Anxiety
Is COVID-19 Making Your Anxiety Symptoms Worse?
Are you worried to leave the house because you’re afraid you might catch COVID?
Do you worry about something happening to your friends, family, and loved ones?
Is anxiety preventing you from living the life you want?
Do you think about the decisions you’ve made in your life and wish you’d made different ones?
Do you stay up nights worrying about the “what if’s”?
Do you have times where your heart is racing, it is hard to catch your breath, or you feel like you’re going to jump out of your skin?
The thought of going to the grocery store where there are so many people is just too much?
Maybe you can’t even leave your house because you’re so anxious, or work has become so difficult that you aren’t performing at the level you used to. Or you’re so irritable and you’re yelling at the kids more.
You Are Not Alone.
Anxiety is even more common than depression and affects 40 million adults in the US each year! This is over 18% of our population! And it is so treatable, but only 37% of people who have anxiety seek help. Anxiety causes an increase in physical symptoms including shortness of breath, racing heart, sweating, stomach aches, diarrhea, tingling in fingers or lips, among others. These physical symptoms frequently lead to doctors’ office visits or ER visits at a rate of three to six times that of the general population.
People In Your Life Don’t Understand
They may not understand what you are feeling. They may say to you “just do it” meaning the grocery shopping, the phone call, the email that needs sending. In an effort to protect yourself, you may isolate yourself from the people you love and you’ve relied on for support. Maybe you don’t want to inconvenience them by asking for help. Maybe the support they’ve provided in the past wasn’t quite supportive.
Many People Believe Anxiety Is A Part Of Life
Yes, we are biologically made to have anxiety. But anxiety gets out of control when you aren’t using it for a burst of energy to run away from a bear or enhance your reflexes to avoid a car accident. Anxiety, when felt during non-life-threatening daily activities can get overwhelming. Maybe you feel like you aren’t being that “perfect” mom while homeschooling or you didn’t decorate for the holidays like others you see on social media. You might feel guilt, or shame for how you handle things. All of this takes a toll on your mental health.
Normal versus Chronic Anxiety
As described above, it is normal to have some anxiety. But when it starts to interfere in your day to day activities, or it becomes so overwhelming that you’re having trouble meeting your obligations, it is time to seek help. Many of us weren’t taught how to deal with anxiety as children. As adults, without healthy coping mechanisms, you may turn to something that makes the anxiety go away like alcohol or drugs. Soon you realize that the anxiety is still there no matter what you do.
That’s where I come in. I’m here to find out the root cause of your anxiety and treat it. Sometimes anxiety is caused by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Sometimes it comes from having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Sometimes it is borne out of circumstances like COVID or an acute illness.
Anxiety Treatment Can Help You Return To Your Life with Calm And Peace
You might have a hard time even entertaining the idea of going to a doctor’s office to discuss anxiety. Or you might think that the only treatment for it involves heavy-duty drugs that you need to stay on for life.
We have many treatment options available, not just medications from the pharmacy that help with anxiety. "Calm aid"** can help with anxiety; it is a specially measured lavender oil that can be taken by mouth*. Many patients report significant improvement in their anxiety. We utilize all the options available to you to help you conquer this debilitating experience and get you to your personal goal rapidly. Together, as a team, we can get you there.
*Always check with your provider before starting a new medication
**Link to Amazon affiliate
What Can You Expect From Anxiety Treatment?
You won’t feel overmedicated, you won’t feel like you can’t experience your own life. That’s the number one expressed fear when I get patients to talk about their anxiety. We will go through your medical history, and some of the history of your life to determine if there is a medical cause for your anxiety or if something that you’re doing is inadvertently causing the anxiety. We will talk about different strategies for treatment and you will be the one to choose the plan from these strategies. We want you to feel engaged in the world around you, but with a deep sense of peace and calm.