Anxiety usually starts as a response to frightening, difficult, or life-threatening situations, but for those who struggle with disordered levels of anxiety this healthy emotion can start to make life more difficult instead of providing you with a way to keep yourself safe. If you are struggling with high levels of anxiety that are taking away from your ability to find joy and satisfaction in daily life, therapy can help you develop coping skills and increase resilience.

While anxiety can sometimes serve a purpose, living with chronic or severe anxiety can be extremely detrimental. Therapy provides a resource to learn strategies to identify and resolve causes of anxiety and relieve symptoms. Once you are aware of these negative thinking and emotional patterns, you can begin to challenge and then change them. Over the course of therapy sessions, we partner to develop coping skills to address anxiety as it is happening and alleviate overall anxiety levels.

All emotions are designed to tell us something important. That includes feeling anxious. When anxiety becomes overwhelming, it is more difficult to find enjoyment and satisfaction in life. You may have some of the following symptoms if anxiety levels have become problematic:

• Always feeling the same level of anxiety in any situation no matter the repercussions or potential hazards of the event.
• Feeling excessively worried about your own health and safety or that of your loved ones. In many cases, this prevents you and your loved ones from getting enjoyment out of daily life.
• Finding yourself missing out on activities with loved ones, professional opportunities, and other experiences that could bring you joy because you are too worried or afraid to take part.
• Being distracted by fearful or anxious thoughts, making it difficult to concentrate and be productive.
• Focusing on the details of an event or fears related to an event well after the event is over.
• Worrying about hypothetical problems or imagining the worst-case scenarios that may occur even if they are very unlikely.
• Experiencing physical responses like sweating, shaking, difficulty breathing, and elevated heart rate.
• Changing behaviors like sleeping or eating more or less than usual.