At Lionsheart Counseling & Wellness, I offer specialized treatment for managing anxiety. Anxiety can show up as:
- Avoiding certain situations or people after a bad experience
- Feeling restless, tense, or “keyed up”
- Excessive worrying about the future
- Physical sensations, such as heart beating fast, sweating, or tunnel vision
There are a couple of pathways to experiencing anxiety. One pathway is through your brain’s threat detection system. Part of your brain is constantly scanning your environment for danger, and sometimes it doesn’t take much for it to sound the alarm. Once the brain labels something a “threat,” it can be very difficult to undo this association. For example, if you’ve been bitten by a dog, you’re more likely to be uneasy around dogs in the future and may go out of your way to avoid being around them.
The other path to anxiety is through your thoughts and interpretations. You think thousands of thoughts throughout the day, and your brain is monitoring them for threats as well. Let’s say you remember a mistake you made on a report at work. Your brain flags this as a potential threat, and suddenly the thoughts become more persistent. You begin remembering other mistakes, and before long you start worrying about losing your job. As your brain interprets these thoughts as danger, your fight-or-flight response becomes activated. Once this alarm system goes off, it can be very difficult to reel your thoughts and physical sensations back in.
The good news is that anxiety is very treatable. In fact, anxiety is one of the most researched and understood mental health concerns. If you’re experiencing excessive worry or other symptoms of anxiety, there are many tools at your disposal. Exercise, limiting stimulants (such as caffeine), getting adequate sleep, and limiting your screen time can all help in reducing the effects of anxiety. Therapy can also be highly effective in decreasing anxiety.
I combine a variety of practical, skills-based approaches along with experiential ones to help my clients work through their anxiety. In addition to exploring where your anxiety may be coming from, I will teach you practical skills for managing it in the moment. My office is conveniently located in Wekiva Springs, and is easily accessible from Longwood, Apopka, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Maitland, Lake Mary, and Winter Springs.
Contact me for a complimentary consultation to find out more about how we can work together to manage your anxiety.