Therapy for Anxiety in Tulsa, OK
Our world is complex, fast-paced, and high pressure. It’s easy to find reasons to feel stressed, scared, and completely overwhelmed. This can be extra pronounced when we don’t even recognize these common symptoms of anxiety.
Feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear are incredibly common in our society. This can manifest in a variety of ways, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, social anxiety, obsessions and compulsions, phobias, and panic attacks.
Common Anxiety Symptoms
Each person’s experience of anxiety is a little different, but there are some common signs that you might have experienced:
…racing thoughts, worrying about mistakes from the past, or things that might happen in the future.
…overthinking even small decisions, or excessive worry about worst-case scenarios.
…seeing threats everywhere, always looking over your shoulder.
…being on edge all the time, getting easily angered, scared, or startled.
…having a hard time dealing with uncertainty, and trying to control people around you.
…struggling to fall asleep with racing thoughts or waking up in the night for no reason.
…difficulty relaxing, always feeling that there is something more to do, or forgetting something important.
…unable to stay focused on one thing for very long.
…getting overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, panic attacks, dissociation, or your mind going “blank”.
…feeling physical symptoms of anxiety, such as physical pain, headaches, stomach aches and indigestion, sweating, numbness or tingling sensations.
How Anxiety Disorders Develop
Anxiety is often linked with a feeling of being out of control of yourself and your surroundings. This is an uncomfortable feeling for most, and it often leads over-control, avoidance, or both.
When we over-control, we try to take control of the people and events in our lives. Sometimes this is literal, making demands on others, lashing out when we feel threatened, or running ourselves ragged trying to get everything done. Other times we try to control the world mentally, ruminating on our mistakes to try to figure out what went wrong, or obsessively planning what we’ll do in the future, hoping to avoid any mistakes.
Avoiding the Obvious
When we avoid, we do everything we can to keep the things we’re afraid of or stressed about from impacting us. We stay home from social events, quit jobs, or leave relationships because we can’t deal with the stress, conflict, or pressure. We numb ourselves with substances, gambling, sex, TV and video games, or social media.
Counseling for anxiety can help you develop tools to calm your mind, let go of unnecessary fears and anxieties, and teach you to engage with your life more effectively and confidently.
The ACT approach to Anxiety Treatment in the Tulsa, OK area
Have you ever been having a stressful day and had a friend or co-worker tell you to just relax? To calm down? To not worry?
Did it help?
Probably not. In fact it probably made you more stressed, annoyed, and irritable.
This is what we do to ourselves when we try to control our anxious minds and force them to sit still.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety in Tulsa, OK
I primarily use Acceptance & Commitment Therapy to treat anxiety in my counseling office. ACT is a proven, evidence-based approach to treating anxiety.
ACT teaches us to learn to accept our minds for what they are--thinking, problem-solving machines. This is where mindfulness comes in, teaching us to allow our minds to run as they want to, without sweeping us away in the flow.
We learn how to accept our own limitations, including the very real limitation that there are things in our lives that we cannot change no matter how hard we try.
When we do this we stop wasting time trying to control everything. Instead, we learn to focus on things we actually can control. This includes our habits and how we prioritize our lives.
Break free from the chains of your anxiety symptoms today with the help of a skilled ACT therapist and counseling for anxiety. Call Gray Matters Counseling in Tulsa, OK!
Blog Posts about Anxiety:
Black-and-White Thinking: Creator of Indecision and Overwhelm
Start Anxiety Counseling in the Tulsa, OK area at Gray Matters
If this approach to managing your anxiety sounds helpful, consider reaching out to schedule an appointment with me at my Tulsa office. As a mental health professional, I can help you determine the best ways to cope with your anxiety. Follow these three steps to begin therapy at Gray Matters:
Reach out to schedule an initial counseling session
Get answers to your questions about mental health counseling
Begin to live in a more balanced, peaceful way
OTHER THERAPEUTIC SERVICES AT GRAY MATTERS:
I believe that everyone has the ability to find healing, and I want to help you find that healing. My counseling practice focuses on men’s counseling, treatment for depression, mindfulness techniques, and LGBT counseling, among other concerns. From my Tulsa, Ok counseling office, I use acceptance and commitment therapy to help people define their values and goals, to live life with meaning and purpose. If you are ready to start your counseling journey, I am ready to help.