You might not be sure that this is anxiety
You never thought you were someone who struggles with anxiety. You didn’t realize the butterflies in your stomach and nausea you sometimes feel were all symptoms of anxiety. You assumed because it wasn’t debilitating, it’s not that big of a deal. You’re still able to go to work and school. You try to be a good girlfriend, wife, mother, and friend. You have struggled to know what the tightness in your chest and tension in your shoulders that shows up fairly often is about. Anxiety is the worst.
For a while, you didn’t think it was anxiety because it wasn’t that much of a problem because it actually kinda helped. You felt motivated to work hard and achieve the goals you had set for yourself. Doing these things helped you feel better, but you’re finding it doesn’t always work as it did at first. You’re now feeling pretty overwhelmed, and nothing seems to make those feelings disappear. You feel guilty for not showing up for the people in your life the way you want. You do have some good days, but you are noticing the harder days are happening more often than you would like.
Symptoms of anxiety:
Everyone experiences different symptoms of anxiety. You may not experience these symptoms but might have other anxiety symptoms. These are some of the common symptoms the women I work with share:
Increased irritability
Racing thoughts
Difficulty relaxing
Constant worry about loved ones
Ruminating thoughts
Restlessness
Difficulty Sleeping
Is perfectionism a symptom of anxiety?
You might not think you’re much of a perfectionist because many things in your life aren’t perfect. You notice your flaws and really don’t think you’re good enough. Sometimes your anxiety ramps up even further when you don’t get straight A’s or think someone doesn’t like you. Despite doing well in different parts of your life, people often tell you that you’re not very nice to yourself and seem to have low self-esteem. This is how perfectionism can be a symptom of anxiety. Some refer to perfectionism as “toxic perfectionism”.
You don’t want to fail at anything. You hate feeling that way and try hard to avoid upsetting other people. You don’t like when other people are mad at you. You find yourself thinking about how you could be better and worrying that you are a burden to the people in your life. One of your biggest fears is not being loved. All of these forms of perfectionistic thinking increase feelings of anxiety.
Can perfectionism cause anxiety?
Yes, perfectionism can contribute to developing anxiety or it can make it worse. While having high standards may not seem like a negative thing, perfectionism takes it to an extreme level that can be detrimental to your mental health. Perfectionists frequently experience fear of failure and disappointing others. This fear may cause anxiety when they aren’t able to meet those high expectations. The constant pursuit of perfection can be emotionally draining and mentally exhausting. You might not realize the amount of energy it takes to keep up with trying to be perfect. Working with a therapist for anxiety can help you recognize how perfectionism may be contributing to your anxiety.
How do you calm perfectionism anxiety?
Perfectionism can feel like a tangled web that seeps into all areas of your life. It’s not an easy thing to let go of all on your own. This is why working with an anxiety therapist is critical in helping you loosen the grips of perfectionism in your life. Part of anxiety treatment focuses on recognizing and having awareness of where perfectionism impacts your life and functioning. Being a perfectionist doesn’t mean you strive to be perfect in all parts of your life but that doesn’t mean that it’s not any less damaging. Many of the women I work with don’t realize that perfectionism is both a symptom of anxiety but is also how they’ve learned to manage anxiety in the past. Working with a therapist for anxiety will help you learn to undo the beliefs you have about needing to be perfect.
What is High-functioning anxiety?
You might show signs of high-functioning anxiety but may not know what it is. High-functioning anxiety is not a different anxiety diagnosis, but the difference between it and generalized anxiety disorder is how it presents itself. High-functioning anxiety is usually well hidden by those who struggle with it, but it doesn’t make it any less debilitating. This type of anxiety may sometimes be responsible for your “success”, and people compliment you because you always seem on top of it. Others don’t know that being on top of things is how you try to manage your anxiety. You may not even realize this is how you are managing your anxiety. One of the problems with this is that it’s driven by fear of failure and fear of disappointing others. Women with high-functioning anxiety are often perfectionists.
What are the signs of high-functioning anxiety?
Everyone’s symptoms of high-functioning anxiety will look a little different. These are some of the common signs you may be experiencing high-functioning anxiety.
Excessive worry: those experiencing high-functioning anxiety can experience excessive worry about a variety of issues such as health, work, school, relationships, future events, and more.
Perfectionism: Setting high standards for yourself, a fear of making mistakes, and falling short of expectations are symptoms of high-functioning anxiety.
Overthinking and rumination: those with high-functioning anxiety have a tendency to ruminate and overthink about the past, things they’ve said, and the future.
Need for control: Those with high-functioning anxiety often have a need to control themselves, their environment, and situations as a way of managing their anxiety.
What triggers high-functioning anxiety?
