Whether you’re seeking cognitive behavioral therapy for a panic disorder, group sessions to address social anxiety, or marital counseling for you and your spouse, Inner Clarity has you covered with a range of qualified professionals available online.
Hanging out with friends, shopping for groceries, arranging travel plans. Living with anxiety means routine activities like these can easily become suffused with tension and even lead to panic attacks. While stress is a natural part of everyday life, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reported that over 40 million Americans have an anxiety disorder, making it the most common mental health issue in the country. The good news is that connecting with an anxiety therapist can help you gain relief and resilience from the disorder’s disruptive symptoms.
Read this unique Inner Clarity guide to learn more about the different types of anxiety, whether any of their signs ring familiar to your daily experience, and how to find a professional counselor who will provide the most effective treatment for you.
A hallmark of anxiety disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, is that typically, temporary nervousness or fears linger and get worse over time. Worrying about something important, like a job interview, can be useful when you’re galvanized to practice for it ahead of time. But anxiety disorders often cause physical ailments like chronic fatigue, stomachaches, and heart palpitations — which get in the way of feeling prepared for anything.
Just as there are many sources of stress, there are multiple kinds of anxiety disorders.
Generalized anxiety disorder involves sustained feelings of dread, making it difficult to concentrate or fall asleep. This disorder usually runs in families and starts exhibiting itself in your childhood years, Johns Hopkins Medicine found.
Social anxiety disorder concerns feelings of discomfort around others, so you might sweat, become self-conscious, and avoid making eye contact in group settings.
A panic disorder is normally diagnosed if you experience sudden episodes of feeling out of control, where your heart races and your chest hurts. These can happen multiple times a day, leaving you on edge while waiting for the next one.
Working with a qualified anxiety therapist to determine whether you have a specific anxiety disorder can help clarify how to move forward with care. Consider the following signs that ordinarily accompany any anxiety diagnosis if you’re seeking mental health support.
Take notice if you frequently feel restless, tired, or strained. Anxiety can be linked to various other underlying medical conditions, according to The Mayo Clinic. Enduring tension might be a sign of heart disease, diabetes, or drug misuse. It’s not uncommon for anxiety to manifest physical complications, like gastrointestinal issues, and anticipating those physical complications could spawn further distress.
A consistent symptom of almost every anxiety disorder is spiraling worry. This may entail lengthy periods of feeling on edge, involuntarily ruminating over what previously occurred or might happen, that far exceed the proportion of real danger posed by a situation. When controlling nerves or phobias feels like an unmanageable task, anxiety regularly causes people to harbor an impending sense of doom.
If left unchecked, an anxiety disorder can disrupt many aspects of everyday life. Anxiety might prevent you from concentrating while at work or staying present while in the company of loved ones. When worries remain at the forefront of your mind, pushing out other important things deserving of attention, it’s time to get assistance from an anxiety therapist.
An anxiety disorder doesn’t have to be a lifelong burden that you simply accept. Therapy for anxiety can help you comprehend the patterns that create persistent nervousness, gain specific coping skills to address stress in a healthy manner, and ultimately reclaim the parts of your life that were made unavailable due to anxiety.
Sitting down with an anxiety therapist, in particular, means you can access mental health care that is tailored to treat your specific disorder or concerns. All therapy programs and treatment plans create the opportunity for improving one’s mental health, but investing time with a professional who understands your individual needs is crucial for tackling the cause, and not just the symptoms, of anxiety.
If you’ve committed to seeking out an anxiety therapist but feel overwhelmed about starting the search, you’re not alone. Finding a therapist who will offer the best match can be challenging when there are myriad options available for such an important resource. Review Inner Clarity’s three helpful tips for obtaining the right anxiety therapist for you.
First, reflect on what you hope to accomplish while in therapy for anxiety. As outlined above, there are varying types of anxiety disorders and symptoms. Self-assessing what disorder you relate to most or what symptom you’re repeatedly grappling with can help you feel prepared when it comes to communicating your goals with counselors. Further, pinpointing your needs allows you to streamline your pursuit toward therapists who specialize in the treatment methods you prefer. For example, professionals trained in administering cognitive behavioral therapy are consistently well-suited to address general or social anxiety disorders. And for some people, a therapist of the same gender, or who understands one’s cultural background, is key when it comes to opening up about sensitive matters contributing to anxiety.
There are plenty of ways to explore qualified anxiety therapists, but some avenues might return better results than others. Your primary healthcare provider is a good place to start securing a counselor in your insurance network, and professional associations often boast extensive online rosters of qualified therapists located near where you live. Sometimes, the best options can be found by perusing what mental health care options are offered by therapy practices that prioritize the same values you do. All therapists accepting clients at Inner Clarity implement a mindful, holistic approach to treatment. By reading a therapist's professional profile, you can learn what unique education and certifications they include in their work.
Perhaps you’ve nailed down what you’d like to accomplish in therapy, but don’t know how you’ll reach those goals. Fortunately, therapy sessions can be tailored to meet your needs. Individual therapy is fruitful, but group therapy can offer a chance to learn from other people navigating similar issues, and family therapy can help confront the dynamic source of anxiety in a productive way. Lastly, while in-person therapy has long been the traditional norm, more and more folks today are taking advantage of the benefits of virtual therapy. Communities across the country lack robust local mental health care resources amid a shortage of providers, and the online modality can offer you access to anxiety therapists you would otherwise be unable to meet from the comfort and privacy of your own home.
