Do I Need Anxiety Treatment?
You lie awake at night staring at the ceiling. You try so hard to relax, but sleep is still hours away. When you’re not imagining the terrible things that could happen, your mind is spinning with all the things you wish you would have done differently.
You worry about what your friends really think about you. Are they all faking that they like me? Will I wake up tomorrow to a text message calling me out for being a fraud or a bad friend.
That meeting with your boss or client didn’t go as planned… maybe tomorrow will be your last day. You’ll be unemployed and searching for a new job. What happens if you’re short on rent or paying your bills this month? Will you have to move?
Will you have to ask family and friends for help or beg for money on the street?
That paper you spent hours writing. Maybe you will fail the class? You worry that you will never get into college or a “good college.” All of those hours spent away from family and friends to study. Maybe it was all a waste of time? You fear you will amount to nothing.
Eventually, you convince yourself that your worries are ridiculous and that everything will be okay. Yet, there’s an aching feeling that you might be right.
We ALL worry, but when our worries start to interfere with our life, that’s when it’s time to get help. When we focus our attention on our anxieties, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.
When we have difficulty coping, our anxiety begins to interfere with our ability to live our life. We even begin to feel anxious about being anxious. Sound familiar?
What Do Symptoms Of Anxiety Feel Like?
You have felt anxious for a long time. Your anxiety always has a knack for showing up when you are trying to have a good time.
Your anxiety is like a broken record (for those who remember such things). You have the same thoughts playing over and over again in your head. Tormenting you. Taunting you. It’s like that one annoying song that gets going and never stops. Anxiety and stress interfere with your day-to-day life at home, work, and school. Anxiety affects how you interact in your relationships, and it even changes your eating patterns.
Sometimes you’re so anxious you can’t eat. Other times, your anxiety causes you to want to drown your feelings in a pint of ice cream or a glass of wine.
You have difficulty focusing on tasks, and engaging in things you normally enjoy is almost impossible. Sometimes you feel disconnected from yourself. It’s like you are not even attached to your own body.
You have a lump in your throat, your heart races, and your palms are sweaty. Your chest and body ache. Your head hurts. Sometimes you can’t even catch your breath.
The panic overwhelms you, and you are scared this feeling will never go away. You begin to avoid the things that make you feel this way because you are afraid that it will start again. Your life feels so much smaller now.
It’s time to take back control of your life. It’s time to take back the wheel and tell your anxiety to take a back seat. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be worth it.
Does Anxiety Treatment In Ridgewood, New Jersey, Work?
You have been feeling anxious for so long you’re pretty sure it’ll just be a part of you forever. I am here to tell you that there is hope, and you can begin to feel better.
Anxiety treatment isn’t about making the worrisome thoughts go away. We all worry; that’s a part of life. The truth is that having anxious thoughts is a survival mechanism. Anxiety can keep us safe and help us to sense true danger.
However, when your anxiety begins to overwhelm you and interferes with living your life, that’s when it’s time to get help.
Anxiety treatment is about learning to recognize the anxious thoughts for what they are – thoughts. Your thoughts don’t determine who you are or the world around you. Sometimes thoughts are just thoughts – little electrical signals in your brain. Not so scary now, right?
Sometimes anxiety treatment is teaching you how to lean into the fear and change the thoughts to more positive, or at least less dangerous ones. Other times, it’s about learning to acknowledge the thought and then let it go.
Anxiety treatment can help to calm your mind and reduce your stress.
What Will Anxiety Treatment in Ridgewood Look Like?
Together we will make a plan to start to ease your anxiety. We will work together to identify the anxious thoughts that are swirling around and around in your mind.
We will use cognitive-behavioral strategies (CBT) to challenge negative thought patterns, beliefs, and attitudes. Anxious thoughts are a lot like fog. They loom over us and appear ominous. Anxiety thrives in the unknown. Once you realize that fog is just water, it’s not so scary. You’ll learn to see your anxious thoughts for what they really are. You’ll learn new ways of thinking so that you no longer feel like you need to hide from your thoughts.
You will learn new ways of coping so that you can meet challenges head-on. You’ll discover that you’re a lot stronger than you’ve ever given yourself credit for. What could your life be like if you were no longer acting in fear? What would your life look like if you embraced uncertainty and were willing to take risks? (It sounds scary now. I know.)
We will also focus on relaxation techniques that will support you as you learn new ways of coping. Breathing is such a marvelous thing that we often take for granted, yet it can be an amazing tool for taming one’s anxiety.
Although some thoughts may still be there, we can work to quiet them so that you can focus on things that make YOU happy. You don’t have to live with the racing thoughts and panic that come along with anxiety.
Counseling can help you feel more grounded and in better control of your life.
Get Started With Anxiety Treatment In Ridgewood, New Jersey
If you’re looking for a way to better manage your anxiety, to be able to sleep more soundly, and become more confident, click the link below to schedule your free 20-minute consultation. During this time, you’ll chat with me, Dr. Maria Staropoli-Hafner, a psychologist here in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
We will talk about what has brought you into therapy as well as determine if we are a good fit to work together. If you’re ready to overcome the overwhelm of stress and anxiety, click the link to schedule your free 20-minute consultation today. I look forward to working with you.