Treating Anxiety in Virginia and Washington DC

Anxiety can take on a variety of different forms depending on the individual. Oftentimes people who come into therapy for anxiety because they experience excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation) over a number of events in their life (work, children, relationships, finances, activities) and the source of the worry can change from day-to-day. People experiencing this kind of anxiety feel they cannot control or lessen the worry and that they are intruded upon by it on an hourly/daily basis.  As a result they have difficulty concentrating or being present. At times they feel they can’t think straight or as if their mind is ‘going blank.’  This kind of persistent worry wears a person down so that they may become more irritable, fatigued, or have difficulty sleeping.

Anxiety includes a strong sense of

• Feeling tense,
• Dread,
• Agitation,
• Feeling “keyed up”, and/or
• Having repetitive worried thoughts about the past, present and future.

Individuals with anxiety have difficulty enjoying their experiences because they are consumed by worry and apprehension over future or past happenings.
Episodes of intense fear are called panic attacks and can often result from a chronic overload of anxiety. Panic attacks are terrifying for the individual and involve a series of physiological symptoms, including rapid heart beat, sweating, increased pulse, as well as thoughts of dying or of not being safe in one’s surroundings.

Therapy can help you both manage and resolve issues that may be causing anxiety. Also for researched based strategies on managing anxiety check out my book, Be Calm.