Anxiety and Depression
Everyone experiences anxiety.
Imagine backing out of your driveway and seeing a child on a bike coming across the back of your car. You hit the brakes immediately rather than stopping or pausing beforehand.
Ask yourself the following questions, “How was I feeling when I decided to stop? How did I know what to do?” You could make that decision immediately because your body (nervous system) knew what to do.
There was an immediate threat, and you decided quickly. After the incident, you felt anxious, with your heart pounding, sweaty palms, nausea in the stomach, and tightness.
Feeling anxious after such an event is a normal response when faced with a stressful situation, and we all have such moments. The good news is that those feelings go away over a short period.
What about anxiety that persists?
When anxiety doesn’t go away and becomes part of life, it can impact you mentally and physically. Such anxiety causes your body to misfire, tricking you into feeling as if that child is crossing behind the car. But there’s no child crossing.
Whatever the cause, anxiety keeps you on guard for the next bad experience to happen, even when there is no immediate threat. As a result, you feel restless, cannot concentrate, and worry constantly.
When something happens that triggers anxious feelings, your palms begin to sweat, your heart starts pounding, your stomach becomes queasy, and your muscles begin to tighten.
Suffering from persistent anxiety keeps you from moving on with your life because you constantly worry about adverse events occurring again.
Depression seems like a way of life for you.
Depression seems like a way of life for you.Sure, we all feel depressed on occasion, but the type of depression you feel is like an unwanted guest.
Getting out of bed is hard, and being productive is out of the question. A sense of sadness causes you to feel like crying.
The weight of hopelessness you feel is like climbing a hill weighted down by an enormous burden. Everything seems to slow down, making moving forward impossible. Performing well at work is a challenge because concentration is difficult.
Thoughts start going in circles, and you can’t stop thinking about the future or past events. Self-doubt creeps in, and many sentences begin with “what if?” Fears and worries come as you feel, “I will never get into a good college, never find a good partner, and never have what I want.”
Anxiety and depression have many causes.
Therapy can help you identify the underlying reasons for your anxiety or depression. Together, we can work through your anxiety and depression as you learn skills to help you deal with your feelings and thoughts.
As a therapist with experience dealing with anxiety and depression, I work with clients to help them process and move beyond the anxiety and depression they feel. There may be situations of the past that are the causes of how you feel.
When working with clients, I use a combination of tools and modalities, including Somatic EMDR, Mindfulness, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, to help clients struggling with anxiety and depression.
Don’t let anxiety and depression rule your life. Contact me today for more information on how I can help.