High-functioning anxiety can be triggered by fear of making mistakes, high standards, stress, perfectionism, overthinking, fear of failure, time pressure, past trauma, and genetic predisposition. Women grappling with high-functioning anxiety often experience perfectionistic tendencies, fear failure, and disappointing others. This fear becomes a significant source of anxiety, as they constantly worry about not meeting the self-imposed high standards they have set for themselves. Working with an anxiety therapist can help you with managing high-functioning anxiety effectively.
Ready to start therapy for anxiety in Utah?
You don’t have to keep feeling the knots in your stomach and being consumed with fears of not being good enough. Therapy for anxiety can help! This Utah Counseling Clinic has a therapist for anxiety that can help. To begin counseling follow these steps:
Meet with a caring therapist
Start managing your anxiety better
Do people-pleasers have more anxiety?
The women I work with struggle with people-pleasing. They have a hard time prioritizing their own needs. People-pleasers tend to experience more anxiety. They want acceptance and approval. They are terrified of conflict and will sacrifice their own well-being just to satisfy someone else. People-pleasers are likely to experience more anxiety because of their fear of rejection, their high standards for themselves, their difficulty in maintaining boundaries, shoving down their own emotions, and not taking the time for self-care.
How do to deal with people-pleasing anxiety?
Part of working with an anxiety therapist is learning to challenge your people-pleasing. Therapy for anxiety can help people-pleasers set boundaries for themselves, and challenge the negative thoughts that might be fueling their people-pleasing. Understanding your need for constant approval and where this stems from can help you feel less anxious about saying no and prioritizing your own needs. The goal of anxiety treatment is for you to not to be so consumed with fear and worry about pleasing others but to be able to choose what’s best for yourself. What this looks like for everyone will be different, but I’m confident as we work together we will be able to find your individual roadmap for getting there.
what are Coping Skills for Anxiety?
At this point, the way you have been coping with anxiety doesn’t seem to be working like it used to. You desperately want the coping skills to help you manage your anxiety symptoms but you don’t know what they are. It’s hard to have hope that there is something that might actually help you deal with all this anxiousness. Through the support of anxiety therapy, the women I work with are able to find the coping skills that work for them individually.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to coping with anxiety but as an anxiety therapist, I’m confident we can help you find exactly what you need. I’m dedicated to helping you find relief. Part of coping with anxiety is being able to dig into what’s underneath all of your anxiety, and I want to be able to help you do this in a safe and supportive environment.
How do you treat anxiety through therapy?
As an anxiety therapist, the goal I have for my clients is for them to feel less consumed with worry and stress. I want them to stop feeling their heart beating out of their chest, like they can’t catch their breath, and for their stomach aches to go away. You deserve to be able to sleep at night without lying awake thinking about the stupid things you’ve said and how you could have said it better. You are not a failure and you deserve better than thinking you are. I treat anxiety by first understanding what particular anxiety symptoms you struggle with. Finding out the situations, people, and places that increase anxiety is part of being able to find anxiety relief.
What type of therapy is best for anxiety?
There are many different therapy approaches that have been proven to be effective in treating symptoms of anxiety. However, the women I work with that struggle with high-functioning anxiety have benefited the most from these therapeutic techniques.
ACT for Anxiety relief
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapeutic approach that specifically focuses on anxiety relief. ACT teaches you how to stop wrestling with anxiety and to find ways to turn down the volume of the anxious chatter in your head. This therapy approach helps you identify your values, how to use self-compassion, and how to take action to help loosen the grip anxiety symptoms have on you. You are more than your anxiety, and ACT can help you see this doesn’t mean you are a flawed human.
EMDR for Anxiety
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapeutic approach that has been found to be effective in treating anxiety disorders. EMDR has often been used to treat PTSD and other traumatic experiences. However, EMDR helps people experiencing anxiety process and work through the past painful experiences or situations that are contributing to anxiety symptoms. Anxiety often centers around a negative belief you may have about yourself. and EMDR can help you change those unhelpful and unwanted beliefs that you may have. EMDR also helps you use coping strategies to be able to contain your anxiety and learn to calm down.
When does anxiety turn into a disorder?
Anxiety crosses the threshold into a disorder when it goes beyond normal levels of worry and stress. We all get worried, nervous, and stressed at times but when anxiety becomes a persistent and pervasive presence in your life it may be an anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder is not just anxiety experienced in response to challenging situations but starts to interfere significantly with daily functioning and overall well-being. However, your anxiety doesn’t have to be an anxiety disorder to reach out for help from an anxiety therapist.
What personality types are prone to anxiety?
There certainly are personality traits that can be linked to experiencing anxiety. However, anxiety can impact anyone regardless of their personality type. One personality type that may be prone to experiencing anxiety is what I like to call “super feelers”. These people feel emotions deeply and tend to feel the emotions of everyone else around them. Super feelers are more prone to worry and stress, which can lead to experiencing anxiety.
