Saturday, April 2, 2011

Help for anxiety

Many people come to see me because of severe anxiety. Anxiety is such a physical experience. Your body may feel tense, your breathing may be shallow, you may be jittery, you may not be able to sit down. Along with these body sensations, your thoughts may be of fears especially about the future. These are common symptoms. This is why many people seek out a therapist who can assist them with decreasing or eliminating these fears and uncomfortable body sensations.

Interesting enough the body sensations and the thoughts and fears become a feedback loop- one feeds off the other- You think fearful thoughts- your body becomes tense and your breathing is shallow and then you think more fearful thoughts!
The first think you want to do is BECOME AWARE OF THIS FEEDBACK LOOP. The next step is starting to work on BREAKING IT! You can start by breathing deeper into your belly, slowing down your breath. You can also learn to relax your body through different relaxation exercises. The important thing to remember is that you CAN feel better. I know you can. You need to know you can.