Therapy for Anxiety
We all feel anxious at times. Anxiety is good! It keeps us vigilant and safe and allows us to fight or flee when we are in danger. Seriously, if we did not experience anxiety we would have all been eaten up by lions many moons ago. For some people, heightened anxiety is absolutely necessary for their survival, specifically for those who are dealing with hunger, danger, and instability in their day to day lives. Anxiety energizes you, increases your reaction time, and allows you to have laser focus on the task at hand. However, for many of us anxiety can be persistent, debilitating, or incredibly uncomfortable. In these cases, we are often safe - but we don't feel safe. It seems impossible to turn the anxiety off.
One of the most common issues we hear about at Therapists of New York is anxiety; anxiety around work, relationships, health, and/or money. This anxiety feels awful. Most of our patients come to us after working tirelessly to avoid their anxiety. Unfortunately, that does not work! The more we ignore or wish away anxiety, the more it pops up in random uncontrolled ways (e.g., panic attacks or anger outbursts). The more we avoid our anxiety, the bigger and stronger it gets..
When anxiety is chronic and overpowering it can become disordered. The most common anxiety disorders seen in private practice are:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - Excessive anxiety and worry about a variety of topics, events, or activities. It may also include restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbances.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - disturbing, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts followed by attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts and urges.
Panic Disorder - feelings of terror or loss of control, impending sense of doom or danger, rapid/pounding heart rate, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath or tightness in your throat, chills, hot flashes.
Phobias - unreasonable and excessive fear in response to a stimulus such as flying, dogs, going to the dentist, or being in enclosed spaces.
All of these disorders cause significant distress and may also impact one's ability to function in relationships or at school and work.
The therapists at Therapists of New York specialize in treating anxiety. First and foremost, we believe that avoidance of anxiety is the enemy. The more you avoid, the worse you feel. We help our patients take control of their anxiety by utilizing evidence based treatments. We assess each patient's needs and create a treatment plan that incorporates elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and psychodynamic therapy. These therapeutic techniques allow us to tackle your anxiety head on by building up tools to keep anxiety in check, as well as gain more insight into your own psychology. See below for some examples of tools and insights you could learn in therapy:
Your therapist will provide psychoeducation about what happens to your brain and body when you get anxious. It's actually quite interesting! Did you know that it is physically impossible to be both anxious and relaxed at the same time?
Your therapist will help you train your brain and body to relax, control your breathing, and stay present. This allows you to make space for calm and grounded feelings.
Your therapist will help you identify negative thoughts that may contribute to anxiety (e.g., I am boring, people don't like me, I am not good at many parts of my job).
Your therapist will help you Identify behaviors that may contribute to anxiety (e.g., leaving a party when you start getting anxious about socializing or taking a bus instead of flying because of fear).
All the therapists at Therapists of New York also use Psychodynamic therapy to treat anxiety. This type of therapy helps you understand how anxiety impacts you on a deeper and more personal level. We have noticed time and time again that working with anxiety often feels like a game of whack-a-mole; when a patient comes in with anxiety about money, we help them reduce their concern and then soon enough they start to have anxiety about relationships and once relationships feel more stable, health and safety concerns spike. The themes change but the anxiety persists and often presents like a roller coaster; up and down with different casts of characters.
Psychodynamic therapy allows our patients to control their anxiety by developing a deeper understanding of themselves. Our therapists help you identify patterns of anxiety that are specific to you. For example, why does your anxiety keep coming back? What from your past has led you to feel unsafe and out of control? How are you benefiting from anxiety (e.g., are you avoiding dating because rejection is hard)? Using this framework, you will develop a deeper understanding into how anxiety impacts you in particular. Often just knowing where anxiety comes from takes the power out of it. DATING.
Anxiety can at times feel terrible but it is impossible to eliminate anxiety all together. Therapy is targeted at managing the anxiety so you feel in control of your emotions. The therapists at Therapists of New York treat anxiety by helping you develop here-and-now skills to manage anxiety so when it bubbles up, you have tools to keep it at bay. You will also have a deeper understanding of why your anxiety is ramping up so these feelings don't just happen to you. There is no reason to spend your days feeling anxious. Get help now so you can be more free.
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