Anxiety appears in different ways for different people. Let’s explore some specifics.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety happens when our adrenaline is triggered causing us to experience physical anxiety symptoms such as shakiness, a racing heart, or excessive sweatiness to name a few. It causes a feeling of fear, dread, and uncertainty. In other words, it doesn’t feel good at all! However, anxiety is fairly common and stems from our fight, flight, or freeze response which helped keep our ancestors alive when presented with a threat.
Anxiety Symptoms:
- Racing thoughts or persistent worry
- Physical symptoms like upset stomach, headache, heart racing
- Trouble sleeping
- Restlessness
- Struggling to remain present
There are different types of anxiety…
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) –
People who experience GAD tend to worry consistently about different aspects of their life and life events. They may experience restlessness as well as have trouble concentrating due to their worrisome thoughts.
Panic Disorder –
People who suffer from panic disorder experience reoccurring, intense episodes of fear and worry during which they have physical anxiety symptoms like hyperventilation, upset stomachs, dizziness, and chest pains.
Phobias –
People with phobias have concentrated anxiety about something specific; this could be an event or an object. Common phobias include fear of spiders or heights.
What causes anxiety?
Similar to depression, there is no singular cause for anxiety. However, there is a combination of factors that may increase someone’s chances of having anxiety.
- Personality
- Family history
- Trauma
- Health conditions
- Drug usage (caffeine can also trigger anxiety episodes)
Holistic Therapy Options for Anxiety Treatment
Just like there are various forms of depression treatment, the same goes for anxiety! Some people use medication, attend support groups, go to anxiety therapy, or focus on mindfulness techniques such as meditation or yoga.
At Solace Solutions, we take a holistic therapy approach to anxiety treatment.
Note: if the cause of anxiety stems from trauma, we refer our patients to trauma specialists who can help people process their trauma-based anxiety.
When providing people with anxiety help, our anxiety therapists use a combination of mindfulness techniques that include…
-Deep Breathing
-Meditation
-Tapping
These types of mindfulness activities help us get present so we are no longer engaging in worry about the future or the past. We also explore what people’s habits are:
-Do they drink a lot?
-Are they needing to get more sleep?
-Do they exercise?
-Do they have a good work/life balance?
-What are they feeding themselves?
It’s important to look at habits because things like diet and exercise can impact mood and mental well-being and often, are not considered during anxiety treatment.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Treatment
If someone’s anxiety stems from a negative core belief then we will also use CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). Negative core beliefs usually boil down to these six thoughts…
- I am a failure
- I’m not good enough
- I’m not trustworthy
- I don’t belong
- I’m unworthy
- I’m unloveable
While these core beliefs are untrue, we repeat them to ourselves over and over again until we actually start to believe them which has a serious impact on mental health and well-being. Just reading them makes us feel bad! In order to disrupt these thought patterns, we use CBT to help others identify which negative thoughts they struggle with and uncover where these thoughts originate from (they often form when we are young). Once we have uncovered these thoughts we can rewrite them so we can replace these negative core beliefs with positive affirmations. CBT can help as a type of anxiety treatment for those who suffer from negative self-talk and low self-esteem.
Start Feeling Better with Anxiety Treatment in Colorado Springs, CO
If you are suffering from anxiety symptoms, there are many tools to help you move through it! From diet changes to tapping, there are ways to worry less and enjoy life more. At Solace Solutions we will help you determine which anxiety treatment options would be most beneficial to you. Follow these steps to get started:
- Reach out if you have any questions or for a free consultation with an understanding therapist!
- Schedule an appointment for holistic anxiety therapy
- Start fully enjoying your life!
Other Holistic Therapy Services we Offer in Colorado Springs, CO
We offer a variety of mental help services in person at our Colorado Springs office and throughout Colorado using online therapy. Our services include depression treatment, couples therapy, and marriage counseling. As well as family therapy and teen counseling.