Another personality type more prone to anxiety is perfectionists. When you have high standards for yourself and fear failure and making mistakes, you tend to have higher rates of anxiety than those that don’t. Highly sensitive people and those who struggle with low self-esteem often experience more anxiety.
What can anxiety do to your body?
Anxiety can wreck havoc on your body. Anxiety can impact your body in different ways because of the connection between your brain and the body. Anxiety impacts the body because it alerts the body that it’s not safe and puts it into a “fight or flight” state of activation. The body doesn’t know you may not actually be in danger but that you’re actually anxious about something at work. Here are some of the ways anxiety impacts your body:
Rapid heart rate
Shallow or rapid breathing
Muscle tension and tightness
Stomachaches
Digestive disorders
Weakened immune system
Difficulty sleeping or insomnia
Trouble focusing
Struggling to remember things
Why am I in a constant state of anxiety?
Being in a constant state of anxiety can feel unbearable. This is certainly not the way you enjoy living your life when you are constantly filled with worry and uncertainty. Everyone’s experience with anxiety is different. There are so many factors that might explain why you are constantly dealing with anxiousness. You may have an anxiety disorder but underneath all of that, you might have painful or scary experiences that contribute to feelings of anxiety. Death, accidents, past unhealthy relationships, and unwanted sexual experiences, can put you in a constant state of anxiety until they are resolved and worked through. You may have genetics and personality traits that make you more prone to anxiety. You may also be dealing with stressful situations in your life right now, which can lead to feeling much more anxious. Regardless of why you are in a constant state of anxiety, anxiety counseling can help.
When should you seek help for anxiety?
If you are even thinking about needing help for anxiety, I promise you can benefit from working with an anxiety therapist. You don’t have to tell yourself it’s not bad enough for help or that other people have it worse, you deserve the benefit of learning to cope with anxiety better. If you want to find relief from anxiety, therapy for anxiety can make a huge difference.
Other signs that you should seek therapy for anxiety are noticing the impact anxiety has on your life. This might mean you need to be honest with yourself about how much it’s impacting your relationships and physical and emotional functioning. My goal as an anxiety therapist is to collaborate with you about what you need and what will work for getting you the anxiety relief you’re looking for. You’re not crazy for having anxiety. Anxiety isn’t such overreacting. It’s a big deal, and there’s a reason you’re feeling this way. Together, we can find out why.
Anxiety Therapy can help make it all make sense
The people I work with feel struggle in these ways too. My clients don’t think what they are going through is really as bad as other people go through so they don’t think they need to get any help. They aren’t even certain what they have is anxiety and aren’t sure about using the label of anxiety. The people I work with also worry that they might not accomplish as much as they’re used to or might end up lazy if they get help for their anxiety.
The women I work with might also struggle to admit what they’re feeling is anxiety because it seems like a weakness or another area they fall short in. They talk themselves out of getting help because they should be able to manage it on their own, or therapy still feels like something only unstable people need. That’s not the truth, though. You don’t have to have all the symptoms of anxiety to deserve help. It doesn’t matter if what you are struggling with isn’t as bad as what someone else is dealing with, you still deserve a place to sort it all out. You don’t need to have all the answers, and you’ve already done enough on your own. I want to be able to help you. Trying to do it all on your own is exhausting.
Working with an anxiety therapist in Utah can help you find relief
My goal for my clients is to help them find relief from their anxiety and to be able to manage it better in the future. As a therapist, I find that when anxiety starts getting worse, it’s usually triggered by something, even though it can feel like it came out of nowhere. I work to help my clients by healing those negative experiences that may be underlying all the anxiety. Sometimes it can be things that have happened that they don’t think isn’t that significant but, in some ways, are still impacting them.
Online anxiety therapy in Utah
You really don’t have to keep living like this. It doesn’t matter that it could be worse because it doesn’t have to be to get help. Therapy really can help. I am willing to work hard along beside you to find the answers you are searching for. You deserve it. I know it’s important to find a therapist you work well with regardless of where you are in Utah. This is why I provide online therapy in Utah.
Online therapy in Utah allows me to work with clients located in Logan, Salt Lake City, Heber, Provo, St. George, or Cedar City, Utah,
Begin working with an anxiety Therapist in Utah
You don’t have to be consumed with anxiety. Anxiety doesn’t have to control your life. Anxiety counseling can help you find freedom from the butterflies in your stomach and constant fluttering in your heart. This Utah Counseling Clinic has an anxiety therapist that can help! To begin therapy, follow the steps below:
Meet with an anxiety therapist
Begin anxiety therapy
Other mental health services provided by maple canyon therapy
Anxiety therapy isn’t the only counseling service provided at this Utah Counseling Center. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include: eating disorder therapy, body image therapy, binge eating disorder treatment, and trauma therapy in Utah.