About Anxiety: What It Is And How I Treat It.
What is anxiety in psychology?
Everyone worries or feels nervous from time to time. Anxiety is a normal human reaction to stressful life situations. For people with anxiety disorders, the fears and worries aren’t temporary. The anxiety persists, and can get worse over time.
According to the National Institute of Mental health, about 18% of US adults and 25% of adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience anxiety. From these numbers, about 4% of adults, and nearly 6% of teens, have anxiety disorders that are classified as severe.
As shown in the DSM V, these are the major types of anxiety disorders:
Generalized anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
Phobias
Social anxiety disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Research shows that behavioral treatment, or behavioral therapy, is a highly effective treatment for most people with an anxiety disorder.
How is anxiety treated?
My approach to treating anxiety is to investigate where anxiety is impairing my clients’ functioning at work, school, and in social situations.
There are many different types of anxiety disorders, and research suggests that most are driven by similar underlying processes. People with anxiety tend to become easily overwhelmed by emotions, and tend to have negative reactions to these unpleasant feelings and situations.
More often than not, people try to cope with these negative reactions by avoiding situations and experiences that make them anxious. However, avoidance can actually backfire and feed the anxiety. When this happens, people tend to form anxiety-driven bad habits.
My role, as your therapist, is to teach you, the client, healthier, more effective ways to cope than to feed the anxiety. A form of psychotherapy that I use here, is called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. This gives my clients the tools they need to conquer and overcome their anxiety-driven bad habits. Through CBT, I will help you to learn to identify and manage the factors that contribute to your anxiety.
The goal is for my clients to gain back control of their lives, specifically, in stressful situations.
All in all, what you can expect from therapy with me, Ashley Holm, is to work with me to reduce undesired behaviors associated with anxiety disorders. The process will be collaborative, we will work together to identify specific concerns and to develop concrete strategies for coping with anxiety. Essentially, you will develop tools for your toolbox, to fight anxiety. For your treatment of anxiety, you can expect to practice your new skills outside of sessions to manage anxiety in situations that might make you uncomfortable.
Anxiety disorders are very treatable. I have seen much success with clients, as they move with therapy towards a life where they feel that they are back in control, at work, at school, in social situations, or even just enjoying a full night’s sleep, if anxiety is what is keeping them awake at night. Many clients notice improvement after just a few sessions.
Your needs are unique and I look forward to working with you to gain back the control you deserve in your life.
