Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
While anxiety is a natural human emotion that we all experience at times, it can become severe or consistent enough that it causes problems in your daily life, preventing you from pursuing your goals or maximizing your potential. Anxiety can arise in many forms, such as persistent worries about everyday situations, intense fear in social settings, panic attacks, and phobias (fears of specific items, situations, or sensations), just to name a few. While each type of anxiety presents its own unique set of challenges, what they have in common is that they all include a sense of worry or fear that typically leads to efforts to avoid or escape from the situation. While you may get some temporary relief by doing so, this is often short-lived and may actually contribute to the anxiety resurfacing or even worsening in the future.
How Anxiety
Can Affect You
If you struggle with anxiety, you may experience a number of symptoms that can be distressing and disruptive to your life. These can include:
Worry
You might find yourself worrying frequently or thinking about things that could go wrong, often across a wide range of situations. You might feel like you can’t control these thoughts or that you need to do something about them immediately.
Avoidance
You may avoid situations or activities that cause you anxiety, which can interfere with school, work, relationships, family, and everyday life activities.
Sleep Disturbances or Insomnia
You may have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or experience restless sleep.
Difficulty Concentrating
You may have trouble focusing, finishing tasks, making decisions, or remembering things.
Restlessness
You may feel on edge, unable to relax, or have difficulty sitting still.
Irritability
You might find yourself feeling tense, irritable, easily frustrated, or quick to lash out at others.
Fatigue
You might feel worn out, exhausted, or tired all the time.
Physical Pain or Discomfort
You may experience uncomfortable or distressing physical symptoms such as your heart racing, muscle tension, digestive or gastrointestinal discomfort, headaches, and more.
Repetitive Behaviors
You might find yourself doing things over and over in order to get relief from certain worries or address the problem that you are concerned about.
Reassurance-seeking
You may repeatedly attempt to engage the people around you in discussions about your fears, ask questions over and over, or frequently search the internet for answers.
Panic Attacks
You might experience sudden, intense episodes of fear, often including physical symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, or feeling lightheaded.
Social Anxiety
You might feel very anxious or uncomfortable in social situations, worry about being judged or embarrassed, or avoid certain social settings.
Phobias
You might experience intense fears of specific objects or situations (such as heights, flying, enclosed spaces, or certain animals or objects), and do your best to avoid these as much as possible.
How NYCBT Can Help
At NYCBT, we specialize in understanding the unique nature of your anxiety, including what causes it and how it affects you, so that we can provide personalized, effective, evidence-based treatment. Your therapist will work with you to address your anxiety in a supportive environment, using approaches that research has shown to be highly effective. These include practical coping skills that will help you gain a sense of empowerment and greater control over your thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
Treatment for anxiety often includes:
Exposure
Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Specialized Treatments for Anxiety and Related Conditions
Panic
Panic attacks can be debilitating, and you may avoid certain situations or activities due to the fear of having a panic attack. We can help you find freedom from
panic.
Phobias
Phobias can cause an overwhelming sense of fear and you may go to great lengths to avoid the situation or thing you are afraid of, such as animals, needles, driving, flying, tight spaces, and more. We can help you overcome your phobias.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD)
OCD typically describes a cycle of unwanted, intrusive thoughts causing intense fear, disgust, or discomfort, followed by compulsive
behaviors, rituals, or avoidance. We specialize in taking back control of your life from
OCD.
Trauma and PTSD
If you have experienced trauma, you may experience frequent, heightened anxiety associated with these experiences. We are experts in treating trauma, including PTSD.
Panic
Panic attacks can be debilitating, and you may avoid certain situations or activities due to the fear of having a panic attack. We can help you find freedom from panic.
Phobias
Phobias can cause an overwhelming sense of fear and you may go to great lengths to avoid the situation or thing you are afraid of, such as animals, needles, driving, flying, tight spaces, and more. We can help you overcome your phobias.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD)
OCD typically describes a cycle of unwanted, intrusive thoughts causing intense fear, disgust, or discomfort, followed by compulsive behaviors, rituals, or avoidance. We specialize in taking back control of your life from OCD.
Trauma and PTSD
Phobias can cause an overwhelming sense of fear and you may go to great lengths to avoid the situation or thing you are afraid of, such as animals, needles, driving, flying, tight spaces, and more. We can help you overcome your phobias.