a common psychological health concern, affects millions of individuals worldwide. Therapist For Performance Anxiety … As an Accredited Medical Social Worker (LCSW), I have witnessed the effect of anxiety on many lives. In this post, I will share an extensive expedition of anxiety through the lens of a current treatment session with a patient, highlighting symptoms, treatment techniques, and my individual journey as a therapist with my own experiences of anxiety In addition, we will go over a term paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the multifaceted nature of stress and anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a prevalent mental health issue, impacts millions of people worldwide. As a Licensed Medical Social Employee (LCSW), I have experienced the impact of anxiety on countless lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial techniques to addressing anxiety and while those are wonderful you understand I thought possibly we should take a look at you know what’s a few of the existing research so I entered into PubMed which is I don’t understand it’s play area for me it’s where you find a lot of the journal articles and you can arrange and I arranged by short articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that provides us a concept about current research I mean there’s a lot of stuff that is still the exact same like some of the medications that were known to work 10 years ago are still known to be you understand excellent first-line treatments but there are likewise some newcomers that we’ll speak about and there are likewise some changes that we’re going to discuss so we’re going to check out some common causes for stress and anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we truly need to and naturally this does play into the biopsychosocial element we actually need to understand kind of what triggers it since anxiety that’s caused by for example someone having a racing heart may be various than anxiety that’s triggered for somebody who has abandonment issues so we’re gon na deal with the two things in a different way so we want 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 understand what are a few of these common themes that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the styles that you see that underline or underlie a lot of your customers anxiety and recognize present best practices for stress and anxiety management including therapy interventions medications physical interventions and encouraging treatments so we care since anxiety.
can be crippling and a great deal of our customers have stress and anxiety a lot of our customers have stress and anxiety comorbid with anxiety and they’re looking at us going how can I feel nervous 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 wish to sleep well a great deal of times individuals who are have both problems actually want to sleep but they can’t so I wish to assist customers understand that also in some cases stress and anxiety when individuals are anxious for enough time the body starts type of holding on to the cortisol the body in fact acknowledges at a specific point this is a losing battle I’m not going to put energy into this any longer so it starts with drawing some of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and people will begin to feel depressed generally the brain has currently said this is hopeless this is you’re you’re helpless to change the circumstance so then people begin feeling defenseless and helpless which is sort of the meaning if you will of depression low-grade chronic tension and anxiety emerged energy and people’s ability to focus so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we require to help them determine how to address anxiety not simply generalized overwhelming devastating anxiety however also panic social stress and anxiety and those minor anxiety sets off that occurred that might not meet the limit for a diagnosis stress and anxiety is a significant trigger for dependency relapse if you have a client who is self
medicated prior to or had an addiction for some reason stress and anxiety is a major trigger increased physical discomfort when stress and anxiety goes up individuals tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more discomfort I suggest think of 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 likewise among our significant pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low because anxiety is high then our discomfort perception is going to be more intense and people can have sleep problems if you’re stressed out your body believes there’s a hazard you’re not going to be able to get into that deep relaxing sleep you may have you might sleep you may sleep a lot but it’s probably not quality sleep which suggests your neurotransmitters may leave whack your hormonal agents make it out of whack and your body is going to begin viewing your itself in a persistent state of tension when we’re exhausted the body knows that we may be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to produce cortisol to keep keep you on alert a little bit so you might once again you might be resting kind of like when you have a new child in your home those first couple of months that my kids were home from the medical facility I slept however I didn’t sleep well I imply the tiniest little noise and I was awake and I was browsing and you know I felt it I felt tired and a great deal of brand-new moms and dads do so activates for anxiety abandonment and rejection and we’re going to discuss methods we may wish to handle these things however some of the underlying styles that I have actually seen in a lot of customers 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 confirmed oftentimes they’re trying to find someone else to tell them you’re lovable you’re all right so that can result in anxiety about not having people to tell them you’re all right which makes their relationships tenuous and can make them inefficient cognitive distortions and unreasonable ideas might lead people to think that if I’m not ideal for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to look at some irrational ideas and cognitive distortions unhealthy social assistances and relationships when you remain in a relationship it takes two to tango and even if your client is relatively psychologically and physically healthy if they remain in a dysfunctional relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other person is constantly stating if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other person is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can set off abandonment anxiety and inefficient social skills can result in relationship turmoil and social exile if our clients remain in relationships even if they’re not entirely dysfunctional if our customers are unable to request what they need and set suitable borders and handle conflict effectively because conflict happens in every relationship then they may start to argue more which might lead to fearing may cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I get into ends which suggests I should not be adorable so they begin fearing abandonment and rejection so these are four locations that we can take a look at one more examining clients another issue is the unknown and loss of control a lot of times negative self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I do not have control of whatever then it’s all going to be a catastrophe unfavorable others when clients hang out or when people socialize with negative individuals it kind of wears on you after a while you notice that people who are tend to be more negative cynical conspiracy minded tend to hang out with individuals who are likewise negative pessimistic and conspiracy minded so if you’re socializing with someone who tends to be anxious then the stress and anxiety can be palpable and it can sort of permeate physical problems can lead people to be nervous due to the fact that they don’t understand what’s causing it like I said earlier sometimes if your heart begins to race if you do not understand what’s triggering it you can start believing I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na pass away when individuals have panic attacks for example they genuinely believe they’re having a cardiac arrest and
it’s I’ve had them they are really very unpleasant experiences but when people start having physical grievances and it can be you understand they have an odd rash that they can’t get to go away or it whatever however when they don’t know what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it disappear they begin thinking of all the worst-case circumstances and going on the internet and getting on WebMD which generally gives you all the worst-case circumstances um so physical complaints are important we need to stabilize the reality that nobody’s pain-free all the time and you know the reality that you may have an ache or a discomfort or a swelling or a bump or you understand a cough more than likely you understand when we take a look at likelihood the probability of it being something significant is quite little now do you wish to get it checked out probably however you understand the probability that is anything to be stressed over is is relatively little and a sense of powerlessness can activate fear of the unknown and loss of control for somebody who does not feel like they have any firm in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt preyed on all of their life then they might fear not remaining in control they might be holding on and saying alright this is the one area 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 frightens me death and loss are other triggers for anxiety and it can be people or pets and animals are essential I don’t wish to reduce animals due to the fact that you understand they are little parts of a lot of our families so making certain we examine that my daughter’s pet for example is it’s getting old she’s aging she’s 14 now I think and you know she remains in good health we took her to the vet and the vet said yeah she’s got a little heart murmur but that’s expected for a 14 year old canine and but when she goes out if she does not come back when I call her I have this rush of 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 more difficult time handling my child’s emotional chaos when that occurs and since she’s grown up with this pet dog so you understand those are the kinds of things that we wish to discuss with our customers what things are weighing on you that you may not even be thinking about because I understand in the back of my mind there’s constantly that fret about one of our donkeys and her pet tasks and promos can set off stress and anxiety if individuals are afraid they’re gon na lose their task if they’re constantly scared that you understand they’re gon na walk in and get or get a pink slip fired you know we wish to help them look at how practical is that are you doing what you require to do in order to accomplish and keep your job and in some cases it’s hard to answer I suggest the first idea that a great deal of us have is well you understand if you’re doing the right thing so simply do it however there are those employers out there and I’ve had some actually incredible bosses a great deal of them and I have actually had 2 really horrendous managers and those two bosses I might never ever I never ever seemed like I was able to do anything best therefore going to those jobs there was always this anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you want to talk with individuals about does your job cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the same thing with promotions people might get nervous about whether they’re going to get promoted safety and security you know when you lose security and security you can feel actually distressed so if there’s a break-in at the house next door or a shooting down the road or you start enjoying the news you can feel extremely hazardous and unsecure truly rapidly so we want to assist people find out how safe and secure are you really and a great deal of it goes back to really taking a look at truths when individuals lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can begin to get distressed you know they have this dream that they’re going to be a medical professional or I simply finished the presentation on assisting high school trainees transition to college and a great deal of high school students for instance start college with these large eyes and hopes to save the world and they wish to be physicians and engineers and this and that and they enter into it and they recognize that it’s a lot more difficult than they believed or they recognize that you understand what I truly do not like this but I’ve currently devoted to it so what do I do or I want to assist people however I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I determined in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school since I wasn’t going to pass calculus which caused a great deal of anxiety it resembled all right what am I gon na do now you understand what career should I choose so helping people figure out do you have dreams that have possibly type of crashed and burned and you need to discover brand-new ones you know all right that a person we have actually got to accept it determine that it’s not going to be and what can you do now individuals
