Anxiety therapy in Mt. Pleasant, MI

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a mood disorder in which heightened levels of worry or unease affect your capacity to function normally, at school, work, or in relationships. There are different types of anxiety disorders, with slightly different symptoms:

• Social anxiety affects your interpersonal relationships and may make you avoid social interactions altogether.
• Panic attacks or phobias are fears related to something very specific. Some symptoms include intense fear, restlessness, and faster breathing and heart rate than normal. Most often, these fears feel much more threatening than the actual danger presents and may prevent you from doing things that you’d enjoy, such as traveling if you fear flying, or enjoying the outdoors if you fear spiders.
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a disorder where you routinely experience unwarranted fear and dread within your ordinary daily life. If you have anxiety, you may have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, feel nervous and unable to relax, feel restless and irritable or that you have an elevated heart rate, as well as physical ailments like frequent headaches, stomach aches or body aches, often without a known cause.

If you struggle with anxiety, you’re not alone!

Anxiety is surprisingly common, affecting 40 million adults across America every year, even though most people are uncomfortable talking about it or admitting that they struggle with anxiety. That means that if you’re in an office of 20 people, there are probably at least 4 people who are also struggling with it right now — can you guess who they are? That is if you’re lucky enough to still be working in an office, interacting with other people in a normal office environment. If you’re not, isolation is one of the biggest risk factors for anxiety.

Risk factors for anxiety

The exact reason that someone has anxiety while someone else doesn’t is usually difficult to determine, but there are factors that increase your risk of having an anxiety disorder, such as a family history of anxiety, traumatic life events, chronic life stress, certain medical conditions such as diabetes, having a thyroid imbalance, or some heart conditions. Certain lifestyle factors such as consuming high amounts of caffeine or getting insufficient sleep can exacerbate your risk of having anxiety. Similarly, adopting healthy lifestyle habits like getting regular exercise in fresh air and maintaining healthy social interactions can improve your symptoms of anxiety.

Treatment options for anxiety

In addition to making healthy lifestyle improvements, there are highly effective treatments available for anxiety that can greatly improve your quality of life. For example, certain types of “talk therapy” such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are proven to reduce anxiety levels by teaching you how to reprogram your automatic thought responses with healthier thought patterns and behavioral responses that reduce anxiety. Other talk therapy options such as employing mindfulness and relaxation techniques, and exposure therapy to tackle the underlying concerns are all highly effective in addressing the underlying source of the anxiety while learning lifelong skills in the process. With therapy, you can look forward to a calmer, healthier, and more productive life.

Start your journey today

At MLWigren Counseling, we’re passionate about helping our clients learn new ways of dealing with anxiety. In therapy, we can work through the challenges that have been holding you back. Reach out today for an initial consultation.