Learn about your anxiety disorder and how to overcome it with our professional anxiety therapy.

When is Anxiety Out of Hand?

It can be more than a scared and panicky feeling. It's sometimes bigger than worrying about your performance at your job, as a partner, or as a friend. It might be deeper than a feeling of unease about an uncertain future.

Juggling the many demands of life can make it feel like you’re constantly on a roller coaster. Living with such continuous stress can become overwhelming and scary, impact your sense of wellbeing, and reduce your quality of life.

Every day feels like a struggle.

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to stress – everybody has experienced it at some point in their lives. It’s simply the feeling of fear of what’s to come.

You may have an anxiety disorder if this feeling lasts for more than six months and is affecting your day-to-day life. Our psychologist for anxiety can help you overcome this condition with personalized anxiety counseling.

You May Be Experiencing Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety lies not only in the mind, but remains trapped within the body and can manifest in a number of ways:

• Muscle tension, aches, and pains: It's the random muscle pain, headache, or pit in your stomach that seems to have settled like stone.

• Feelings of nervousness, impending doom or danger: A general sense of dread that follows even your best-laid plans. Cloudiness over your thoughts that run headlong into unanswerable what-ifs.

• Constant worrying and/or difficulty concentrating: You can't seem to shake the fear that you are not doing enough, that you might not make it, or that if you dare stop everything will fall apart around you. You are certain it will be all your fault and that no one is coming to help.

• Increased perspiration or heart rate: you may forget what you were worrying about and yet, your heart won't stop beating furiously within your chest. It’s like you’re constantly on the run.

• Difficulty sleeping or staying asleep: Does your mind race as it takes an hour or more to finally drift off into sleep? Do you find yourself waking up hours before the sun, an onslaught of thoughts and worries already running through your mind?

• Other symptoms of anxiety can include: stomach issues, acid reflux, trembling, chest pain, eating problems, panic attacks, nausea, and dizziness

Anxiety is More Common Than You Might Think

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. and affect almost 1 and 5 adults. This means that almost 40 million Americans are currently struggling with this on some level.

In this frenetic and fast-paced world, many find it hard to feel like they are "keeping up" and the chronic stress of it all is taking its toll. While anxiety is common in both men and women, women are twice as likely to struggle with it.

Unmanaged and untreated, anxiety can begin to take over your life and make it impossible to do everyday tasks like responding to emails, driving, and eating in public places. Anxiety looks and feels different for everyone, and this is far from an inherent condition. Major life changes from a breakup, a recent job loss or moving, or a death in the family can be the catalyst.

Anxiety Treatment Can Help

Anxiety may be powerful but it can be overcome. There is freedom from debilitating symptoms of anxiety through therapy. At Haven MHC, we can help you develop an understanding of the function of the anxiety as well as develop appropriate tools to cope with it in ways that promote overall well-being. We will help you learn to identify and manage the factors that contribute to your anxiety.

CBT for Anxiety: Effective Therapy for Anxiety

While there are different ways to treat anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has proved to be one of the most effective. This therapy helps anxiety patients change the negative thinking often associated with stress and depression. It helps them know how to recognize and change these troublesome thought patterns and behaviors in a practical manner.

Through CBT, a cognitive approach to therapy, we will help you learn to understand how your thought patterns contribute to your anxiety symptoms. You can expect to learn how to interrupt and change these thought patterns when they arise.

In the somatic component of therapy, you will also learn to recognize subconscious behavioral patterns and how anxiety influences how you show up in the world, as well as techniques to reduce undesired behaviors and physical symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.

Is Anxiety Really That Big of Deal?

Unhealthy levels of stress not only create mental anguish but over time it also becomes detrimental to your physical health. Cortisol is a powerful hormone that is released during times of duress to help fuel your fight or flight response to a perceived threat or imminent danger.

Unfortunately, it can also be released in response to more minor events such as a looming deadline, the sound of a baby crying, or getting caught in traffic. If your body remains over-activated in response to external stimuli, the same hormones that are supposed to protect you become poison.

Deprived of its resting state, the body will continue to secrete stress hormones that circulate in the blood, which over time can weaken your immune system, increase blood pressure, and generate additional mood disorders.

"If your body remains over-activated in response to external stimuli, the same hormones that are supposed to protect you become poison."

Many individuals with anxiety dismiss the severity of their symptoms and believe "it's just a phase" or think it will end whenever they get out of X situation. Some may even accept this disorder as part of their personality, believing that they are just too sensitive or too "high-strung." Others do not realize that the distress they are experiencing is related to anxiety at all.

There can be an aversion to re-evaluating and acknowledging a problem within oneself or a loved one. However, ignoring it will likely not make it go away.

So What Can You Do?

The instinctual response is to find a way to self-soothe. Social media, television, gambling, adult films, the use of sleep aids, and alcohol are commonly turned to but are ineffective and generally harmful in the long term.

Healthy self-soothing techniques do exist and the counselors at Haven MHC are eager to guide the way. We understand that living with anxiety can oftentimes alienate you from your sense of autonomy and control. During our anxiety therapy sessions, we will help you to identify your body's unique warning signs, screen potential stressors, debunk self-defeating thoughts, and reclaim your sense of power.

Anxiety Treatment Through a Strengths-Based Approach

At Haven HMC we approach anxiety treatment by looking at the whole person. We not only look at the present-day issues but consider the root of where the anxiety may have begun and how it has been dealt with historically. We work collaboratively from a strengths-based perspective to empower you to cope more effectively in the real world.

We strive to create a safe haven where we can explore your experiences through a lens of compassion to promote healing and growth. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. We will work with you as an individual to fully understand the approach that will be more suitable for you in your unique circumstances.

Anxiety disorders are very treatable. Most who suffer from anxiety can reduce or eliminate symptoms after a couple of months of therapy, and many clients notice improvement after just a few sessions. With help, you can be on your way to increased resilience and a better quality of life.

In a compassionate and judgment-free space, we will delve into the intersections of your needs, wants, and desires and find where the disconnects have occurred. We will build on methods that have helped you in the past and seek strategies to eliminate those that do not serve you. You will learn how to identify resources in any environment you may find yourself in and approach the unknown with confidence.

You can expect to gain valuable knowledge of how anxiety clouds perceptions as well as quick and powerful tips on how to be your own reality-check. We will then guide you through techniques that allow you to release stress from the body as well as the mind. Anxiety does happen, but it does not have to keep you paralyzed forever. Get in touch with us today for a consultation!

Anxiety Therapist, NYC, Queens, Nassau County, and Beyond: Schedule an Appointment!

If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, feel free to reach out to us for help. We serve Nassau County, Queens, and NYC.