What is Anxiety?
Anxiety mainly consists of: lack of certainty and lack of comfort. When someone doesn’t feel certain or comfortable with a situation or person, they avoid and disengage. Anxiety affects a person in their physical body (muscle tension, difficulty breathing, and trembling) and can also affect a person in their mind (cognitive distortions, false narratives, and fearful thoughts). This can affect the way someone interacts with others and the way necessary tasks are handled throughout the day.
Anxiety can show up in a person’s life as:
- Avoiding new people or experiences
- Pounding heart, trembling/shaking, sweaty palms, chest pain/discomfort, restlessness, panic attacks, muscle tension
- Racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating
- Shutting down/withdrawing emotionally, mentally and physically; wanting to be left alone
- Changes in sleep and/or appetite, or feeling overwhelmed
The treatment for anxiety aims regulate physical symptoms as well as thought processes, which may include:
- Exposure therapy
- Cognitive-Behavioral therapy (CBT) (information, coping skills and homework)
- Psychodynamic (engaging with the unconscious and how it stores memories)
- Analytical/Jung Psychology (learning the meaning of figures and symbols in one’s life)
- Ericksonian (experiential and problem-solving techniques)
- Gestalt/Internal Family Systems (understanding different parts of the self)