a common psychological health issue, impacts countless individuals worldwide. How To Counsel A Child With Anxiety … As a Certified Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I have witnessed the impact of stress and anxiety on countless lives. In this article, I will share an in-depth expedition of anxiety through the lens of a recent therapy session with a client, highlighting signs, treatment methods, and my personal journey as a therapist with my own experiences of anxiety Additionally, we will go over a term paper by Harvard University that sheds light on the complex nature of anxiety.|Anxiety, a widespread psychological health concern, affects millions of people worldwide. As an Accredited Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), I have seen the impact of stress and anxiety on countless lives.}
presentation on strengths-based biopsychosocial approaches to addressing anxiety and while those are fantastic you understand I believed possibly we ought to look at you know what’s some of the present research study so I went into PubMed which is I do not know it’s playground for me it’s where you find a lot of the journal posts and you can sort and I arranged by short articles that were done and meta-analyses that were done within the past five years so that offers us an idea about existing research I imply there’s a lot of stuff that is still the same like a few of the medications that were known to work 10 years earlier are still known to be you understand good first-line treatments however there are also some newcomers 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 stress and anxiety symptoms in order to treat it we really require to and of course this does play into the biopsychosocial aspect we really require to understand sort of what causes it because anxiety that’s triggered by for example someone having a racing heart might be different than stress and anxiety that’s caused for someone who has abandonment problems so we’re gon na treat the two things in a different way so we want to look at a few of the typical causes we’re gon na take a look at some typical triggers for anxiety you know what are some of these common styles that we see in practice and I will ask you to share a few of the themes that you see that underlie a lot or underline of your clients anxiety and recognize current best practices for anxiety management consisting of therapy interventions medications physical interventions and supportive treatments so we care since anxiety.
can be incapacitating and a great deal of our customers have stress and anxiety a lot of our customers have anxiety comorbid with depression and they’re taking a look at us going how can I feel distressed and stressed and like I can’t sit still and depressed at the same time you know when you’re depressed you’re expected to want to sleep well a great deal of times people who are have both concerns really want to sleep but they can’t so I want to assist clients comprehend that likewise in some cases stress and anxiety when individuals are anxious for enough time the body starts type of holding on to the cortisol the body in fact recognizes 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 people will start to feel depressed essentially the brain has actually already stated this is hopeless this is you’re you’re powerless to alter the scenario so then individuals begin feeling helpless and helpless which is sort of the definition if you will of depression low-grade chronic stress and stress and anxiety arose energy and individuals’s ability to concentrate so if we’re going to help them become their uber selves we need to help them figure out how to resolve stress and anxiety not simply generalized overwhelming debilitating anxiety but likewise panic social stress and anxiety and those small anxiety sets off that occurred that may not meet the limit for a medical diagnosis stress and anxiety is a significant trigger for addiction relapse if you have a customer who is self
medicated before or had a dependency for some reason stress and anxiety is a major trigger increased physical pain when anxiety goes up people tend to tense their muscles when they tense their muscles they tend to feel more discomfort I suggest think of when you’re stressed out you tend to have more discomfort like in your neck in your back and things that already injured might hurt more why since serotonin which is one of our major anti-anxiety neurotransmitters is likewise one of our significant pain modulators so when serotonin levels are too low because stress and anxiety is high then our pain understanding is going to be more intense and individuals can have sleep problems if you’re stressed out your body believes there’s a risk you’re not going to have the ability to enter into that deep restful sleep you might have you might sleep you may sleep a lot however it’s probably not quality sleep which suggests your neurotransmitters may get out of whack your hormones make it out of whack and your body is going to begin perceiving your itself in a persistent state of stress when we’re exhausted the body understands 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 might again you may be resting kind of like when you have a brand-new child in the house those very first couple of months that my children were home from the health center I slept however I didn’t sleep well I mean the tiniest little sound and I was awake and I was taking a look around and you know I felt it I felt exhausted and a great deal of brand-new parents do so activates for stress and anxiety desertion and rejection and we’re going to talk about ways we might wish to handle these things however some of the underlying styles that I have actually seen in a lot of clients and when I do the research what a lot of what themes that come out include low self-confidence
