One of the best ways to deal with anxiety is to learn about your own anxiety: your symptoms, what triggers it, and what coping mechanisms have been effective in the past. When you learn what your anxiety is tied to, it can help you be mindful of what’s really happening as well as prevent and mitigate symptoms by processing and working through the issue in therapy. Other strategies that have been shown to help manage anxiety are meditation, challenging anxious thoughts, exercising, and journaling.
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. Millions are affected by symptoms of anxiety every day, from feelings of nervousness to severe panic attacks. Your mental health affects everything you do, and suffering from anxiety can make routine tasks feel like major obstacles.
Fortunately, there are ways to reduce anxiety. Just as a doctor can perform surgery and suggest lifestyle changes to make you healthier, a mental health professional can craft treatment plans for managing anxiety. If your mental health is interfering with your happiness, attending counseling or therapy for anxiety might help you live a happier, healthier life.
At Thriveworks Counseling in San Jose, CA, our licensed counselors and therapists are experts at treating anxiety and giving clients the tools to alleviate its symptoms. Call or contact us online to get started.
Most Common Symptoms of Anxiety
People with anxiety disorders deal with more than occasional stage fright or stress before final exams. The following are all common symptoms of anxiety:
- Excessive worrying: Anxiety can cause fearfulness disproportionate to the events or things that cause it. Frequent worrying that lasts at least six months is typically considered a sign of generalized anxiety disorder.
- Panic attacks: A panic disorder is typically characterized by recurring panic attacks — periods of a rapid heartbeat, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, nausea, and a fear of losing control or dying.
- Fatigue: Anxiety sends the body into overdrive, leaving you exhausted and making it difficult to muster the energy for anything, even your most cherished activities.
- Physical symptoms: Nausea, trembling, difficulty sleeping through the night, sweaty palms, and avoiding social interactions are signs of an anxiety disorder.
Other indications include a sense of impending doom, irritability, and trouble concentrating. If you’ve struggled with any of the above, you might be living with an anxiety disorder.
Therapy for Anxiety: What To Expect
Working with a licensed therapist or counselor typically involves voicing your concerns, sharing a little about your history and current living conditions, and setting goals. Treatment for anxiety can incorporate:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This method is based on the idea that your thoughts, rather than your current situation, affect how you feel and behave. By identifying thought patterns, CBT can help you unlearn harmful or ineffective ways of thinking that increase anxiety.
- Talk therapy: Speaking with a therapist, counselor, or psychiatrist about emotions and experiences you don’t usually share with others may lessen your anxiety and open you to new strategies for managing the disorder.
- Exposure therapy: If there are specific environmental factors that lead to your anxiety, exposure therapy — in which you are gradually introduced to these triggers in a safe way — could make your reactions to them more manageable.
This process tends to be multifaceted and looks somewhat different for everyone. A therapist or counselor will likely deploy a combination of methods best suited for your specific needs.
Schedule Sessions for Anxiety — Thriveworks in San Jose, CA
When you’re ready, mental health professionals from Thriveworks Counseling in San Jose, CA, are available. We offer convenient weekday, weekend, and evening sessions to help you find time for valuable care. Our new clients can often meet with a provider within the same week of reaching out, and we accept many different insurance plans.
Working with a therapist, counselor, or psychiatrist from Thriveworks Counseling in San Jose, CA, can help you manage your anxiety and live your best life. Consider calling our office or using our convenient online scheduling tool to get started.
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