a widespread mental health issue, affects millions of people worldwide. Music Therapy For Anxiety And Depression … As a Licensed Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have witnessed the impact of anxiety on numerous lives. In this short article, I will share an extensive expedition of anxiety through the lens of a current therapy session with a client, highlighting symptoms, treatment techniques, and my individual journey as a therapist with my own experiences of stress and anxiety Additionally, we will talk about a term paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the complex nature of stress and anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a widespread mental health concern, affects millions of individuals worldwide. As a Certified Medical Social Worker (LCSW), I have witnessed the impact of stress and anxiety on numerous lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial methods to addressing anxiety and while those are terrific you understand I believed maybe we should take a look at you understand what’s a few of the current research so I entered into PubMed which is I don’t know it’s play area for me it’s where you find a lot of the journal posts and you can arrange and I arranged by posts that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that provides us a concept about present research study I mean there’s a great deal of stuff that is still the same like some of the medications that were known to work 10 years back are still understood to be you understand good first-line treatments but there are also some beginners that we’ll discuss and there are likewise some modifications that we’re going to discuss so we’re going to check out some common causes for anxiety signs in order to treat it we truly require to and of course this does play into the biopsychosocial aspect we truly need to comprehend kind of what triggers it since anxiety that’s caused by for example somebody having a racing heart may be various than stress and anxiety that’s caused for somebody who has abandonment problems so we’re gon na deal with the two things in a different way so we wish to take a look at a few of the common causes we’re gon na look at some common triggers for stress and anxiety you know what are some of these typical styles that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the themes that you see that highlight or underlie a lot of your customers anxiety and recognize existing finest practices for stress and anxiety management including counseling interventions medications physical interventions and encouraging treatments so we care since anxiety.
can be debilitating and a lot of our customers have stress and anxiety a lot of our customers have stress and anxiety comorbid with anxiety and they’re looking at us going how can I feel anxious and stressed and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you understand when you’re depressed you’re expected to want to sleep well a great deal of times individuals who are have both problems truly wish to sleep however they can’t so I want to assist customers understand that also often stress and anxiety when people are anxious for long enough the body starts kind of holding on to the cortisol the body in fact acknowledges at a certain point this is a losing battle I’m not going to put energy into this anymore so it begins with drawing a few of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and individuals will begin to feel depressed generally the brain has already said this is hopeless this is you’re you’re powerless to alter the situation so then people begin feeling defenseless and helpless which is sort of the meaning if you will of depression low-grade chronic tension and stress and anxiety developed energy and individuals’s ability to concentrate so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we require to help them determine how to address stress and anxiety not simply generalized frustrating incapacitating anxiety but also panic social stress and anxiety and those small anxiety activates that occurred that might not fulfill the threshold for a medical diagnosis stress and anxiety is a major trigger for addiction relapse if you have a customer who is self
medicated before or had a dependency for some reason anxiety is a major trigger increased physical discomfort when anxiety increases people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more pain I mean think about when you’re stressed you tend to have more pain like in your neck in your back and things that currently hurt might harm more why due to the fact that serotonin which is among our significant anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise one of our significant pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low due to the fact that stress and anxiety is high then our pain perception is going to be more intense and people can have sleep issues if you’re stressed your body believes there’s a risk you’re not going to have the ability to enter that deep restful sleep you may have you might sleep you may sleep a lot but it’s most likely not quality sleep which implies your neurotransmitters may leave whack your hormonal agents make it out of whack and your body is going to start viewing your itself in a relentless state of tension when we’re tired the body knows that we might be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to secrete cortisol to keep keep you on alert a little bit so you may once again you may be resting sort of like when you have a brand-new infant in the house those first number of months that my children were house from the healthcare facility I slept however I didn’t sleep well I imply the slightest little noise and I was awake and I was taking a look around and you understand I felt it I felt tired and a great deal of new parents do so activates for anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to speak about methods we may want to handle these things but some of the underlying styles that I have actually seen in a lot of customers and when I do the research what a great deal of what themes that come out consist of low self-confidence
