Anxiety is a strong feeling of fear or worry, a typical emotional response to various kinds of overwhelming situations. Over time, suffering from constant anxiety can significantly impact your mental health.

This is why seeking professional help or support can help you cope with and overcome anxiety. Overcomers Counseling Aurora specializes in offering anxiety counseling services that are both effective and compassionate.

These are some things to know about anxiety and treatment options if you’re considering counseling services.

Our Aurora anxiety counseling therapists recognize anxiety as worry, fear, and unease. Usually, it encompasses both the emotional and physical feelings we experience when we are nervous about something. Most people have felt the occasional anxiety or uncertainty at some point in life, especially when faced with stress-inducing situations such as writing an important exam, starting a new job, or even giving birth to a baby. These feelings of tension and unease are a normal part of every human experience. However, some experience a more significant impact of anxiety than others.

Basically, anxiety disorders are more intense and encompass more than just temporary worry or fear. Those with anxiety disorder are susceptible to longer experiences of anxiety that don’t want to go away and, eventually, worsen over time. Additionally, when these emotions are intense or prolonged, they can become too overwhelming for those that experience them, even though they are common. Generally, intense anxiety can make you believe things are worse than they are and, thus, prevent you from doing your everyday tasks.

Anxiety symptoms vary with different people and can be divided into different categories. These include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Phobia-Related Disorders, etc.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Those with this type of anxiety often experience ongoing anxiety or worry. This is not the typical anxiety or worry caused by stressful life occurrences that every other person feels from time to time. Instead, people suffering from GAD undergo persistent anxiety that occurs for an extended period, sometimes several years. The symptoms of this disorder manifest in the following ways:

• Experiencing fatigue quickly and having trouble with concentration.
• Feeling easily annoyed or agitated.
• Having trouble managing feelings of anxiety.
• Experiencing issues with sleeping, such as struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Ever experienced an intense fear that others are watching you? This is an example of the characteristics of a social anxiety disorder. People who suffer from this are usually afraid of social situations because their anxiety can get so intense, and they start to feel like everything is out of control. This fear can get out of control to the extent that it impedes their daily life and activities. They may even choose to avoid any form of social interaction. People with a social anxiety disorder can experience the following symptoms:

• Blushing, sweating, or trembling
• Feelings of self-consciousness
• Body posture rigidity
• Stomachaches
• Difficulty making eye contact

Panic Disorder

Unexpected and frequent panic attacks characterize panic disorder. Panic attacks manifest as a sudden and intense feeling of fear or a loss of control, even when no danger is in sight. Some symptoms of anxiety during a panic attack include:

• Chest pain
• Racing heart
• Feelings of impending doom
• Sweating
• Feelings of being out of control
• Trembling or tingling 

Like other mental disorders, anxiety doesn’t manifest in people because of character flaws or personal weaknesses. Researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact cause of anxiety; however, some factors influence the manifestation of anxiety in people.

There are some people whose anxiety may be linked to some underlying health issue like Thyroid problems such as hyperthyroidism, heart disease, diabetes, rare tumors that produce certain fight-or-flight hormones, etc.

In some other instances, experiences of abuse or traumatic events in children leave them at a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders at some point. Adults, too, aren’t exempted from developing anxiety this way.

Stress buildup can also cause anxiety in people. This includes events like losing a loved one, accumulated work or daily life stress, etc.

Other types of mental health disorders can also result in a manifestation of anxiety disorders in people. For instance, people that suffer from depression can also have an anxiety disorder. While all these causes or triggers might seem scary, there is always the option of employing our Aurora Anxiety Counselling services to help you alleviate symptoms before they get worse.

Whether you experience symptoms like panic attacks, persistent worries, or a crippling phobia, it is essential to know that you don’t always have to live this way. Different coping skills and treatment options can help you manage these symptoms. Some of these options include: 

• Mindfulness
• Relaxation techniques
• Correct breathing techniques
• Dietary adjustments
• Exercise

 Some examples of treatment options also include Behaviour therapy and Cognitive therapy. 

Behavior Therapy

A crucial aspect of behavior therapy is exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is a treatment method that involves intentionally facing your fears so you can desensitize yourself. By exposing yourself, you learn to train yourself to reevaluate the aspects of fear that trigger your anxiety. 

Cognitive Therapy

On the other hand, cognitive therapy is another type of therapy that modifies thought and belief patterns that cause and trigger anxiety. Cognitive therapy is centered on the concept that beliefs lead to thoughts, which in turn cause emotions and result in actions.

Overcomers Counseling Aurora offers anxiety counseling services that provide clients with practical coping techniques and treatments to manage anxiety. Clients are taught evidence-based therapeutic techniques to help them regulate their emotions, challenge negative thought patterns, and develop healthier behaviors.