a prevalent mental health issue, impacts millions of people worldwide. Anxiety Therapy Homework … As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I have actually witnessed the impact of stress and anxiety on countless lives. In this article, I will share an extensive exploration of stress and anxiety through the lens of a recent therapy session with a client, highlighting symptoms, treatment methods, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of stress and anxiety Additionally, we will discuss a term paper by Harvard University that clarifies the diverse nature of stress and anxiety.|Stress and anxiety, a prevalent mental health issue, impacts millions of people worldwide. As a Licensed Scientific Social Worker (LCSW), I have witnessed the effect of stress and anxiety on many lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial approaches to attending to anxiety and while those are fantastic you know I believed maybe we should take a look at you know what’s some of the current research so I went into PubMed which is I don’t know it’s playground for me it’s where you find a lot of the journal posts and you can arrange and I arranged by articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past 5 years so that provides us a concept about present research I mean there’s a great deal of things that is still the very same like a few of the medications that were known to work ten years ago are still understood to be you know great first-line treatments however there are also some newbies that we’ll speak about and there are likewise some modifications that we’re going to talk about so we’re going to explore some typical causes for anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we truly need to and obviously this does play into the biopsychosocial aspect we really require to comprehend kind of what causes it because stress and anxiety that’s caused by for example someone having a racing heart may be various than anxiety that’s caused for somebody who has abandonment issues so we’re gon na deal with the two things differently so we want to take a look at a few of the typical causes we’re gon na take a look at some typical 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 some of the styles that you see that underlie a lot or highlight of your customers anxiety and recognize current finest practices for anxiety management consisting of therapy interventions medications physical interventions and supportive treatments so we care due to the fact that anxiety.
can be disabling and a great deal of our customers have stress and anxiety a lot of our customers have anxiety comorbid with anxiety and they’re looking at us going how can I feel nervous and stressed out and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you know when you’re depressed you’re expected to wish to sleep well a lot of times people who are have both problems actually wish to sleep but they can’t so I wish to help customers comprehend that also sometimes anxiety when individuals are anxious for enough time the body starts sort of hanging on to the cortisol the body in fact recognizes at a particular point this is a losing fight I’m not going to put energy into this anymore so it starts with drawing some of its excitatory neurotransmitter so to speak and individuals will begin to feel depressed essentially the brain has actually currently said this is hopeless this is you’re you’re defenseless to alter the situation so then individuals start feeling helpless and hopeless which is sort of the meaning if you will of anxiety low-grade chronic stress and stress and anxiety developed energy and individuals’s capability to concentrate so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we require to help them figure out how to resolve stress and anxiety not just generalized overwhelming devastating anxiety however likewise panic social stress and anxiety and those minor anxiety activates that occurred that may not satisfy the limit for a diagnosis anxiety is a significant trigger for addiction regression if you have a client who is self
medicated prior to or had an addiction for some reason stress and 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 indicate 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 hurt more why because serotonin which is among our significant anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise among our significant discomfort 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 severe and individuals can have sleep issues if you’re stressed your body believes there’s a threat you’re not going to have the ability to enter that deep restful sleep you might have you may sleep you may sleep a lot however it’s probably not quality sleep which suggests your neurotransmitters may get out of whack your hormonal agents make it out of whack and your body is going to start viewing your itself in a consistent state of stress when we’re exhausted the body understands that we may be the weakest link in the herd so it continues to produce cortisol to keep keep you on alert a bit so you might again you might be resting kind of like when you have a new baby in your home those first couple of months that my children were home from the hospital I slept but I didn’t sleep well I mean the tiniest little sound and I was awake and I was browsing and you know I felt it I felt tired and a great deal of brand-new parents do so triggers for stress and anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to talk about ways we may want to handle these things but a few of the underlying themes that I’ve seen in a lot of customers and when I do the research what a great deal of what styles that come out include low self-esteem