if somebody has low self-confidence they’re seeming externally verified often they’re searching for somebody else to tell them you’re lovable you’re okay so that can cause stress and anxiety about not having individuals to tell them you’re fine which makes their relationships tenuous and can make them dysfunctional illogical thoughts and cognitive distortions might lead people to believe that if I’m not best for instance I am not lovable so we’re going to take a look at some illogical ideas and cognitive distortions unhealthy social supports and relationships when you remain in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your customer is reasonably psychologically and physically healthy if they remain in a dysfunctional relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other person is always stating if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other individual is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can set off desertion stress and anxiety and inefficient social abilities can cause relationship chaos and social exile if our clients are in relationships even if they’re not entirely inefficient if our customers are not able to ask for what they need and set proper borders and handle conflict effectively because dispute takes place in every relationship then they may begin to argue more which might lead to fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I enter into ends which suggests I must not be lovable so they begin fearing desertion and rejection so these are four areas that we can look at another evaluating clients another problem is the unknown and loss of control a great deal of times negative self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I do not have control of whatever then it’s all going to be a disaster unfavorable others when customers hang out or when individuals socialize with unfavorable people it kind of wears on you after a while you observe that individuals who are tend to be more negative downhearted conspiracy minded tend to socialize with individuals who are also unfavorable pessimistic and conspiracy minded so if you’re hanging out with someone who tends to be distressed then the stress and anxiety can be palpable and it can kind of permeate physical grievances can lead people to be distressed because they do not understand what’s triggering it like I said previously in some cases if your heart begins to race if you do not know what’s triggering it you can start believing I’m having a cardiovascular disease or I’m gon na die when people have panic attacks for instance they truly believe they’re having a cardiac arrest and
it’s I have actually had them they are extremely extremely unpleasant experiences however when individuals start having physical complaints and it can be you know they have an unusual rash that they can’t get to disappear or it whatever but when they don’t know what it is and they can’t manage it they can’t make it go away they begin thinking of all the worst-case situations and going online and getting on WebMD which normally provides you all the worst-case scenarios um so physical grievances are very important we need to normalize the reality that no one’s pain-free all the time and you know the reality that you may have a pains or a pain or a swelling or a bump or you know a cough more than likely you understand when we take a look at possibility the likelihood of it being something considerable is quite little now do you wish to get it had a look at most likely however you know the possibility that is anything to be stressed over is is relatively little and a sense of powerlessness can set off fear of the unknown and loss of control for somebody who doesn’t feel like they have any agency in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt preyed on all of their life then they might fear not being in control they may be hanging on and stating all right this is the one area of my life I can control when I matured you understand I grew up in a very chaotic environment I had no control I was bounced around in the foster system yadda yadda yadda now that I’m an adult you know I can manage these things and I am going to hold on with white knuckles and if I can’t manage everything then that terrifies me death and loss are other triggers for stress and anxiety and it can be people or family pets and pets are important I do not wish to lessen pets because you know they are little parts of a lot of our families so making sure we inspect that my child’s pet dog for example is it’s getting old she’s growing older she’s 14 now I think and you understand she remains in good health we took her to the vet and the veterinarian stated yeah she’s got a little heart murmur but that’s anticipated for a 14 year old dog and however when she goes out if she doesn’t return when I call her I have this rush of stress and anxiety for a second oh my gosh I hope this wasn’t the day so stress and anxiety around losing individuals and you know if she when she crosses the bridge she will and and you understand
I’m all right with that I’m I have a harder time handling my daughter’s emotional chaos when that takes place and due to the fact that she’s grown up with this canine so you understand those are the types of things that we wish to talk about with our customers what things are weighing on you that you might not even be thinking of since I know in the back of my mind there’s constantly that worry about one of our donkeys and her pet jobs and promos can activate stress and anxiety if individuals hesitate they’re gon na lose their job if they’re constantly afraid that you know they’re gon na stroll in and get a pink slip or get fired you know we want to help them look at how sensible is that are you doing what you need to do in order to accomplish and keep your job and in some cases it’s not easy to address I indicate the first idea that a lot of us have is well you know if you’re doing the right thing so just do it however there are those managers out there and I have actually had some really incredible managers a great deal of them and I’ve had two really horrendous employers and those 2 bosses I might never I never ever seemed like I had the ability to do anything best therefore going to those tasks there was always this anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you wish to talk with individuals about does your task cause stress and anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the same thing with promos people may get distressed about whether they’re going to get promoted security and security you know when you lose security and security you can feel really anxious so if there’s a break-in at your home next door or a shooting down the road or you begin enjoying the news you can feel really unsafe and unsecure really rapidly so we want to assist individuals find out how safe and protected are you actually and a lot of it returns to truly looking at realities when individuals lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can begin to get distressed you know they have this dream that they’re going to be a medical professional or I just finished the presentation on assisting high school students shift to college and a lot of high school students for instance start college with these wide eyes and wants to save the world and they want to be medical professionals and engineers and this and that and they enter into it and they realize that it’s a lot more difficult than they believed or they understand that you understand what I actually do not like this however I have actually currently devoted to it so what do I do or I want to assist people but I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I found out in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school due to the fact that I wasn’t going to pass calculus and that triggered a great deal of stress and anxiety it resembled fine what am I gon na do now you understand what career should I choose so helping people figure out do you have dreams that have possibly type of crashed and burned and you need to find brand-new ones you know fine that one we have actually got to accept it find out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now individuals