Though anxiety disorders are cited as the most common mental health concern in the country, there’s no reason why they should be misunderstood or ignored. Equipped with intelligence about the conditions and what to look for while searching for the right anxiety therapist, you can feel confident you’ll find a professional capable of personalizing a care plan to obtain the growth and relief from anxiety you deserve. Whether you’re seeking cognitive behavioral therapy for a panic disorder, group sessions to address social anxiety, or marital counseling for you and your spouse, Inner Clarity has you covered with a range of qualified professionals available online.
Request an appointment today to begin your journey towards a more balanced mind for a healthy life.
Although altering our daily stressors may have optimal benefits, it’s not often that we can do that through removing the stressors or changing the situations totally.
Although altering our daily stressors may have optimal benefits, it’s not often that we can do that through removing the stressors or changing the situations totally. Instead of trying to remove the stressors, we can look to see where we can add techniques throughout our day that make our stressors feel less intense. Here are a few tips to de-stress day-by-day.
Tip 1: Identify “Repeating Stressors”
To really know what stresses us out daily, we have to find out if we are in a pattern of stressful citations. Repeating stressors, or stressors that we experience regularly, are situations such as preparing the children for school, driving in traffic, or managing a hectic work-life schedule. Identifying the stressor is the first step to gaining control of it. You can keep track of this in a journal, your phone or just take a mental note.
Tip 2: Cope Ahead
So, now that you have one stressful situation in mind, how do we plan ahead to cope with it? Those moments prior to experiencing the stress are the times in which we have the most control. First, we have to be emotionally prepared. This means that we think about it ahead of time and prepare ourselves with coping skills to manage that particular situation. It’s great to have a mental or tangible list of skills we can use to cope. To best do this, we can look at the situation, our feelings and our reactions. Here’s an example:
Traffic Build up —> Anxiety —> Breathing Techniques/Positive Self-Talk (coping skill)—> Calmer Body —> Mindful Response to Others —> Emotionally regulated for other stressors
Tip 3: Unruly Emotions Need Taming (Adaptive Behavioral Response)
Sometimes, our feelings happen faster than we can apply coping skills, so then we have to manage our behavioral response. For example:
Traffic Build up —> Anxiety —> Body Tension —> Progressive Muscle relaxation (coping skill)—> Mindful response to Others—> Emotionally regulated for other stressors
Emotional preparedness and self-talk are powerful tools we can use to prepare prior to a stressful situation. Self-talk can be as simple as “the tasks from my supervisor can feel overwhelming, but I will be organized and alert so I can feel confident in my work day.” Another example of self-talk while in the stressful moment is “this situation may be difficult, but I don’t have to feel stuck in this feeling. I am safe and I am in control of my body, and if I’m calm about this, I can do this task at my best”. Progressive Muscle Relaxation can be a great tool when we are reacting to our emotional state. When using this skill, you would squeeze and then release every muscle in the body starting with the tips of your toes and ending with the top of your head. It’s important to be mindful about our bodily responses to stress, as our bodies tend to carry stress, even after the stressor is gone.
Tip 4: Morning “Energy Check-In”
Every morning, gauge your emotional energy level (patience, calmness, tension, sadness, anxiety, excitement, etc). This helps us know where we might need extra support. If we’re running low on patience from the moment we wake up, we can always try to turn that around by meditating, prioritizing our tasks, or relaxing. Sometimes, we don’t have the luxury to do this, and that leads us to Tip 5.
Tip 5: Practice “Mindfulness and Boundaries”
So instead, be mindful of how you feel, so that when you’re entering into a situation you are mindfully aware of how much energy you can give the situation before you start to run low on fumes. For example, if you wake up late for work and you start your day rushed, this may make you feel anxious. If you’re anxious, how do you behave (agitated, inattentive, emotional)? Once you can identify that emotion, put those identified coping skills in place. You can do this everyday to maximize your ability to manage stress. This can also help set boundaries with others, meaning, we can appropriately let others know what we’re capable of that day. For example, if we are low on patience because we are experiencing personal stressors such as relationship issues, grief, or financial issues; we can share with others what we are capable of doing to the extent of our control. Again, for the things that are outside of our control, we go back to using our coping skills. Keep in mind that if your cup for the day is already filled to the brim, just adding in one more small thing can make it overflow – leading us to feel overwhelmed, anxious, or even ready to explode.
Tip 6: Regularly “Recharge” to Increase Your Peace
Now that we’ve talked about the things we can do in daily routines to de-stress, we have to put back into our “emotional bank” or “re-charge” our emotional energy. As humans, we can only go for so long on low-fumes, low-energy or emotional challenges. So, just like a battery, we too need to take time to recharge. Find the things that increase your peace. This can be a hobby, a socially uplifting event, or even a simple activity such as watching your favorite TV show, listening to your favorite song, talking to a friend, lighting your favorite candle, or exercising. Even doing a little bit of this everyday can be helpful.
Tip 7: Rinse & Repeat
With these skills solidified, it is important to be consistent in applying them. Emotional states and moods will ebb and flow, and we have to be patient with ourselves. These skills take daily practice, but the results can be life changing. Be mindful and aware of your emotional states so that you are best prepared to handle what life throws your way. Remember that we can only control so much, and when things are out of control, we can find ways to cope and adjust, minimizing stress-levels while maximizing our efficiency.
Therapists at Inner Clarity all have experience and training in mindfulness techniques for wellness. Click here to schedule your appointment and make these day-by-day techniques a priority.