if somebody has low self-esteem they’re looking to be externally verified oftentimes they’re looking for somebody else to tell them you’re lovable you’re fine so that can lead to stress and anxiety about not having people to tell them you’re okay that makes their relationships rare and can make them dysfunctional unreasonable thoughts and cognitive distortions may lead individuals to think that if I’m not ideal for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to take a look at some irrational ideas and cognitive distortions unhealthy social assistances and relationships when you remain in a relationship it takes 2 to tango and even if your client is relatively mentally and physically healthy if they are in an inefficient relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other individual is constantly saying if you do not do X I’m going to leave you or if that other person is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can set off abandonment anxiety and inadequate social abilities can result in relationship turmoil and social exile if our customers remain in relationships even if they’re not entirely dysfunctional if our customers are unable to request for what they need and set proper borders and handle dispute successfully because dispute takes place in every relationship then they might start to argue more which might cause fearing might cause relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I enter ends which means I need to not be lovable so they begin fearing desertion and rejection so these are 4 areas that we can take a look at one more evaluating clients another concern is the unknown and loss of control a great deal of times negative self-talk and cognitive distortions can contribute to that if I don’t have control of whatever then it’s all going to be a catastrophe unfavorable others when customers hang out or when individuals socialize with negative people it kind of wears on you after a while you observe that people who are tend to be more unfavorable pessimistic conspiracy minded tend to socialize with people who are likewise unfavorable pessimistic and conspiracy minded so if you’re socializing with somebody who tends to be distressed then the anxiety can be palpable and it can kind of permeate physical problems can lead people to be nervous because they do not understand what’s causing it like I stated earlier in some cases if your heart begins to race if you do not understand what’s triggering it you can begin believing I’m having a heart attack or I’m gon na pass away when people have anxiety attack for instance they really think they’re having a cardiovascular disease and
it’s I’ve had them they are extremely extremely unpleasant experiences however when people begin having physical problems and it can be you understand they have an odd rash that they can’t get to go away or it whatever but when they do not know what it is and they can’t manage it they can’t make it disappear they start considering all the worst-case circumstances and browsing the web and getting on WebMD which usually offers you all the worst-case scenarios um so physical problems are important we need to stabilize the reality that no one’s pain-free all the time and you understand the truth that you may have a pains or a discomfort or a swelling or a bump or you know a cough most likely you understand when we look at possibility the probability of it being something substantial is quite little now do you want to get it took a look at probably however you understand the probability that is anything to be worried about is is relatively small and a sense of powerlessness can trigger worry of the unknown and loss of control for somebody who doesn’t seem like they have any firm in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt preyed on all of their life then they may fear not remaining in control they may be holding on and stating alright this is the one area of my life I can control when I grew up you know I grew up in an extremely disorderly environment I had no control I was bounced around in the foster system yadda yadda yadda now that I’m an adult you understand I can control these things and I am going to hold on with white knuckles and if I can’t control whatever then that terrifies me death and loss are other triggers for stress and anxiety and it can be individuals or family pets and pets are necessary I don’t wish to minimize family pets since you know they are little parts of a great deal of our households so making certain we examine that my child’s dog for example is it’s getting old she’s growing older she’s 14 now I think and you know she’s in good health we took her to the veterinarian and the vet said yeah she’s got a little heart whispering however that’s expected for a 14 year old pet and but 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 anxiety around losing people and you know if she when she crosses the bridge she will and and you understand
I’m alright with that I’m I have a more difficult time handling my child’s emotional chaos when that happens and due to the fact that she’s matured with this canine so you know those are the types of things that we want to speak about with our clients what things are weighing on you that you might not even be thinking about since I know in the back of my mind there’s constantly that fret about among our donkeys and her canine tasks and promos can activate anxiety if people hesitate they’re gon na lose their task if they’re always scared that you understand they’re gon na stroll in and get a pink slip or get fired you know we want to help them take a look at how practical is that are you doing what you need to do in order to achieve and keep your task and sometimes it’s difficult to answer I indicate the very first idea that a great deal of us have is well you understand if you’re doing the right thing so simply do it however there are those employers out there and I’ve had some actually incredible managers a great deal of them and I’ve had two really horrendous employers and those 2 employers I might never I never ever felt like I was able to do anything best and so going to those tasks there was always this stress and anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you wish to talk with people about does your task cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the exact same thing with promotions individuals may get distressed about whether they’re going to get promoted safety and security you understand when you lose security and security you can feel really distressed so if there’s a burglary at your home next door or a shooting down the road or you start watching the news you can feel very risky and unsecure truly quickly so we wish to assist individuals figure out how safe and secure are you really and a great deal of it goes back to actually looking at truths 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 physician or I simply finished the presentation on helping high school students transition to college and a great deal of high school trainees for example start college with these wide eyes and wishes to save the world and they wish to be medical professionals and engineers and this and that and they get into it and they understand that it’s a lot more difficult than they believed or they recognize that you know what I really do not like this but I have actually already devoted to it so what do I do or I want to help individuals but I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you understand for me I figured out in my second year that I wasn’t going to medical school because I wasn’t going to pass calculus which triggered a lot of anxiety it was like fine what am I gon na do now you know what career must I select so helping individuals figure out do you have dreams that have possibly sort of crashed and burned and you need to discover brand-new ones you understand fine that a person we’ve got to accept it find out that it’s not going to be and what can you do now people
might 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’re like however that’s my dream what occurs if my that’s got to take place due to the fact that it’s my dream I don’t understand how to operate if that goes away we wish to assist people be able to rewrite their story and after that illness 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 know incurable if I get bit by a spider it’s gon na kill me and which is uncommon you know there are really few spiders that are actually that harmful same thing with snakes reviewing bridges I’ve shown you all that is not one of my illogical worries you understand I am just terrified that you understand something’s going to take place and I’m going to get pushed off the side of the bridge which is totally illogical however we require to assist individuals look at those and recognize the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and handle 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 people realize that they’re not best they might begin to get distressed since they feel like if I’m not perfect then I’m a failure you know those cognitive distortions of all-or-nothing thinking and they begin with that negative self-talk you know you can’t do anything right so those are some of the concerns that you know we frequently see in counseling sessions so what do we do you know somebody is available in and it like I can’t live in this manner doc stress and anxiety depression and substance disorders in addition to a range of physical disorders are often comorbid so this is the first thing we need to realize we need to realize that we’re extremely seldom handling a really simple medical diagnosis you know when someone is available in we need to find out you know if they are available in and they exist with anxiety all right let’s talk about that and
Comprehending Stress And Anxiety: A Client’s Experience:
In my current session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old woman, I had the opportunity to dive into the intricate layers of anxiety. These symptoms were interfering with her daily life, relationships, and general wellness.
Emma’s Treatment Strategy:
To resolve Emma’s anxiety, we developed a comprehensive treatment strategy tailored to her distinct needs. Here are some key elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about stress and anxiety and its psychological and physiological manifestations helped her gain a much deeper understanding of her signs. This understanding empowered her to recognize and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based method that focuses on identifying and challenging unreasonable thoughts and beliefs. Emma discovered to reframe unfavorable thoughts and establish a more balanced viewpoint, slowly lowering anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Strategies: Integrating relaxation methods such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma control her stress reaction and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Treatment: As Emma expressed avoidance habits related to certain triggers, we slowly exposed her to those circumstances in a controlled way. This direct exposure allowed her to confront her fears and establish durability against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Lifestyle Adjustments: Emma recognized the importance of self-care practices in managing her anxiety. She focused on regular exercise, healthy eating, quality sleep, and participating in activities she enjoyed to promote overall well-being.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My choice to end up being a therapist was deeply influenced by my own struggles with stress and anxiety. When working with customers facing comparable challenges, my personal journey has actually supplied me with special insights and compassion. Having experienced anxiety firsthand, I have the ability to relate to my patients’ worries, worries, and the impact anxiety can have on numerous elements of life.
Harvard’s Research on Stress and anxiety:
An influential term paper titled “Comprehending the Complexity of Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Research Study” by Harvard University offers important insights into the intricacy of stress and anxiety conditions. The study followed an accomplice of people over a span of 10 years and taken a look at different elements adding to the advancement, upkeep, and treatment of stress and anxiety.
The paper stressed that anxiety disorders arise from a combination of hereditary, environmental, and psychological elements. It highlighted the value of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic approaches in managing stress and anxiety effectively. The findings even more highlighted the significance of a restorative alliance and personalized treatment plans in addressing anxiety. Anxiety Therapy Homework
Conclusion:
Stress and anxiety is a diverse and deeply personal experience that affects individuals in extensive methods. Through restorative interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, exposure therapy, and self-care practices, people like Emma can gain control over their stress and anxiety and lead fulfilling lives. As a therapist, my personal journey with stress and anxiety enables me to offer efficient and thoughtful care to my customers. The research carried out by Harvard University sheds light on the complex nature of anxiety, enhancing the significance of customized treatments and early intervention in promoting mental well-being. Together, we can browse the maze of stress and anxiety and discover the path to a more peaceful and empowered presence.