Anxiety

Treating anxiety can be a complicated issue. One of the problems with anxiety is it shows up in many different ways. The time that you really pushed for an A when you could have been satisfied with a B… like the time that your boss said “I want to talk to you” at the end of the day and you assumed the rest of the day that you were in trouble. Maybe you worried that you were getting fired, building up anticipation all day long. Maybe the time that your children have their first disagreement with their spouse and you project worry that you set them off on a path to their own anxiety. Maybe your anxiety began with a trauma and you are triggered, whether you have identified these or not. Rest assured that anxiety can be treated in all different ages for many different issues. There are several ways to manage anxiety; Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Breathing Techniques, Journaling, Meditation, Guided Imagery, EMDR, Tapping, etc.

I work with people with many different anxiety disorders that relate their problems to things like financial worries, relationship issues, and I know the idea of “normal” is something that does not exist. Normal for you is not normal for me and vice versa, however anxiety is different for everyone. I see teenagers who are stressing out about what college looks like. I work with elementary students anxious months in advance of their diagnostic testing and kids who focus on how to make lots of money and work less and get rich faster. I hear “I wanna be a youtuber” more times than I can count.. in these days of Instagram Heroes, its hard to convince a child to stay in school for 4 years and come out owing twice as much as they’ll make in a year. Teenagers want to pass their SATs with a decent score so they can get a decent wage and appropriate scholarships. Sometimes these children are the first in their family to attend college. Anxiety can be identified in childhood with perfectionistic behaviors.

If you pay close attention, you can catch these early on and can treat them with cognitive behavioral therapy. Letting a person know “they aren’t ‘crazy’ can be key. By using Cognitive Behavioral therapy, I focus on how to identify negative thoughts that lead to feelings and ultimately, subsequent actions. We are all human… we all lose patience and we all get anxious from time to time and some have more extreme anxiety. You-Are-Not-Alone.