Anxiety & Depression
Here it comes again…
That all too familiar nervousness, as your heart begins to race, palms begin to sweat, and your stomach becomes uneasy when you enter the station to start another shift.
All too familiar because this feeling is coming up almost everywhere, including at home, with friends, and even when at the store.
At work, your mind races with thoughts of that call from last month and how horrible it felt to lose a human life.
When out with friends, you have an impending fear that something bad is going to happen.
You walk through the door at home wondering if the wife and kids are ok.
Feeling confused and frustrated…
You don’t remember thinking and feeling this way six months ago, but you’re uncertain when it really started.
You become frustrated when you can’t seem to get control of your thoughts and feelings.
Your mind is spinning with a multitude of thoughts, creating catastrophic scenarios, and triggering a near constant state of nervousness.
You attempt to distract yourself by staying busy, but this only leads to fatigue and exhaustion.
Worries, anxieties, and fears…
…are common and a quite normal part of our human experience, because we have a word machine between our ears that never sleeps, constantly comparing, judging, and evaluating everyone and everything.
The word machine is our brain; and it was designed to keep us alive by identifying threats, solving problems, and preparing our bodies to fight, flee, or freeze.
This is the reason why anxiety is felt throughout our bodies.
Unfortunately, our life experiences give our brains an ample supply of material to perceive as threatening.
Anxiety is different from fear…
Even though the bodily experience is the same, how do they differ?
Fear is experienced when you see a grizzly bear in the woods. Anxiety is experienced when you think about possibly seeing a bear in the woods.
Both can evoke the same feelings and bodily sensations.
You don’t like how anxiety feels…
And your natural response is to avoid anything that causes you to feel anxious.
You begin to avoid people, places, events, situations, and interactions that might possibly cause anxiety.
The irony is that you continue to feel anxious, even though you are avoiding almost everything.
Depression
Your life narrows and…
Depression sets in, as you have stopped engaging in many vital aspects of your life.
You may feel sad that you can’t hang out with your friends and family anymore, but the fear of anxiety and even another panic attack keeps you alone and isolated.
You struggle to find purpose and meaning in life, as negative thoughts and rumination about the past increase.
The word machine shifts…
To negative thoughts and evaluations about yourself and your current situation.
Your internal struggle with believing all the negative evaluations becomes more intense as you look for evidence to defend yourself and prove your mind wrong.
At first the evidence is sufficient to offset the negativity. But with each passing day it becomes scarcer, as the lack of activity adds to the prosecution’s case.
Negative thoughts and feelings increase…
And just making it to work takes everything you can muster.
At home, you isolate from family and make excuses to be alone.
As you try to sleep, the word machine turns on, and you toss and turn until it is time to go to work again.
This becomes a relentless cycle!
There is hope…
Anxiety and depression are related to how you respond to the word machine’s thoughts and memories.
Your natural responses are not the most effective, so new and more effective responses can be developed.
In our work together…
…we will discover a more effective approach to the word machine.
Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy strategies and relaxation techniques, you will learn ways to cope with the negative and anxiety-provoking thoughts, memories, and feelings.
These strategies include mindfulness and present-moment awareness, which anchors one in the present, the only place we can effectually change anything.
Cognitive diffusion skills create some space from those overwhelming thoughts, thus providing the opportunity to develop more effective responses.
Values clarification will prepare the foundation for newly developed responses.
Relaxation skills will help maintain a calm body, while processing difficult thoughts, feelings, and memories.
Reboot and…
Discover freedom from the negative effects of the word machine!!
Please complete the contact form below or schedule a free 20-minute phone consultation here.