if somebody has low self-esteem they’re looking to be externally validated usually they’re looking for somebody else to tell them you’re adorable you’re okay so that can cause stress and anxiety about not having individuals to tell them you’re all right that makes their relationships tenuous and can make them dysfunctional illogical ideas and cognitive distortions might lead individuals to believe that if I’m not ideal for instance I am not adorable so we’re going to look at some illogical thoughts 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 fairly mentally and physically healthy if they are in an inefficient relationship they can fear desertion and rejection if that other person is constantly stating if you don’t do X I’m going to leave you or if that other person is constantly cheating on them or whatever so relationships can trigger abandonment anxiety and inadequate social abilities can result in relationship chaos and social exile if our customers are in relationships even if they’re not entirely inefficient if our customers are unable to request what they need and set proper boundaries and manage conflict efficiently because dispute happens in every relationship then they might start to argue more which might lead to fearing may lead to relationships ending in the past and them going well every relationship I enter ends which implies I must not be lovable so they begin fearing abandonment and rejection so these are four areas that we can look at another examining customers another concern is the unknown and loss of control a great deal of times unfavorable 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 catastrophe unfavorable others when customers hang out or when people socialize with negative people it kind of endures you after a while you discover that individuals who are tend to be more unfavorable pessimistic conspiracy minded tend to hang out with people who are also negative cynical and conspiracy minded so if you’re socializing with someone who tends to be nervous then the anxiety can be palpable and it can type of penetrate physical problems can lead individuals to be nervous since they do not know what’s triggering it like I said previously in some cases if your heart starts to race if you don’t know what’s causing it you can start thinking I’m having a cardiovascular disease or I’m gon na die when individuals have panic attacks for example they genuinely believe they’re having a cardiovascular disease and
it’s I’ve had them they are extremely really unpleasant experiences but when people begin having physical grievances and it can be you understand they have a weird rash that they can’t get to go away or it whatever but when they don’t understand what it is and they can’t control it they can’t make it disappear they begin thinking about all the worst-case circumstances and browsing the web and getting on WebMD which typically gives you all the worst-case circumstances um so physical problems are important we need to normalize the truth that no one’s pain-free all the time and you understand the reality that you may have an ache or a discomfort or a swelling or a bump or you understand a cough most likely you understand when we take a look at probability the likelihood of it being something significant is quite small now do you wish to get it took a look at probably but you know the probability that is anything to be worried about is is reasonably little and a sense of powerlessness can activate fear of the unknown and loss of control for someone who doesn’t seem like they have any firm in their life if they have an external locus of control or if they felt victimized all of their life then they may fear not remaining in control they may be hanging on and stating all right this is the one area of my life I can manage when I matured you know I matured in a really 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 control these things and I am going to hang on with white knuckles and if I can’t control whatever then that horrifies me death and loss are other triggers for stress and anxiety and it can be family pets or people and pets are very important I don’t wish to reduce family pets since you understand they are little parts of a lot of our families so making sure we check that my daughter’s pet for example is it’s getting old she’s growing older she’s 14 now I believe and you know she’s in good health we took her to the veterinarian and the veterinarian said yeah she’s got a little heart murmur however that’s expected for a 14 year old pet dog and however when she heads out if she doesn’t come back when I call her I have this rush of 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 know
I’m okay with that I’m I have a harder time handling my child’s emotional turmoil when that happens and due to the fact that she’s matured with this pet so you know those are the types of things that we want to talk about with our customers what things are weighing on you that you may not even be thinking about because I know in the back of my mind there’s always that stress over one of our donkeys and her pet dog jobs and promotions can set off stress and anxiety if individuals are afraid they’re gon na lose their task if they’re always afraid that you understand they’re gon na walk in and get a pink slip or get fired you understand we want to help them take a look at how realistic is that are you doing what you need to do in order to attain and keep your task and often it’s difficult to answer I mean the first thought that a great deal of us have is well you know if you’re doing the right thing so just do it but there are those managers out there and I have actually had some truly incredible employers a lot of them and I have actually had 2 actually horrendous employers and those two managers I could never I never felt like I was able to do anything best and so going to those jobs there was always this anxiety about what I’m what am I going to get in trouble for today so you want to talk with people about does your job cause anxiety what can you do to moderate that anxiety the exact same thing with promos individuals might get nervous about whether they’re going to get promoted security and security you know when you lose safety and security you can feel really nervous so if there’s a break-in at your home next door or a shooting down the road or you start seeing the news you can feel unsecure and really hazardous really rapidly so we wish to help people determine how safe and safe and secure are you really and a lot of it goes back to really taking a look at realities when individuals lose their dreams and hopes or fear that they’re going to lose their dreams and hopes they can start to get nervous you understand they have this dream that they’re going to be a medical