a prevalent psychological health concern, impacts millions of individuals worldwide. Aetna Anxiety Therapist … As a Certified Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have seen the impact of stress and anxiety on many lives. In this article, I will share a thorough exploration of stress and anxiety through the lens of a recent therapy session with a patient, highlighting symptoms, treatment strategies, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of anxiety Additionally, we will talk about a research paper by Harvard University that clarifies the complex nature of anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a common mental health concern, impacts millions of people worldwide. As an Accredited Clinical Social Employee (LCSW), I have actually witnessed the effect of stress and anxiety on many lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial methods to resolving anxiety and while those are wonderful you know I thought perhaps we ought to look at you understand what’s some of the existing research so I went into PubMed which is I do not understand it’s play ground for me it’s where you find a lot of the journal short articles and you can sort and I sorted by articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that offers us a concept about current research I mean there’s a lot of things that is still the exact same like some of the medications that were understood to work 10 years earlier are still known to be you understand good first-line treatments but there are also some newbies that we’ll talk about and there are likewise some changes that we’re going to speak about so we’re going to check out some common causes for anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we actually require to and naturally this does play into the biopsychosocial aspect we really need to understand kind of what triggers it since anxiety that’s caused by for instance somebody having a racing heart may be different than stress and anxiety that’s caused for someone who has abandonment issues so we’re gon na deal with the two things in a different way so we wish to take a look at a few of the common causes we’re gon na take a look at some typical triggers for anxiety you know what are a few of these typical themes that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the themes that you see that underline or underlie a lot of your customers stress and anxiety and determine current finest practices for stress and anxiety management consisting of counseling interventions medications physical interventions and helpful treatments so we care since anxiety.
can be incapacitating and a great deal of our clients have stress and anxiety a great deal of our customers have stress and anxiety comorbid with anxiety and they’re taking a look at us going how can I feel anxious and stressed out and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you understand when you’re depressed you’re expected to want to sleep well a great deal of times people who are have both concerns really want to sleep however they can’t so I want to assist customers understand that likewise sometimes anxiety when people are anxious for long enough the body begins kind of holding on to the cortisol the body really recognizes at a certain point this is a losing fight I’m not going to put energy into this anymore so it starts with drawing a few of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and individuals will begin to feel depressed essentially the brain has actually currently stated this is hopeless this is you’re you’re helpless to alter the circumstance so then people start feeling hopeless and helpless which is sort of the definition if you will of anxiety low-grade chronic stress and anxiety emerged energy and people’s capability to focus so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we require to help them determine how to attend to anxiety not simply generalized frustrating incapacitating anxiety however also panic social stress and anxiety and those minor stress and anxiety triggers that occurred that might not meet the threshold for a medical diagnosis stress and anxiety is a major trigger for dependency regression if you have a customer who is self
medicated prior to or had an addiction for some reason anxiety is a significant trigger increased physical pain when stress and anxiety goes up individuals tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more pain I imply consider when you’re stressed you tend to have more discomfort like in your neck in your back and things that currently hurt might hurt more why because serotonin which is among our major anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is also one of our major pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low since stress and anxiety is high then our discomfort understanding is going to be more intense and individuals can have sleep issues if you’re stressed your body thinks there’s a threat you’re not going to have the ability to get into that deep peaceful sleep you might have you may sleep you may sleep a lot however it’s most likely not quality sleep which implies your neurotransmitters may leave whack your hormones make it out of whack and your body is going to begin viewing your itself in a consistent state of stress when we’re tired the body knows that we may be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to secrete cortisol to keep keep you on alert a bit so you may again you might be resting sort of like when you have a new child at home those very first number of months that my children were house from the hospital I slept however I didn’t sleep well I indicate the smallest little noise and I was awake and I was taking a look around and you understand I felt it I felt exhausted and a lot of brand-new parents do so sets off for anxiety abandonment and rejection and we’re going to discuss methods we may want to handle these things however some of the underlying themes that I have actually seen in a great deal of clients and when I do the research study what a great deal of what themes that come out include low self-confidence
if somebody has low self-esteem they’re seeming externally verified often they’re looking for someone else to tell them you’re lovable you’re okay so that can result in stress and anxiety about not having individuals to tell them you’re okay which makes their relationships rare and can make them inefficient unreasonable thoughts and cognitive distortions may lead people to think that if I’m not perfect for example I am not adorable so we’re going to look at some unreasonable thoughts and cognitive distortions unhealthy social supports and relationships when you’re in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your client is reasonably mentally and physically healthy if they remain in a dysfunctional relationship they can fear abandonment and rejection if that other individual is constantly saying if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other individual is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can set off abandonment stress and anxiety and inadequate social skills can cause relationship chaos and social exile if our clients remain in relationships even if they’re not totally dysfunctional if our customers are not able to request for what they need and set suitable boundaries and handle conflict successfully since dispute happens in every relationship then they may start to argue more which might cause fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them working out every relationship I enter ends which suggests I need to not be lovable so they start fearing abandonment and rejection so these are 4 areas that we can look at another assessing customers another problem is the unknown and loss of control a great deal of times unfavorable self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I do not have control of everything then it’s all going to be a disaster unfavorable others when customers hang out or when people hang out with unfavorable people it type of wears on you after a while you observe that individuals who are tend to be more unfavorable pessimistic conspiracy minded tend to hang out with individuals who are also unfavorable downhearted and conspiracy minded so if you’re hanging out with someone who tends to be distressed then the stress and anxiety can be palpable and it can kind of permeate physical grievances can lead individuals to be distressed since they do not understand what’s triggering it like I said earlier often if your heart begins to race if you don’t know what’s triggering it you can begin thinking I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na die when individuals have anxiety attack for instance they truly believe they’re having a cardiac arrest and
it’s I’ve had them they are extremely really unpleasant experiences however when people start having physical grievances and it can be you understand they have an odd rash that they can’t get to disappear or it whatever but when they don’t know what it is and they can’t manage it they can’t make it go away they start considering all the worst-case scenarios and browsing the web and getting on WebMD which typically provides you all the worst-case situations um so physical problems are very important we require to stabilize the reality that no one’s pain-free all the time and you understand the fact that you might have a pain or an ache or a lump or a bump or you understand a cough probably you know when we take a look at likelihood the possibility of it being something considerable is quite small now do you wish to get it checked out probably however you understand the possibility that is anything to be worried about is is fairly little and a sense of powerlessness can set off fear of the unknown and loss of control for someone who does not feel like they have any agency in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt preyed on all of their life then they may fear not being in control they might be holding on and stating fine this is the one location of my life I can control when I matured you know I matured in an extremely disorderly environment I had no control I was bounced around in the foster system yadda yadda yadda now that I’m an adult you know I can control these things and I am going to hold on with white knuckles and if I can’t control whatever then that horrifies me death and loss are other triggers for anxiety and it can be animals or individuals and animals are essential I don’t wish to minimize animals since you know they are little parts of a lot of our families so making sure we examine that my child’s canine for instance is it’s getting old she’s getting older she’s 14 now I think and you understand she’s in decent health we took her to the veterinarian and the vet said yeah she’s got a little heart whispering however that’s expected for a 14 years of age dog and but when she goes out if she doesn’t return when I call her I have this rush of stress and anxiety for a second oh my gosh I hope this wasn’t the day so anxiety around losing people and you understand if she when she crosses the bridge she will and and you know
I’m all right with that I’m I have a harder time dealing with my daughter’s psychological chaos when that happens and due to the fact that she’s grown up with this canine so you understand those are the kinds of things that we wish to speak about with our customers what things are weighing on you that you might not even be considering because I understand in the back of my mind there’s always that stress over one of our donkeys and her dog tasks and promos can trigger stress and anxiety if people hesitate they’re gon na lose their job if they’re constantly afraid that you understand they’re gon na stroll in and get a pink slip or get fired you understand we wish to help them take a look at how realistic is that are you doing what you require to do in order to accomplish and keep your job and often it’s challenging to answer I mean the first thought that a great deal of us have is well you understand if you’re doing the best thing so simply do it but there are those managers out there and I’ve had some actually remarkable bosses a great deal of them and I have actually had two truly horrendous bosses and those 2 employers I could never I never ever felt like I had the ability to do anything best therefore going to those jobs there was constantly this stress and anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you wish to talk with individuals about does your task cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the same thing with promotions individuals may get nervous about whether they’re going to get promoted safety and security you know when you lose safety and security you can feel really anxious so if there’s a break-in at your home next door or a shooting down the road or you start viewing the news you can feel extremely unsafe and unsecure actually rapidly so we wish to help people determine how safe and safe are you truly and a lot of it goes back to actually looking at facts when people lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can start to get anxious you understand they have this dream that they’re going to be a medical professional or I just finished the discussion on helping high school students transition to college and a great deal of high school trainees for instance start college with these broad eyes and wishes to save the world and they want to be physicians and engineers and this and that and they get into it and they realize that it’s a lot harder than they thought or they recognize that you understand what I truly don’t like this however I’ve already committed to it so what do I do or I wish to help people but I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I figured out in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school because I wasn’t going to pass calculus and that triggered a lot of anxiety it resembled okay what am I gon na do now you understand what profession ought to I choose so assisting people determine do you have dreams that have perhaps kind of crashed and burned and you need to find brand-new ones you understand okay that one we’ve got to accept it figure out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now people
