Do You Wish You Could Just Slow Down In Life?
Have you been feeling abnormally stressed lately? Does it seem like you’re moving too fast for your own good or just spinning your wheels and getting nowhere in life? Maybe you’re full of frantic, chaotic energy 24/7—like you can’t slow down and enjoy life as it comes to you. Or perhaps you’re angry and irritable. The smallest things tick you off, and you feel impatient with yourself and everyone around you.
Living with anxiety can throw off your day-to-day life, affecting your ability to work, socialize, and do the things you love. You may experience racing thoughts, panic attacks, lack of sleep, or even bodily aches and pains. Sometimes the signs of anxiety aren’t so obvious, however. Often anxiety will simply look like anger or sadness. You may feel like you have a short fuse with people and are easily provoked or always lashing out. Or perhaps you feel hopeless and uninspired all the time. There may be a deep-seated uncertainty over the future that keeps you from focusing on what you love. You may even experience a desire to control every aspect of your life.
If you want to stave off intrusive thoughts and find stillness in your life, we would be honored to help. By working with an anxiety counselor from our staff, you can learn to regulate your emotions, stay mindful and present, and improve your self-confidence and self-esteem for years to come.
Anxiety Is On The Rise In Our Noisy, Fast-Paced World
Anxiety is the number-one mental health ailment in the US.[1] What’s more, many people who experience anxiety also suffer from another mental health issue—after all, nearly half of those who are dealing with anxiety also have depression.[2] And while no one is immune to anxiety, women are almost twice as likely to struggle with it as men are.[3]
These statistics are not surprising, of course, given the fast-paced society we live in. Our culture values perfection and performance over rest and play. There is so much pressure to look like we have it all together and act as though we’re not struggling underneath that it can be overwhelming at times. The workplace demands that we keep up an aura of professionalism. Social media floods us with images of people who seem happier and more successful than we are. It’s no wonder many of us struggle with anxiety. Unable to drown out the constant barrage of noise in our lives—either from the office, the internet, or even our own homes—we end up fatigued, stressed, and deeply, deeply unsure of ourselves.
On our own, we like to tell ourselves: If I just try harder, I can make my anxiety go away. The trouble is not that we don’t try hard enough, however, but that “trying harder” often creates more problems than it solves. If we constantly try to think of ways to alleviate stress, we end up dwelling on our problems more, which often makes anxiety worse. In other words, we experience anxiety over having anxiety.
This is why the most effective form of self-care is not bucking up and trying to go it alone, but finding someone nurturing and compassionate who can listen to you and help you see yourself in a new light. As trapping as your symptoms may feel, anxiety is highly treatable. You are more resilient than you probably believe, and you don’t have to live with the same pattern of thoughts and behaviors forever.
Anxiety Treatment Empowers You To Face Tomorrow With Joy And Assurance
With anxiety, some coping skills help, and others may exacerbate your problems without you even knowing it. Here at Monarch Family Counseling, we will teach you effective, real-life coping skills and act as a sounding board for what works and what doesn’t. We’ll also explore any internal and external factors contributing to your anxiety, such as past trauma or current events. By getting to the root of your troubles, we can help expand your self-awareness and equip you with the strength to control negative thoughts and emotions.
Our entire approach to anxiety treatment is personalized to meet your desires and goals. In sessions with us, you can expect to learn grounding strategies and coping skills uniquely suited to your situation. We’ll teach you to self-talk your way through negative thoughts and identify any additional stressors contributing to your anxiety. For those needing panic attack treatment, we may bring in mindfulness techniques such as meditation and deep-breathing to reduce overwhelm and help you self-regulate.
Out staff is well-trained in a wide array of treatment methods and philosophies. We use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to challenge and modify negative thoughts and behaviors, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to increase coping skills and resiliency, and Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to process traumatic events that your experience with anxiety may be related to. Additionally, we may bring in expressive arts to enhance creativity and promote relaxation. This will help you work through subconscious beliefs and learn to intuitively process and release emotional pain.
When you have anxiety, it often feels like you’re living in overdrive, moving at a hundred miles per hour and unable to stop. Thankfully, this is a state of mind that can be corrected and overcome. After all, we wouldn’t be working here if there wasn’t hope for true healing. With our help, you can conquer negative emotions and empower yourself to face tomorrow with joy and assurance.
You may have some concerns about anxiety treatment…
I just want to feel better now.
Therapy is not magic, but it can offer serious relief in the form of skills and strategies that can help you feel better now. That said, anxiety therapy is not all about instantaneous relief. We want to provide both short-term relief for your symptoms and long-term healing for the underlying pain that created anxiety in the first place. Some forms of anxiety stem from deep-seated emotional grievances that have no quick fix. In this case, we encourage you not to be too hard on yourself. Not finding immediate relief isn’t a sign of failure. As long as you’re patient with yourself and willing to work, you can learn how to manage stress and overcome symptoms of anxiety.
I don’t want to be on medication.
We’re here to support you on your own terms. We’ll never push you to try something you’re uncomfortable with. If you don’t want medication, we will try to help you cope and heal without it. But if we feel you would benefit from it, we will at least discuss it with you, even though we do not prescribe it (you’ll have to consult a psychiatrist or your primary care doctor). Medication offers respite that counseling can’t always provide on its own. It helps bridge the gap between therapy and biology, allowing you to manage pain in your day-to-day life when we’re not there.
How do I know that anxiety treatment will work?
Here at Monarch, we are all trained professionals with years of experience and the amazing results we’ve seen in clients are what motivate us to keep going. If there’s one thing we can say with assurance, it’s that people are usually more resilient than they imagine. They often surprise themselves with their ability to heal. No matter how stuck you feel, things can be different. The methods we work with are evidence-based, the skills we teach are tried-and-true, and the work that you put in yourself can make the greatest difference of all.
Find Stillness In Your Life Again
If anxiety is interfering with your life, we encourage you not to struggle in silence. Working together, we can help you slow down, breathe, and learn to enjoy life as it comes to you. To connect with us, you can call the office at 801-349-9606, email us or message us on our website.
At the moment, because of COVID-19, we offer both in-person and online therapy for anxiety. We’re open to whichever option suits you best.
[1] https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics
