Increased feelings of fear and overwhelmingly uneasy thoughts can cause the experience of anxiety. Experiencing heightened anxiety over a prolonged time can increase your risk for depression, including feelings of numbness, isolation, and sadness. It is often best to seek treatment as soon as possible to retrain your mind’s focus and live a healthier, peaceful life.
Anxiety can be frustrating to live with! Not only does it affect your mental health, but your physiological health as well.
Everything in your body is connected, especially your brain, which oversees all that happens throughout your body. The brain is a part of the body’s central nervous system and dictates what the body needs to do or should do to survive and live.
For example, the brain tells the body when to feel pain or how, when to sleep, or eat, and all other functions. Unfortunately, this does not always mean that the signals your brain sends out to your body are appropriate and this can cause unhealthy reactions rather than graceful responses.
If your brain is constantly attempting to survive and protect its vitality, the body tends to grow fatigued and disconnected.
GENERAL SIGNS OF ANXIETY
- Increased irritability
- Difficulty sleeping
- Restlessness
- Fatigue
- Chronic pains, including headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, and other pains
- Feeling on edge
- Struggling with overthinking or excessive worry
HOW TO GET RID OF YOUR ANXIETY: TREATMENT
CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, is a phenomenal research-based way to treat anxiety.
CBT can help you break down the negative cycle within your mind and body, retraining your thoughts and slowing down your reactions to further make conscious decisions to respond.
Breaking down your thought processes begins with describing a situation, either past or present, and describing what thoughts are curated from that specific situation.
Next, you begin to describe what feelings were associated with those thoughts.
Next, you address the reactions that came with those present and described feelings.
This allows a learning opportunity for the brain to practice reassessing any given situation and having the ability to view it from another perspective.
Over time, you learn to observe and recognize the patterns within your own mind, and you can choose to break those cycles and mindfully relearn new chosen healthy ways to respond instead.
With continued CBT therapy, you can gain more awareness and consciousness of your thoughts, feelings, perspectives, and responses. With increased awareness, you will notice the overthinking and debilitating anxious thoughts slowly diminishing.
It is possible to retrain your mind on your own through meditating, journaling, speaking with friends and family, or trying CBT workbooks. However, treatment for anxiety is much more effective when done with a certified LMFT or CBT therapist. They can help guide you to comb through each situation gracefully and teach you new tools to try in your day-to-day life to get rid of your anxiety.
Treatment and healing look different for every individual. Depending on the severity of your anxiety and your efforts to be consistent with treatment, there will be major factors in how long treatment will take. It is best to start with a professional to help you focus on the journey of healing, celebrating your small wins along the way, rather than focusing on the destination.
Medication is also an option to coincide with CBT if anxiety symptoms worsen or continue after months or years of therapy. You can speak with your CBT therapist or LMFT to see what they recommend. Your therapist can provide education and evidence-based practices or recommendations for what could be best for you, your overall health, and your well-being.
EFFECTIVE ANXIETY TREATMENT IN THE LA CRESCENTA-MONTROSE AREA
Are you looking for an LMFT or CBT therapist who can best support you to break free from anxiety? Given Guidance provides Family Therapy to families in La Crescenta, CA, and Los Angeles County.
Schedule your first session today. You and your family matter to us!