Anxiety Disorders are by far the most prevalent mental illness experienced by adults in the US, topping out at 19.1% according to the National Alliance on Mental Health. Basically 1 in 5 adults will experience some form of an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Occasional anxiety is an expected part of life. You might feel anxious when faced with a significant life event, before giving a presentation, or before making an important decision. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, schoolwork, and relationships. There are several types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and various phobia-related disorders.
I approach anxiety issues from the perspective that the anxiety is the result of one of two things, either fear or suppressed feelings. Fear can be about something in the present, something in the past or something in the future. In my experience this usually has to do with some experience in the past that was traumatic or in someway caused a fear to develop that is now creating a fear of something in the present or the future. This is where
EMDR Therapy comes in. It gives us the ability to reprocess past events and resolve them so that they are no longer producing the fear response every time that memory comes up or gets triggered.
Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety
- Feeling restless, wound-up, or on-edge
- Being easily fatigued
- Having difficulty concentrating; mind going blank
- Being irritable
- Having muscle tension
- Difficulty controlling feelings of worry
- Having sleep problems, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, restlessness, or unsatisfying sleep
