Anxiety
When everything feels like a mountain
Therapy for the worry that will not switch off, for adults in Crozier, Powhatan, and online across Virginia.
You checked it four times. It still does not feel finished.
You turned the work in. Everyone said it was great. You are still certain you left something out, and that somebody is going to notice.
Friends come over and you ask if they need anything. They say they are fine. You spend the evening wondering whether you did enough.
What if I am late tomorrow? What if the car breaks down? What if they did not mean what they said? Some of it you could call good planning. But it does not stop when the planning is done.
You tell yourself everyone gets anxious. You go and do something fun, and for a while it is fine. Then you are right back in it, and you could not say how it started.
You are right. It does not need to be a mountain.
Worry is normal. It becomes a problem when it takes on a life of its own. Most people I see arrive with more than one kind of anxiety tangled together:
- Generalized anxiety. Worry that is not about one thing, and touches work, home, and everything in between.
- Panic. Sudden waves of pounding heart, sweating, trembling, and a sense of losing control.
- Social anxiety. A strong fear of being watched or judged that gets in the way of work, school, or seeing people.
- Phobias. Intense fear of a specific thing or situation, and a lot of effort spent avoiding it.
Therapy for anxiety is not
"Just get over it"
You are not being too sensitive, and you would have got over it by now if that worked.
"Stop worrying"
Being told it will be fine has never once made it feel fine.
"Be brave"
Nobody is going to push you in at the deep end and call it treatment.
A quick fix
I will not tell you this will be over soon. I will tell you it can get better.
What we do instead
We look at your particular worries and where they came from, so they have somewhere to go. Then we try different tools and decide together which ones work for you.
I will ask you to step outside your comfort zone, and I will respect what you know about yourself when I do. Some of it is hard. Some of it is fun, and now and then a bit silly, because I like to bring humor and play into the room.
Finding calm looks different for everyone. My job is to help you find your way to yours.
Ready to take the next step?
Start with a free 15-minute call and we will talk through your options.