ANXIETY THERAPY IN ARKANSAS

Anxiety is a natural human emotion, so it’s understandable that you feel it from time to time. It’s totally normal to feel anxious about meeting new people, changing careers, coming out, taking a test, and more. Anxiety becomes a problem when it hijacks our brain and nervous system and becomes so powerful that it pulls us away from the things we want or need to do and into unhelpful ways of living.

Therapy will help you lower the amount of anxiety you feel to regain control of your mind and body and learn to react in ways that are life-affirming rather than self-sabotaging.

Anxiety is a natural feeling when dealing something scary or stressful, but it doesn’t always require a diagnosis. A diagnosis like Generalized Anxiety Disorder is when your anxiety meets a very specific set of criteria. But whether or not you fit the criteria, therapy can help you learn to manage stress and deal with the thoughts and feelings that come up in helpful ways using clinically-appropriate coping tools.

Many people start therapy thinking that “confidence” means they will never feel anxiety ever again. In reality, what we think of as confidence is often called “resilience.” This means that you have faith in your ability to handle what comes your way, even when it makes you feel anxious – and even when you experience setbacks.

Confident people still feel anxiety. They just trust in their ability to handle it. Therapy can help you develop the skills to manage your thoughts and physical reactions when you feel anxious, which can help lower the distress you feel so you can do the things you need or want to do. This helps you trust in your ability to handle whatever life throws at you, which is what we call confidence!

Stress is the physical response to threats – both real or perceived threats. Your body doesn’t know the difference between the real threat of coming across a bear in the woods and the perceived threat of a math test. Your body’s defenses kick in and can cause symptoms like elevated heart rate, sweating, shortness of breath, and the release of adrenaline and cortisol. What we call “stress” in the day to day sense can describe dealing with anxiety-producing situations or even thoughts, and the body’s responses, on a frequent basis due to work, relationships, school, and more.

Social anxiety is the fear and self-consciousness that comes when you engage in or sometimes even think about doing something social. This can include fear of judgement by others, fears of rejection, fear of speaking in front of others, and more. Many people these days talk worry about “being awkward” or “being cringe.” These fears are natural to some degree.

 This anxiety becomes a mental health problem when it causes you to avoid social situations that you actually want to or need to do. This can include going places to meet new people, going someplace on your own where there will be a lot of strangers, or even fears of going out to meet friends you already have.

It robs you of the life you want to be living and can lead to unhelpful coping like drinking or doing drugs in order to feel “loosened up” and comfortable enough to socialize.

Test Anxiety is when your body responds to taking a test, or sometimes even thinking about or studying for a test, as if it were in danger. Your heart races. Your palms may sweat. You find it difficult to concentrate – which naturally affects your ability to think clearly for a test. Therapy for Test Anxiety is similar to therapy for general anxiety but is focused on helping you feel capable of managing your reactions, calming your mind and body, and taking the test. This may also include requesting accommodations from your school’s disability resource center.

Math Anxiety is similar to Test Anxiety but focused on math. This may include problems with taking math classes and doing math homework due to feelings of fear and frustration with math based on current struggles or past experiences in earlier classes.

Some people also may have dyscalculia, which is a form of dyslexia specifically related to math and reading numbers, and not realize it.

Anxiety often involves getting caught up in thoughts and feelings related to the future and things that may or may not happen. Based on ideas from things like Zen and meditation, mindfulness tools can help you focus on the present moment and worry less about the future and things you cannot control or predict.

While things like meditation and yoga can help with mindfulness, this doesn’t mean you have to do those. Mental health approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) have ways you can learn to focus on the here and now in everyday ways taht are pretty easy to work into your life.