Houston Anxiety Therapy
It’s easy to brush anxiety off as a simple act of worrying too much. For every person who suffers from anxiety, there seems to be someone waiting in the wings waiting to tell them their anxiety is not real. As we work to bring more awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding anxiety, it’s important to continue to offer support and treatment options for people who are affected by such conditions. At Grief Recovery Center, our therapists provide a safe and encouraging place to identify the source(s) of your anxiety and create a plan for managing and overcoming anxiety for good.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is much more than just a problem with worrying. Anxiety is often not a stand-alone condition. It is often associated with other conditions, such as panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorders, and phobias. Many people who suffer from anxiety also suffer from depression, Compulsive Disorders, and even substance abuse problems. In many cases, substance abuse comes about as a way to dull anxiety but only ends up making it worse.
The signs and symptoms of anxiety are varied and, depending on the patient, can manifest in several ways. Some people don’t even realize they have anxiety until they have a full-blown panic attack and then start to piece together the signs and symptoms they have been experiencing. If you identify with these symptoms, it might be time to see a therapist about anxiety for proper guidance and treatment. These signs and symptoms often include:
- A tightness in your chest
- Difficulty breathing
- Pain in your stomach, back, neck, or chest
- Feelings of worry and an overwhelming sense of impending doom
- Overeating, undereating
- Oversleeping or insomnia
- Fearing the worst can happen
- Guilt
- Loss of someone close to you, change in job, loss of job
- Negative thoughts
- Feelings of loss or abandonment
- Lack of interest in your life
These signs and symptoms might sound a lot like depression, don’t they? It can be difficult to diagnose anxiety disorders in people who suffer from other conditions, such as depression. Once we’re able to pinpoint the root cause(s) of your anxiety, you can start to feel some relief right away. After all, knowing is half the battle. Then, we can put a plan in place to help you on the road to recovery.
What Causes Anxiety?
Before you suffered from anxiety yourself, you might have been inclined to think that the anxiety was “all in your head.” Anxiety is an actual condition that requires real treatment. It’s a condition that causes excessive worry, and while it is easily brushed off, it is not something to be taken lightly. Anxiety can be caused by any number of things, including both internal and external factors. Some of the common causes of anxiety include:
- Stress and confusion related to a job
- Issues in an intimate relationship
- Situations arising among family members
- Fighting or physical abuse
- Drug and alcohol abuse or use (self or loved one)
- Anxiety can be brought on by other conditions, such as depression, PTSD, and a chronic medical diagnosis, such as cancer
- Side effects of a medication prescribed by a medical professional
- Accident or injury; limitation of movement or body
- Money, security, future thinking in general
- And much more.
What Happens When Anxiety is Left Untreated?
At first, people who suffer from anxiety might only be impacted by anxiety in specific situations or during certain events; such as when you are boarding an airplane. However, if left untreated, generalized anxieties, such as worrying about what happens if the airplane goes down, can permeate into other areas of your life. You might start to worry about driving down the road in your car – you can’t control the other drivers, after all. You might start to worry about getting on any form of public transportation. You might worry that the cruise ship you are set to board might sink. Anxiety can take many forms and impact people in many ways, but one thing is for sure: it can get worse as time goes on.
You don’t usually hear of people who recover from anxiety issues on their own. What you do hear about, however, is people retreating to their homes and isolating themselves from the life they should be living because they are too afraid to make decisions, face the world, and find out that it’s rarely as bad as we thought things were going to be. But, we know that you can’t simply tell that someone.
At Grief Recovery Center, we help our patients realize that one bad thing does not always lead to another. We help them gain control over their thoughts so they can enjoy life to the fullest. Anxiety can cripple a person’s ability to get on with their life. They might even start to impart their anxiety onto other members of their family, particularly smaller children who are susceptible to what their parents pass on to them early in life. If mom is always worrying about money, then children might grow up always worrying about money. It’s important to identify the source(s) of your anxiety so you can gain control and not impact others around you.
What Are My Options for Anxiety Treatment in Houston?
At Grief Recovery Center, we understand that anxiety affects each individual differently. Therefore, our treatment options are designed to address every patient’s unique needs and circumstances. By offering a variety of therapeutic approaches, we ensure that our patients receive comprehensive care that addresses all aspects of their anxiety. Our goal is to help you regain control of your life, reduce anxiety symptoms, and improve your overall well-being.
Below are some of the key treatment options we provide for anxiety:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety
At Grief Recovery Center, we take a holistic approach to treating every patient who walks through our doors. We know that each person has their own life experiences, thoughts, feelings, and impressions about treatment that we need to consider and incorporate into our anxiety treatment plans. Working closely with our patients, we provide a well-rounded plan that ensures they feel supported and understood. Gently drawing out the issues that may be lying dormant in their minds, our licensed anxiety therapists will work to ensure that you feel safe as you work through issues related to anxiety and your life.
Our anxiety treatment plan includes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which provides a very specific type of counseling to our patients. This type of individual counseling targets the thoughts and behaviors of a patient related to those thoughts, to gain control over them and their lives. With practice and support, patients can overcome issues and start on the road to recovery. When fear and worry hold you back from living your best life, we can help.
Cognitive behavior therapy is proven to be effective in helping patients overcome phobias, anxieties, panic disorders, and more. For some, relief is immediate, while for others, it can take time to trust the process and overcome the underlying issues that are preventing them from letting go of their anxiety.
