SAN DIEGO ANXIETY COUNSELING & TREATMENT
When push comes to shove, anxiety can feel like the bully trying to steal your lunch money.
Even more, it can make you feel like someone else besides you is in the driver’s seat of your life—like someone else is running the show and you’re the passive bystander watching it all happen.
While anxiety can sharpen the mind at times, leading to creative problem solving with razor sharp efficiency, when out of balance, anxiety can be paralyzing.
It can level an otherwise stable person or prevent ambition from taking flight.
If left untreated, anxiety can become a burden, robbing you from what life really has to offer.
Do you have trouble relaxing or unwinding?
Do you spend too much time worrying about the future or ruminating on the past?
Does your mind seem to be constantly racing or wandering? Perhaps, these racing thoughts are so intrusive that you have trouble getting things done or sleeping at night.
Are you worried about how your anxiety may be impacting your relationships, or getting in the way of you pursuing your dreams?
Do you feel paralyzed when you have to make a decision, fearing that you will make the wrong choice?
Anxiety can create other problems, too.
While some people feel frozen because of their anxiety, struggling to make a decision, others respond by turning to whatever will make their anxiety go away the fastest.
This may work for awhile, but certain ways of coping with anxiety can lead to other complications, like addiction, unhealthy relationships, or prevent a person from pursuing what’s really important to them.
Sometimes these attempts to rid ourselves from anxiety cause us to act impulsively. We may make decisions that either get us into trouble or put our health at risk. This doesn't just affect us, but affects our ability to relate to, and be in relationship with, others.
Sadly, some people may lose relationships because of struggles with anxiety. On the other hand, others may avoid relationships altogether, feeling like there’s something inherently wrong with them—that no one will be able to love them for who they are.
Anxiety can be extremely isolating, but treatment can help.
Many people who suffer from anxiety feel alone. This is especially true if you’ve reached out for help in the past, but it didn't work out how you hoped it would. Or maybe you tried to let family or friends into your experience only to be told things like, “Just stop worrying” or “Get over it already,” as if such statements have the power to make everything magically OK. At the end of the day, all of us wish we could simply “get over” whatever it is we're struggling with, but that’s easier said than done.
Many of the struggles we face in life can leave us feeling like no one will understand, but the reality is you are not alone and there is help.
Anxiety therapy in San Diego is about giving you the space you need to take back control.
If left untreated, anxiety can remain a plague in your life—not only can it affect your self-esteem and confidence, it can get in the way of you living life on your terms, completely stopping you in your tracks.
Anxiety therapy teaches you how to tune-in without getting hooked—to become better at observing your thoughts, feelings, and somatic experiences [how you experience your emotions in your body]. Anxiety therapy will take an investment on your part, but it pays tremendous dividends both in the short-term and in the long-term.
Consider the following: what you focus on controls you. Thus, if you want to control your mind, you must learn how to control your attention.
"I’m afraid anxiety therapy will make my anxiety worse."
A common fear many of our clients express is a concern that focusing on their anxiety will make it worse. While paying attention can temporarily increase how acutely we experience anxiety, it is not uncommon for people to experience dramatic relief in their symptoms within the first few sessions. This is because we take an evidenced-based approach to treating your anxiety. We not only give you practical tools to use in your day-to-day, but through in-depth exploration, we follow your anxiety to its roots.
A comprehensive, individualized approach to anxiety therapy in San Diego.
Some of the methods our anxiety therapists in San Diego use to treat anxiety include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), problem solving therapy (PST), narrative therapy, existential therapy, and psychodynamic therapy. The common thread or theme throughout all of our work, however, is mindfulness.
Mindfulness is about learning to observe what's happening in the present moment while suspending judgement (or at the very least, to notice when you're judging your experience). Mindfulness has been rigorously studied, and can be found being used in major universities, hospitals, corporations, and the like.
When it comes to anxiety therapy, our anxiety therapists draw from several different treatment modalities based on the needs of the person we are working with. We do this because anxiety, like the people it attaches to, is complex and deserving of a tailored treatment approach. In the context of a supportive, compassionate environment, we will work together to put your anxiety in its rightful place—to lower the volume on your backseat driver (or drivers) and put you back in control of your life.
Whole Wellness Therapy offers anxiety therapy online and at all of our San Diego counseling office locations.
A few helpful resources about anxiety issues:
