Is anxiety taking over your life?

What you might not know is that low levels of anxiety are actually useful to focus and motivate you. That said, high levels of anxiety and intense, prolonged feelings of fear or distress can severely interfere with your personal life, your work life, and even your physical health.

When anxiety takes over, psychotherapy can help you get back on track. I’ll help you deal with your anxiety in a healthy, sustainable way, that leaves you feeling stronger and more in control.

There are several different types of anxiety, each with their own list of symptoms.

Read the paragraphs below to find out which type of anxiety your symptoms match up with.

Do you worry excessively about everyday things? Do you feel restless, tired, tense, irritable? Is your sleep disturbed? Do you avoid engaging with life because you worry that something is going to go wrong? If your answer is “yes” to any of these symptoms, then you may have Generalized Anxiety.

Do you have stage fright that is impossible to overcome? If you do, chances are you blush, sweat and stutter at the mere thought of speaking in public. For many, fear of public speaking (or of social situations) is highly debilitating. It leaves you feeling self-conscious and worried that you will be scrutinized or do something embarrassing or humiliating. If that sounds like you and you avoid social situations as a result, you may have Social Anxiety.

Are you terrified of a specific thing or situation, like spiders, blood, heights or flying? Do you tremble, does your heart race, or do you have shortness of breath when you encounter these things? If yes, and you realize your fear is disproportionate to the risk of the “thing” but you avoid it anyway, you may have a phobia.

Do you have recurring, unexpected panic attacks that can last up to 10 minutes? Many of my patients who do live in fear of the next attack. When an attack starts, do you have trouble breathing, feel your heart pound or race, or worst of all feel afraid you are having a heart attack? If you can relate to this, and if you find yourself avoiding places where your panic attacks happened in the past, you probably have a Panic issue.