomfort, including strong physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, difficulty breathing, dizziness, chest pain, and others. Not everyone who experiences a panic attack will go on to develop panic disorder, a label characterized by repeated episodes of panic.

Phobias

Phobias are irrational fears about things such as fears of heights, flying, or humiliating oneself in social situations. Exposure to these situations can lead to intense physical symptoms and make it virtually impossible for people to function. In some cases, these phobias can be traced to specific events in people’s lives, in many other cases, there is no known cause.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterised by repetitive, distressing, intrusive thoughts that are difficult to manage. There are essentially two aspects to this disorder. The first is the persistent, unwanted thoughts that appear in the person’s brain. These thoughts are often about obstacles to a person’s happiness or safety. The second part of this disorder is the compulsion to complete a task to mitigate the obsessive thought, such as repeatedly checking that doors are locked, frequent hand washing or constantly discussing an upsetting event or fear. There is often a ritualistic aspect to these behaviours and that is almost impossible to control.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

When individuals survive or are exposed to great danger there are often significant effects on the brain, the body, and the nervous system. Many of these people will develop the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and they may include flashbacks, sleep disturbance, intense anxiety, emotional numbness, and irritability. Not all people exposed to traumatic situations will develop PTSD. It is thought that the longer the exposure to trauma, i.e., war, highly dangerous jobs, the greater the likelihood it will develop. Researchers also believe that a feeling of having no control over a situation greatly increases the probability of an event being experienced as traumatic and thus leading to PTSD.

Causes of Anxiety Disorders

While there is no definitive cause for anxiety, it is quite clear that the disorder runs in families. Some researchers believe that there are genetic links although no definitive studies have proven this theory. More and more research is revealing how the brain is involved in anxiety disorders and is appears that once the ‘alarm sensitivity’ of our natural warning systems are set on high alert, it is very difficult to find the ‘reset’ button without assistance.

Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

There are several proven treatments to help with anxiety. Counselling and, in particular, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) have been proven to be very effective in treating most forms of anxiety. In most cases, a counsellor will help to identify problematic patterns in thinking, assist in building new skills, and provide education about how your brain and nervous system work to support anxiety treatment.