professional or I simply ended up the discussion on assisting high school trainees transition to college and a lot of high school students for instance start college with these broad eyes and wishes to conserve the world and they wish to be doctors and engineers and this and that and they enter it and they realize that it’s a lot harder than they thought or they realize that you know what I actually do not like this however I have actually currently devoted to it so what do I do or I wish to help people but I can’t I can’t cut it doing this you know for me I figured out in my 2nd year that I wasn’t going to medical school since I wasn’t going to pass calculus and that triggered a great deal of stress and anxiety it was like fine what am I gon na do now you know what career should I pick so assisting individuals determine do you have dreams that have perhaps sort of crashed and burned and you need to discover brand-new ones you understand okay that one we have actually got to accept it determine that it’s not going to be and what can you do now individuals
might likewise have dreams about relationships they enter into relationships and they see themselves with this individual permanently and after that this relationship ends and or begins to get rocky and they resemble however that’s my dream what happens if my that’s got to occur because it’s my dream I don’t understand how to function if that goes away we want to assist individuals have the ability to reword their story and then sickness spiders and other fears type of goes in with death a great deal of times when people get sick they start getting distressed 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 rare you understand there are extremely couple of spiders that are actually that toxic very same thing with snakes discussing bridges I’ve shown you all that is not one of my unreasonable worries you know 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 completely illogical however we need to assist people take a look at those and identify the thoughts that they’re informing themself about those phobias and deal with that stress and anxiety failure is another trigger for anxiety specifically 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 ideal they might start to get anxious because 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 understand you can’t do anything right so those are a few of the concerns that you know we often see in counseling sessions so what do we do you understand somebody can be found in and it like I can’t live by doing this doc anxiety depression and substance conditions in addition to a variety of physical conditions are typically comorbid so this is the first thing we need to realize we require to recognize that we’re very hardly ever handling an extremely easy diagnosis you understand when somebody is available in we require to determine you know if they can be found in and they exist with depression all right let’s talk about that and
Understanding Stress And Anxiety: A Client’s Experience:
In my recent session with Emma (name altered for personal privacy), a 32-year-old female, I had the opportunity to dive into the elaborate layers of stress and anxiety. These symptoms were interfering with her day-to-day life, relationships, and general wellness.
Emma’s Treatment Plan:
To resolve Emma’s stress and anxiety, we developed a thorough treatment strategy customized to her special needs. Here are some key elements of her plan:
Psychoeducation: Educating Emma about stress and anxiety and its mental and physiological symptoms helped her gain a deeper understanding of her signs. This understanding empowered her to acknowledge and verify her experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT): CBT is an evidence-based approach that concentrates on recognizing and challenging illogical ideas and beliefs. Emma found out to reframe negative thoughts and establish a more well balanced point of view, gradually reducing anxiety-triggering cognitions.
Relaxation Methods: Including relaxation methods such as deep breathing workouts, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness meditation assisted Emma regulate her stress reaction and promote a sense of calm.
Exposure Treatment: As Emma expressed avoidance behaviors associated with specific triggers, we slowly exposed her to those circumstances in a regulated way. This exposure enabled her to confront her worries and establish strength against anxiety-provoking stimuli.
Self-Care and Lifestyle Adjustments: Emma acknowledged the value of self-care practices in handling her anxiety. She prioritized routine workout, healthy eating, quality sleep, and participating in activities she enjoyed to promote overall well-being.
My Journey as a Therapist:
My choice to become a therapist was deeply affected by my own struggles with anxiety. My individual journey has actually supplied me with unique insights and empathy when working with customers facing similar challenges. Having actually experienced anxiety firsthand, I am able to relate to my clients’ worries, concerns, and the impact stress and anxiety can have on numerous elements of life.
Harvard’s Research study on Anxiety:
An influential research paper entitled “Comprehending the Complexity of Stress And Anxiety: Insights from a Longitudinal Study” by Harvard University offers valuable insights into the intricacy of anxiety conditions. The study followed a cohort of individuals over a span of ten years and analyzed various elements adding to the advancement, upkeep, and treatment of stress and anxiety.
The paper stressed that stress and anxiety disorders occur from a mix of hereditary, environmental, and psychological aspects. It highlighted the value of early intervention, evidence-based therapies, and holistic methods in handling stress and anxiety efficiently. The findings further underscored the significance of a healing alliance and individualized treatment plans in attending to anxiety. How To Counsel A Child With Anxiety
Conclusion:
Anxiety is a multifaceted and deeply individual experience that affects individuals in profound ways. Through restorative interventions like psychoeducation, CBT, relaxation techniques, exposure therapy, and self-care practices, people like Emma can acquire control over their anxiety and lead fulfilling lives.