may also have dreams about relationships they get into relationships and they see themselves with this person forever and then this relationship ends and or begins to get rocky and they resemble but that’s my dream what happens if my that’s got to happen because it’s my dream I do not understand how to function if that goes away we wish to help individuals be able to reword their story and then illness spiders and other fears type of shares death a lot of times when people get ill they start getting anxious that oh my gosh what if this is terminal oh my gosh what if this is you understand incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na eliminate me and which is rare you know there are very few spiders that are really that dangerous exact same thing with snakes going over bridges I’ve shared with you all that is not one of my unreasonable fears you know I am just terrified that you know something’s going to happen and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is totally illogical however we need to help people look at those and recognize the ideas that they’re telling themself about those fears and deal with that stress and anxiety failure is another trigger for stress and anxiety especially in this culture our culture American culture in in big part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when individuals understand that they’re not ideal they may begin to get nervous due to the fact that they feel like if I’m not ideal then I’m a failure you know those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they start with that unfavorable self-talk you understand you can’t do anything right so those are some of the issues that you know we typically see in counseling sessions so what do we do you know somebody comes in and it like I can’t live this way doc anxiety depression and compound conditions in addition to a series of physical disorders are often comorbid so this is the first thing we require to understand we need to realize that we’re really hardly ever handling an extremely simple medical diagnosis you understand when somebody can be found in we need to determine you understand if they can be found in and they’re presenting with depression all right let’s speak about that and
Comprehending Stress And Anxiety: A Client’s Experience:
In my recent session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old lady, I had the opportunity to dig into the detailed layers of anxiety. These signs were interfering with her everyday life, relationships, and overall well-being.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To attend to Emma’s stress and anxiety, we established a thorough treatment plan customized to her special requirements. Here are some crucial elements of her strategy:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about anxiety and its psychological and physiological symptoms assisted her gain a much deeper understanding of her symptoms. This knowledge empowered her to acknowledge and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based technique that focuses on determining and challenging illogical ideas and beliefs. Emma discovered to reframe unfavorable thoughts and develop a more balanced point of view, gradually reducing anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Techniques: Integrating relaxation techniques such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation helped Emma control her tension response and promote a sense of calm.
Direct exposure Treatment: As Emma expressed avoidance behaviors associated with particular triggers, we slowly exposed her to those circumstances in a controlled way. This direct exposure allowed her to confront her fears and establish durability versus anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Way Of Life Adjustments: Emma acknowledged the significance of self-care practices in managing her stress and anxiety. She focused on regular workout, healthy consuming, quality sleep, and participating in activities she took pleasure in to promote overall wellness.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My decision to end up being a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with anxiety. When working with customers dealing with similar obstacles, my personal journey has actually offered me with special insights and empathy. Having experienced stress and anxiety firsthand, I am able to connect to my clients’ worries, concerns, and the effect anxiety can have on different aspects of life.
Harvard’s Research study on Stress and anxiety:
An influential research paper entitled “Comprehending the Complexity of Stress And Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University offers valuable insights into the complexity of stress and anxiety conditions. The research study followed a mate of people over a span of ten years and analyzed different elements adding to the advancement, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper highlighted that stress and anxiety disorders develop from a combination of genetic, ecological, and psychological factors. It highlighted the importance of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic methods in handling anxiety successfully. The findings even more highlighted the significance of a healing alliance and customized treatment strategies in dealing with stress and anxiety. Aetna Anxiety Therapist
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a complex and deeply personal experience that impacts individuals in profound ways. Through healing interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation strategies, direct exposure treatment, and self-care practices, people like Emma can gain control over their anxiety and lead fulfilling lives.