Trauma-Informed Therapy Approaches
We understand that trauma can significantly impact a person’s experience with anxiety. Our trauma-informed therapy approaches ensure that we recognize and respond to the effects of all types of trauma. By integrating knowledge about trauma into our practices, we seek to promote a sense of safety, trustworthiness, and empowerment for our patients.
Our skilled therapists are trained to identify the connections between trauma and anxiety, working to create a supportive environment where patients can explore their past experiences without fear or judgment. This approach allows us to tailor our anxiety treatment plans to address the root causes of distress, leading to more effective and lasting relief from anxiety symptoms. We provide support groups as well as one-on-one therapy. These help improve the therapeutic process, too.
Therapy for Insomnia Related to Anxiety
Insomnia is a common issue for those struggling with anxiety, often exacerbating the condition and making it difficult to achieve a restful night’s sleep. At Grief Recovery Center, we offer specialized therapy for insomnia related to anxiety, helping patients develop healthier sleep patterns and improve their overall well-being.
We provide guidance on relaxation techniques, meditation, stress reduction, and monitoring of diet and exercise to help manage anxiety. Our approach includes addressing the underlying causes of anxiety and supporting other areas of a patient’s life, such as stress management, diet, and exercise, resulting in more effective therapy outcomes.
Whether you are anxious when you have to board a plane, you are constantly worried that you are going to lose your job, or you worry that you’ll develop cancer and die, our team of professional and certified anxiety therapists can help you face your fears, identify the source(s) of anxiety, and overcome them.
Contact Us Today to Request an Appointment
Anxiety Counseling Services FAQs
Our anxiety counseling services are created to support you in effectively dealing with and better managing your anxiety. We know that when it comes to reaching out for help, there can be a lot of questions and uncertainties, which is why we have tried to answer some of them for you right here.
How Much Time Should I Commit to Anxiety Counseling?
At Grief Recovery Center, we think of mental health care as an investment in your overall well-being. In remission or on the mend, you are empowered by the therapist’s absence. In that light, we see you — not as something broken that needs fixing but as someone in discourse, even in mental “remission” — someone who now talks, thinks, and feels differently, with a new narrative and dialogue. We see actual healing as happening on both the cognitive and emotional levels. We see it as actively changing the conversation with oneself.
In the end, taking care of your emotional well-being also affects your physical well-being. It often happens that when we take care of ourselves, we can heal more quickly. It’s like investing in something that pays off in the long run. Putting some more time and energy into understanding your anxiety can help you be less affected by it, to have more courage and confidence in the life you’re living. It’s an investment in your ability to live a life how you want to, have better relationships with the people in your life, and have a healthier existence overall.
Usually, appointments for therapy are made once a week until the symptoms of anxiety have been reduced and you can handle anxiety more effectively with the skills you have learned until the next session. It takes, on average, 12 sessions to reach a successful outcome of treatment, with the condition of mental health improving.
Will Anxiety Treatment Make Me Feel More Anxious Initially?
Therapy can be experienced at a rate you determine for yourself. It can allow you the opportunity to become unburdened by the anxiety that has encroached upon your life. Afterward, you will not have to venture far to find newfound self-assurance due to the mega-doses of awkward confidence you will have acquired. At times, this will be a result of understanding which life events disturb you and which coping mechanisms mislead you into thinking those disturbances are valid when they are not.
What to Expect During Anxiety Therapy Sessions
Once you get started with anxiety therapy, your first sessions will involve working out effective techniques for defusing the hold anxiety has over you, and these techniques will be ones you can readily remember whenever you need them.
Some are cognitive. That is, they’re aimed at defusing and disputing the anxious thoughts that trigger your anxiety. Some are behavioral: they go after the things you do that make your anxiety worse (or that you do only because you’re anxious), like making a beeline for a cup of strong coffee at the start of the day or skipping meals because you lack the appetite when you’re all keyed up.
In the next couple of sessions, your anxiety treatment will likely focus on progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing techniques that can help you feel more at ease. Life problems often fuel anxiety, so what you’re doing about your anxiety-related life stresses will also become a part of your treatment at some point. For many, undergoing anxiety therapy is a profoundly healing experience that enables them to live more peaceably with themselves and others.
Get Professional Help: Licensed Depression and Anxiety Therapists Near You
Whether you have recently developed feelings of anxiety or you have been carrying that burden for some time, our highly trained and professional therapists are here to help. We’ll pair you with a licensed anxiety therapist who has years of experience identifying, managing, and working with patients who suffer from anxiety, as well as other conditions.
If your anxiety is related to substance abuse, depression, or another condition, our therapists can help manage that as well. At our modern and comfortable offices in Houston, Texas, our licensed therapists for anxiety will make you feel welcome and safe as you explore the anxiety that plagues you. You are never alone when you come to Grief Recovery Center.
We’ll give you the tools and strategies you need to find peace in your mind and stop worrying about what life may bring. Even if you experience anxiety about a situation that happened a long time ago, we can help you move through those feelings and put your anxiety to bed.
If You Are Looking For A Therapist for Anxiety, Contact Grief Recovery Center Today
If you or a loved one is suffering from anxiety, consider reaching out to Grief Recovery Center in Houston, TX, today. Our team of licensed professionals are here to help. Anxiety can make you feel like you are all alone and isolate you from your life and those who love you. We can help you reclaim your life and get control of your anxiety. Contact us today to book an appointment.