Therapy for Anxiety and Depression

Do you feel heavy with despair, struggling each day to keep your head just above the darkness and dread?

Do you worry about work constantly when you’re at home, or feel anxious and tense even about small events?

Does it take every ounce of energy to stay afloat?

Is your mind riddled with a powerless sense of imminent danger, a place where rising panic can be difficult to quell?

Or are you feeling overwhelmed by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness?

Does your apprehension make it tricky to get on with regular life and enjoy each day?

If this sounds familiar, I want you to know you are not alone and there is help.

I tend to talk about anxiety and depression together, because it is so common for them to show up together creating challenges in your life. In fact, a variety of studies indicate that for people with a diagnosis of depression, about half also have the presence of anxiety.

When we think about anxiety, feelings of worry, fear, restlessness, and panic often come to mind. These can sometimes be adaptive responses in helping us make sense of our environment and our choices.

Anxiety is not your fault or caused by anything you have or haven’t done.

In fact, anxiety can be helpful in some ways when it motivates us towards action, helps us be more compassionate and understanding towards others, encourages us to take a leadership role when a situation calls for it, or serves as our inner warning or gut feeling to alert us to problems or danger.

However, when worrying becomes a constant presence in our life or our regular response to day-to-day activities, it can become debilitating. It can cause us to avoid certain places, pursuits, careers, relationships, and anything where we feel the risks are too high and potentially dangerous.

Similarly, depression often shows up as persistent sadness, hopelessness, irritability, and/or a lack of interest in life. It’s common, and even healthy, to feel sad or hopeless in reaction to a difficult life event, current events in the world that are disturbing, or just to go through a tough period where things feel off.

However, like anxiety, depression can wreak havoc on our lives when it persists for longer periods of time, keeps us from engaging with life, gets in the way of our activities, or impairs our ability to function from day-to-day. 

These are times when talking to a therapist can clarify the areas of our life where these symptoms are most problematic and discover effective strategies to overcome them successfully.

There are several types of conditions that fall within the spectrum of anxiety disorders or have anxiety present as a common symptom. The strategies I use typically work best with women struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety, Panic, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Some general descriptions and ways of understanding these conditions are:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the constant worry and anxiety that gets in the way of daily activities. This worry can be over anything and is thought to be out of proportion with the situation. GAD often leaves you feeling out of control with life and like a possible disaster is around every corner.
• Panic Disorder often occurs with frequent, sudden, and recurring panic attacks with little to no warning which often feel very frightening. Anxiety is increased because you fear having another episode. Symptoms may include dizziness, sweating, chest pain, and feeling like you’re having a heart attack.
• Social Anxiety (or Social Phobia) can cause extreme stress or avoidance of situations that involve being seen or evaluated by others. There is often a fear of being judged, humiliated, embarrassed or laughed at by others.
• PTSD can arise after experiencing a traumatic event and often includes symptoms where you can’t relax, have frightening dreams or flashbacks of the event, and avoid anything related to the event over an extended period. It is very common to be triggered or startled by sudden louse noises, movements, or a reminder of the event like a scent, feeling, image, etc.
• OCD is a condition that often includes unwanted or intrusive thoughts or fears that create feelings of anxiety. To reduce or relieve the anxiety brought on by these thoughts, you find yourself engaging in rituals, behaviors, or compulsions in ways that often get in the way of day-to-day activities and relationships.

Although each person experiences anxiety and depression differently, some symptoms unique to each condition and symptoms that overlap are depicted below:

Sometimes when you’ve been dealing with these symptoms for so long, the cloud that hangs over you seems normal.

You feel a heavy weight on our shoulders, overburdened, and unable to pinpoint why you feel this way.

You may get tearful out of nowhere, feel constant aches or pain, or have a sense that nothing will ever get better.

When you do realize what’s going on or what these feelings point to, you often feel guilty, ashamed, and alone in not knowing what to do about it.

Depression can often feel like a fog of hopelessness and unrelenting emotional anguish. It is often caused by a combination of biological, environmental, genetic, and psychological factors. It’s not uncommon for depression to sometimes run in families.

Women are particularly prone to experience depression uniquely throughout our lives such as during the prenatal and postpartum period after childbirth, during our menstrual cycles, and during perimenopause which can last for many years before transitioning to menopause.

You may also experience a chronic nagging depression that seems to drain you of energy, reduces your feelings of joy, and leaves you feeling dissatisfied with life. This type of depression, known as Persistent Depressive Disorder, is typically milder than a major depressive disorder, though it can impact many areas of your life.

A persistent low-grade depression that has gone on for at least two years, also known as dysthymia or high-functioning depression, can zap you of your creativity, libido, and motivation. Even though women experiencing persistent depression are often engaging in their day-to-day activities, it can significantly reduce quality of life.

Anxiety and depression are very treatable and benefit from a well-rounded plan of care that incorporates a variety of strategies to help you achieve the most optimal benefits.

Some activities that may be of benefit in helping manage difficult symptoms include:

• Helping you understand typical patterns and coping skills present in your life and ways to expand upon what is helpful and reduce what is not helpful
• Establishing goals and incorporating activities in between sessions to practice developing new ways of experiencing and managing symptoms
• Encouraging the use of schedules, mood/symptom trackers, helpful apps
• Addressing aspects of interpersonal relationships that either reduce or increase the presence of symptoms
• Encouraging and/or modeling the use of techniques such as: breath work, guided imagery, exposure exercises, art-based activities, lifestyle adjustments, affirming practices, movement-based activities, etc.

If any of these symptoms are getting in the way of living your best life, schedule an appointment with me so we can work together on a path towards healing and recovery.

Women living all throughout North Carolina and Virginia are invited to contact me today so I can support your healing journey through online therapy.

Hotlines: If you’re having thoughts of suicide or need immediate support, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at at 1-800-273-8255. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline at 1-800-622-4357 can also help you locate resource and treatment options.