What is Anxiety?

The definition of anxiety is your body’s response to a stressful situation or perceived threat

1. Generalized Anxiety: excessive worry in several areas of life, such as work, personal life, finances, health, and minor concerns.

2. Panic: an extreme case of anxiety includes panic attacks. During a panic attack you’ll experience physical symptoms.

3. Phobias: an intense fear of a specific situation or object which is out of proportion to its actual threat. For example: fear of spiders, public speaking.

• Racing thoughts

• Digestive issues

• Restlessness

• dry mouth

• Confusion

• Anxiety / Panic Attacks

• uncontrollable worry

• Increased heart rate

• muscle tension

• avoidance of fear

• headaches

• irritability

• Feeling on edge

• Frustration

• Agitation

• Sleep disturbances

• Eating disturbances

• Poor concentration

• Excessive nervousness

• Life Stress

• Stress at work

• Relationship stress

• lack of supportive relationships

• Traumatic experience

• Combination of genetics and environmental factors

• Feeling Stuck

• Financial stress

• Low self-esteem / confidence

• Feeling helpless

• Ignoring your needs & wants

• OVER SCHEDULING

The Impact of Anxiety

Your mind is constantly on overdrive and you feel like your anxiety is always getting in the way. You often feel like you’re running around in circles, yet going nowhere. You find yourself exerting needless energy all the time. You may suffer from panic attacks, which scared you to death b/c you felt like you were having a heart attack or even worse like you were dying and you were just picking up a daily coffee.

The constants in your life are feelings of: frustration, agitation, confusion and/or restlessness. You’re tired of feeling SO frustrated all the time over the smallest things. You have difficulty relaxing and may never stop going until you crash on your bed or sofa, only to find yourself WIDE AWAKE with more frustration b/c now your can’t sleep. Your stomach has been “off” lately and you can’t figure out why or whether it’s something you ate. You just feel on edge all the time. You’re hoping for the day when you can wake up, not in a panic and just go through your day “like everyone else” or “like all the other normal people”.

Treatment of Anxiety

I’ll provide you with the guidance and resources to learn about your anxiety as well as tools to help manage it, such as:

1. understanding your anxiety

2. changing negative thought patterns

3. Learning how anxiety & depression are linked

4. Reconnecting you to yourself

5. Linking feelings, thoughts & actions

6. prioritizing yourselF

Anxiety Counselling may include:

• Discovering where the feelings are coming from the role your feelings have - besides just annoying you!

• Adding new mindfulness & relaxation techniques to calm yourself as you dig deeper into understanding underlying feelings

• Learning how to ask for support and express your feelings effectively

• Applying new tools that will allow you to start to ride out your feelings like a wave in the ocean instead of reacting to them