Anxiety 

Do you describe yourself as a worrier? Do you find yourself worrying about everything, from health, finances, your kids, your relationships, whether you’re worrying too much (or maybe not quite enough?).  While you may think of your worry as a part of your personality, this may actually be minimizing the impact that anxiety has on your life. When you find yourself worrying all the time, you can’t stop the worries, and they are interfering with your ability to enjoy your life, these may be signs that anxiety has become a problem. Not sure if you worry too much? Read here for a few signs that your worry may be excessive.

Anxiety Symptoms 

Symptoms of anxiety can be categorized into three groups; the anxious thoughts, physical symptoms and behaviours that are either caused by the anxiety or a way to try to alleviate anxiety.  These are the three heads of the anxiety monster.

Anxious thoughts

-          Worries racing through your head a majority of the time

-          Going through multiple “what if” scenarios

-          If there is a worst case scenario, you’ve thought of it!

-          It is difficult to control or stop the worries

-          The worries are interfering with sleep; the thoughts are keeping you from falling asleep or you are waking you in the middle of the night or early morning

Anxiety behaviours

-          You avoid certain activities or social functions because of anxiety

-          You check and double check (lists, door locks, appliances)

-          You may participate in activities, but you’ve planned, organized and stressed so much, by the time the event has arrived, it is no longer fun.

-          You try to control things as a way of managing the worry.  When things are out of your control, this can lead to feeling very overwhelmed

-          You struggle with procrastination because you worry that what you do won’t be good enough or up to your standards

Anxiety Treatment in London, Ontario 

Anxiety is a common issue for many of the people that I work with. First, we will determine the nature of your anxiety and how it presents. For some people anxiety is generalized (worrying about many things) while for others it can be more specific (i.e social situations) or it can be a combination of both. Sometimes the anxiety has been triggered by a specific event or sometimes it feels that it just has always been there.  We will get a good understanding of the anxiety and how it impacts your life.

Many people seek counselling to find strategies to cope with their anxiety. These strategies can include how to manage the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as deep breathing. However, rather than just stopping at coping techniques, we will work together to really tackle the anxiety. Imagine if you didn’t avoid parties because of worries about what you would say. Imagine if you didn’t have the non-stop worries running through your head. Imagine if you could connect to some of your experiences as they were happening, rather than just worrying about the next thing. Want to start tackling the anxiety?