may also have dreams about relationships they enter relationships and they see themselves with this individual permanently and then this relationship ends and or starts to get rocky and they resemble but that’s my dream what happens if my that’s got to happen since it’s my dream I don’t understand how to operate if that goes away we wish to help individuals be able to reword their story and after that sickness spiders and other phobias kind of shares death a great deal of times when people get ill they begin getting anxious that oh my gosh what if this is terminal oh my gosh what if this is you understand incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na eliminate me and which is rare you understand there are very couple of spiders that are actually that toxic same thing with snakes reviewing bridges I’ve shared with you all that is not one of my unreasonable worries you know I am just horrified that you know something’s going to happen and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is entirely irrational however we need to help individuals look at those and determine the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and deal with that anxiety failure is another trigger for stress and anxiety particularly in this culture our culture American culture in in large part puts a high premium on success and perfectionism so when individuals realize that they’re not ideal they might start to get anxious due to the fact that they seem like if I’m not ideal then I’m a failure you understand those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they begin with that unfavorable self-talk you understand you can’t do anything right so those are some of the problems that you know we typically see in counseling sessions so what do we do you know somebody comes in and it like I can’t live by doing this doc anxiety depression and substance disorders as well as a series of physical disorders are typically comorbid so this is the first thing we need to recognize we require to understand that we’re extremely seldom dealing with a very basic diagnosis you understand when someone comes in we require to determine you understand if they are available in and they’re presenting with anxiety all right let’s talk about that and
Understanding Stress And Anxiety: A Patient’s Experience:
In my current session with Emma (name altered for privacy), a 32-year-old woman, I had the opportunity to delve into the detailed layers of anxiety. Emma explained experiencing persistent worry, a racing heart, and invasive ideas. She found it challenging to focus at work and frequently felt a sense of impending doom. These symptoms were disrupting her daily life, relationships, and overall well-being.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To resolve Emma’s anxiety, we developed a thorough treatment plan customized to her distinct requirements. Here are some crucial elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about anxiety and its physiological and mental manifestations helped her gain a much deeper understanding of her signs. This understanding empowered her to acknowledge and validate her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based approach that concentrates on recognizing and challenging irrational thoughts and beliefs. Emma discovered to reframe unfavorable ideas and establish a more well balanced perspective, gradually lowering anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Strategies: Integrating relaxation strategies such as deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma control her tension response and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Therapy: As Emma expressed avoidance behaviors related to specific triggers, we slowly exposed her to those circumstances in a controlled manner. This exposure permitted her to challenge her fears and establish resilience against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Way Of Life Adjustments: Emma recognized the value of self-care practices in handling her stress and anxiety. She prioritized routine workout, healthy eating, quality sleep, and participating in activities she took pleasure in to promote general well-being.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My decision to end up being a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with anxiety. When working with clients facing comparable obstacles, my personal journey has offered me with distinct insights and empathy. Having experienced stress and anxiety firsthand, I am able to relate to my clients’ worries, concerns, and the effect stress and anxiety can have on numerous aspects of life.
Harvard’s Research on Anxiety:
A seminal research paper titled “Understanding the Intricacy of Stress And Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University supplies important insights into the complexity of stress and anxiety disorders. The study followed a cohort of people over a period of 10 years and examined various elements contributing to the development, upkeep, and treatment of anxiety.
The paper highlighted that anxiety disorders emerge from a mix of hereditary, ecological, and mental elements. It highlighted the importance of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic techniques in managing anxiety successfully. The findings further underscored the significance of a restorative alliance and individualized treatment plans in dealing with stress and anxiety. Music Therapy For Anxiety And Depression
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a deeply individual and diverse experience that affects people in extensive methods. Through therapeutic interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, direct exposure treatment, and self-care practices, individuals like Emma can gain control over their anxiety and lead fulfilling lives. As a therapist, my personal journey with anxiety enables me to supply effective and compassionate care to my clients. The research carried out by Harvard University sheds light on the complex nature of stress and anxiety, reinforcing the significance of customized treatments and early intervention in promoting mental well-being. Together, we can navigate the labyrinth of anxiety and discover the path to a more serene and empowered existence.