Who would have thought everyday life could feel so overwhelming sometimes? Meeting new people, interacting with people at work, going to school, or even leaving the house! Or perhaps you just can’t stop your mind from ticking away.
All of these things are common issues people share during anxiety treatment and counselling with the trained psychologists at our Sutherland Shire practice. Anxiety is a completely normal response in our body that is designed to protect us and prepare us for the worst. However, it can get in the way of our life if we don’t know how to deal with it.
Anxiety is a stress response that also fills us with ‘What if?’ questions. What if I get sick? What if I lose my job or partner? What if I panic? What if I make a fool of myself in front of others? The list goes on!
Anxiety can make us panic too. It affects our behaviour by making us want to avoid situations or places. While avoidance can give us short term relief from anxiety, it usually makes our fear bigger in the longer term. It stops us from making friends or getting that promotion, or it might make us rely on friends or family for things we would normally do ourselves. All of this stops us from getting on with our life.
There are many different types of anxiety. The type of help you receive will depend on how anxiety affects your life and what situations you may be more likely to avoid. For example, Social Anxiety is where people typically fear being judged negatively by others, or they may dislike being the centre of attention. Anxiety may also be closely related to other life difficulties we commonly face, meaning that progress with anxiety can also lead to progress with these difficulties.
By talking to a trained Clinical Psychologist you can learn more about your anxiety and how it affects you. More importantly, through counselling you will learn the difference between when you need to avoid things, and when you don’t.
You can also gain simple tips that can help tackle those fears at a pace that’s comfortable for you.
Suffer no longer, help is here!