may likewise have dreams about relationships they enter relationships and they see themselves with this individual forever and after that this relationship ends and or starts to get rocky and they’re like but that’s my dream what occurs if my that’s got to occur due to the fact that it’s my dream I do not understand how to function if that goes away we wish to assist individuals be able to reword their narrative and then illness spiders and other phobias type of shares death a lot of times when individuals get ill they begin getting anxious that oh my gosh what if this is terminal oh my gosh what if this is you know incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na kill me and which is uncommon you understand there are really couple of spiders that are really that dangerous same thing with snakes discussing bridges I’ve shared with you all that is not one of my unreasonable fears you understand I am simply horrified that you understand something’s going to occur and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is entirely unreasonable however we require to help people take a look at those and identify the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and handle that anxiety failure is another trigger for stress and anxiety specifically in this culture our culture American culture in in big part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when people realize that they’re not best they may begin to get anxious because they feel like if I’m not best then I’m a failure you know those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they begin with that unfavorable self-talk you know you can’t do anything right so those are some of the issues that you know we frequently see in counseling sessions so what do we do you know somebody comes in and it like I can’t live in this manner doc stress and anxiety depression and compound conditions in addition to a variety of physical disorders are typically comorbid so this is the first thing we need to recognize we need to recognize that we’re extremely seldom dealing with a really easy medical diagnosis you know when someone can be found in we need to figure out you know if they come in and they’re presenting with depression all right let’s talk about that and
Understanding Stress And Anxiety: A Client’s Experience:
In my current session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old lady, I had the chance to explore the complex layers of stress and anxiety. Emma described experiencing relentless concern, a racing heart, and intrusive ideas. She discovered it challenging to focus at work and often felt a sense of impending doom. These symptoms were hindering her daily life, relationships, and total wellness.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To deal with Emma’s anxiety, we established a thorough treatment strategy tailored to her unique needs. Here are some crucial elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about anxiety and its physiological and psychological manifestations assisted her gain a much deeper understanding of her symptoms. This understanding empowered her to recognize and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based approach that focuses on determining and challenging irrational thoughts and beliefs. Emma learned to reframe negative ideas and develop a more well balanced viewpoint, slowly lowering anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Methods: Including relaxation methods such as deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma manage her stress action and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Therapy: As Emma revealed avoidance habits related to particular triggers, we slowly exposed her to those situations in a controlled manner. This direct exposure allowed her to challenge her fears and establish durability against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Way Of Life Modifications: Emma acknowledged the value of self-care practices in handling her anxiety. She focused on regular workout, healthy eating, quality sleep, and engaging in activities she took pleasure in to promote general wellness.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My choice to become a therapist was deeply influenced by my own struggles with stress and anxiety. When working with clients facing comparable obstacles, my individual journey has offered me with unique insights and empathy. Having actually experienced anxiety firsthand, I have the ability to associate with my patients’ worries, worries, and the impact anxiety can have on numerous elements of life.
Harvard’s Research on Anxiety:
An influential term paper entitled “Understanding the Complexity of Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University supplies valuable insights into the intricacy of stress and anxiety conditions. The study followed a friend of people over a span of 10 years and analyzed various factors adding to the development, upkeep, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper highlighted that stress and anxiety disorders develop from a combination of hereditary, environmental, and psychological elements. It highlighted the value of early intervention, evidence-based treatments, and holistic techniques in handling stress and anxiety successfully. The findings even more highlighted the significance of a healing alliance and customized treatment plans in addressing stress and anxiety. Therapist For Performance Anxiety
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a multifaceted and deeply individual experience that impacts people in profound methods. Through restorative interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, exposure treatment, and self-care practices, people like Emma can acquire control over their stress and anxiety and lead satisfying lives.