Do you feel worried most of the time?
When someone asks to talk to you, is your go to thought What did I do Wrong Now?
Do you always feel fatigued, or are you always on edge and expecting the worst things to happen?
If something goes wrong do you or other think you are in a panic or having a breakdown?
Let us help you break the endless cycle of panic and unease, we can help.
Anxiety Disorders, Identification and Treatment
Stress, physical discomfort, persistent worrying and obsessing, fear of social situations and other phobias, as well as panic attacks are all various forms of anxiety. Although anxiety is experienced in numerous forms, ranging from the concretely physical to the intensely emotional, it is a condition for which psychotherapy is particularly well-suited. As with depression, anxiety falls along a continuum from mild to severe. Fairly disruptive anxiety, which often results in panic attacks and unhealthy physical symptoms such as high blood pressure, can be addressed with various, highly effective anti-anxiety medications. Even so, psychotherapy is essential to the understanding of the core issues leading to anxiety in such cases. In cases of more moderate anxiety, therapy alone is often enough to treat the unwanted symptoms.
Anxiety Self-evaluation Check-list
- During the past month, on more than one occasion did you experience a sudden, unexplained attack of intense fear, anxiety, or panic accompanied by physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, feelings of choking, dizziness, loss of control, etc., for no apparent reason?
- Were you afraid you might have more of these attacks?
- Were you worried that these attacks could mean you were losing control, having a heart attack or “going crazy”?
- Did these attacks cause changes or avoidance patterns in your behavior?
- During the last 6 months, have you been persistently worrying or anxious about several different things (for example, finances, health, work, family, etc) most of the time and more so than other people would worry?
- Did you find it difficult to control your worrying or did it interfere with your ability to function?
- Did your persistent worrying or anxiety cause physical symptoms such as feeling keyed up, restlessness, muscle tension, poor concentration, etc. (for more days than not during the past six months)?
- During the past month, have you been bothered by persistent, senseless thoughts, impulses or images you could not get out of your head, such as thoughts of death, illnesses, aggression, sexual urges, contamination or other senseless thoughts? Were these thoughts intrusive, inappropriate and did they cause anxiety or distress?
- Were these persistent, senseless thoughts, impulses or images time consuming and did they cause significant distress and interference in your normal activities and relationships (at least one hour per day)?
- In the past month, did you do something repeatedly even though you didn’t wish to do it, like washing excessively, counting, checking, collecting things, arranging things, or a superstitious ritual?
- In the past month, did you have an intense fear of embarrassment or being scrutinized by other people in social or performance situations such as, eating in front of people, public speaking, dating, attending parties or social gatherings?
- Have you ever had a very frightening, traumatic or horrible experience like being the victim of a violent crime, seriously injured in an accident, sexually assaulted, seeing someone seriously injured or killed, or being the victim of a natural disaster and responded in fear, terror or helplessness?
- Did you relive the traumatic experience through recurrent dreams, preoccupations or flashbacks or in other distressing ways?
- Did you have problems sleeping, concentrating or have a short temper as a result of the traumatic experience?
- Did you avoid any place or anything that reminded you of the original horrible event?
- Did you seem less interested in important things, not “with it” or unable to experience or express emotion?
- Did you have the above problems for more than one month?
If you answered “Yes” to 2 or more of the questions you may have an anxiety disorder¹. Psychotherapy can help, and for many anxiety problems, counseling is the ideal treatment to start with. Certain types of therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy, are particularly beneficial. These therapies can teach you how to control your anxiety levels, stop worrisome thoughts, and conquer your fears.
Many people who suffer from anxiety are unaware of their treatment options. The right treatment could help you achieve peace and a more fulfilling daily life, it is possible to attain virtual elimination of symptoms and keeping them from coming back. I have experience using cognitive behavioral therapy (a recognized evidence based practice) in the resolution of anxiety, panic and social phobia as well as the broader anxiety disorders listed above.
¹ The Screening questionnaire has been designed by mental health professionals to identify the symptoms of Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Social Phobia. The screening questionnaire is not a psychiatric evaluation of a mental illness nor can a diagnosis of a mental illness be made through this screening process.