Anxiety

Like all emotions, anxiety serves a purpose and is good for us under the right circumstances. It plays an important part in motivation us and preparing us to take action. However if you find yourself constantly worried or unable to relax, it may be time to look for ways to make your anxiety more manageable.

Some telltale signs that you may be carrying too much anxiety:
Difficulty controlling worry
Impaired social, occupational, or academic functioning due to worry
Restlessness or feeling “on edge”
Difficulty sleeping
Difficulty concentrating
Irritability

The people I often see have high self-expectations and put a lot of pressure on themselves to excel at what they do. Over time, this type of pressure can be exhausting, which can result in less getting done, not more, the exact opposite of what we wanted. Part of therapy can be to better understand how we put pressure on ourselves by the way we think, and then learning to challenge certain thoughts as unreasonable and unconstructive. Learning to manage the physical symptoms of anxiety through relaxation methods can also help. My goal is to give the people I work with the skills to help themselves so they can get back to enjoying life and to make it easier to manage anxiety in the future.