By Stephanie Camins – MA, LPC
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment.
The incidence of anxiety has risen significantly over the last few decades. Anxiety has a serious impact on our health, relationships and work performance. As a specialist in anxiety therapy in Denver for nearly two decades, I have helped thousands of people release negative thinking and emotions and reclaim a sense of balance and happiness in their lives.
Types of counseling for anxiety
Anxiety counseling will help you to identify your anxiety triggers and learn evidenced-based strategies to undo negative thinking, calm your emotional reactions, and make healthy choices in your life. My approach to anxiety counseling is built on the foundation of understanding our interpersonal neurobiology in implementing well-researched modalities including, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Hypnotherapy.
How does anxiety counseling work?
Anxiety counseling begins with identifying the foundations of your anxiety.
What triggers your anxiety?
Is it situations, people, particular relationships, a past traumatic event, a feeling, or maybe a perpetual cycle of negative thoughts about others or even yourself?
What is your experience of anxiety?
Do your thoughts race, do you feel out of control, do you question everything you say or do in a social situation? Does your heart rate increase or maybe you feel ‘hot under the collar’? Do you focus on all the negative, interpreting a never-ending pattern of defeat? Do you tend to plan for the worst?
In what situations do you feel the highest anxiety?
In what situations do you feel no anxiety?
We will then work together to determine the course of action that best fits your experience and circumstance. Anxiety treatment is not one size fits all. I will work closely with you to address all areas of concern and help you to improve your health, your relationships, and your work performance.
Types of Anxiety
- Social anxiety
- Generalized anxiety
- Phobias
- PTSD
- Performance Anxiety
- Panic Attacks
Common Symptoms of Anxiety
Anxiety symptoms range from person to person and also vary in intensity. Symptoms can be physical, mental, emotional or any combination thereof. Examples of physical or body-based symptoms include racing heart, sweating, shaking, shallow breathing, tingling in fingers, restlessness, or difficulty sleeping. 
Mental or cognitive symptoms include racing thoughts, irrational or distorted thoughts such as all or nothing thinking, catastrophizing, focusing on the worst outcome, self-disparaging thinking, or difficulty concentrating. Emotional symptoms involve excessive worry, fear, irritability, frustration, depression, isolation, feeling overwhelmed, and helplessness.
Where does anxiety come from?
Anxiety is our brain’s response to perceived threats. Information from our environment is taken in, filtered, and processed in the appropriate areas when we are calm, and all is well in our world. In the case of anxiety, the incoming information is perceived as threatening and sent to our limbic system which is our brain’s alarm system. In this state of hyper-arousal, our brain is not able to effectively process information. We have tripped our fight, flight, or freeze system.
If you have anxiety problems, your system can be habitually in this state which causes issues with multiple systems in the brain and nervous system. Stress and anxiety are a leading cause of many health issues.
Understanding your brain’s response to anxiety will help you take control of your responses to your thoughts, feelings and experiences.
