People seek the help of an anxiety expert for various reasons, often when anxiety significantly impacts their daily lives and well-being. Here are some key reasons:
- Interference with Daily Life: When anxiety interferes with the ability to be successful in relationships, work, or within oneself, seeking professional help becomes essential. This interference can manifest as difficulty pursuing goals and dreams, leading to a miserable life.
- Ineffective Self-Help: If self-help techniques haven’t fully alleviated the problem, it may be time to consult an anxiety expert. If someone has tried to work it all out on their own like looking under the bonnet of a broken down car with an empty tool box, it makes sense to seek expert help. Additionally, if someone has worked so hard to get rid of their anxiety but cannot, they may need a different strategy. For some people, using self-help methods may be insufficient to achieve freedom from anxiety.
- Overwhelming Symptoms: Severe anxiety can lead to overwhelming nervousness, tension, fear, forgetfulness, and panic. An anxiety expert can help manage these intense symptoms.
- Unrecognized Anxiety: Sometimes, individuals are unaware of their extreme anxiety, experiencing sudden agitation and nervousness attacks. An expert can accurately diagnose and address these unrecognized conditions.
- Dating Anxiety: Both men and women tend to suffer from dating anxiety, especially during first dates or blind dates. An anxiety expert can provide specific strategies to overcome this particular form of anxiety.
- Generalised Anxiety: Generalised anxiety involves being overwhelmed by anxiety on a regular basis, relating to various issues and problems. An anxiety expert can help address the tendency to worry excessively.
- Co-occurring Conditions: Anxiety can co-occur with other mental health conditions such as OCD, PTSD, phobias or burnout. In such cases, an anxiety expert can provide comprehensive support and treatment.
- Need for Specialised Training: When considering a therapist, it’s crucial to ask whether they have specialised training in treating anxiety disorders Exposure Therapy. An anxiety expert will have this specific training and experience.
- Pattern Recognition: It is important to find someone who understands the causes of, and solutions to, emotional and mental distress. Friends and family may not have the skill set to help and are often too close to encourage impartiality. An anxiety expert is therefore key to recovery when it doesn’t take place organically.
- Challenging Avoidance: Sometimes, it can be useful to have someone to act as a “quarterback coach”, encouraging you to attach to your fears rather than avoid them. An anxiety expert knows how to do this.
- Preventative Measure: Even those who are not severely unwell can benefit from understanding how their brain and mind work. An anxiety expert can provide insights that improve overall well-being and understanding.
- Physical Symptoms: When physical symptoms such as recurring headaches or stomach distress are suspected to be related to anxiety, an anxiety expert can help determine if anxiety management can resolve these issues. It is important, however, to also consult with a physician to rule out other physical causes.
- Trauma: Anxiety that comes up from nowhere may be characteristic of people who have undergone trauma. This form of anxiety can also be triggered by an overactive part of the brain. An anxiety expert is critical for recovery.
- Negative Coping: Those using negative coping strategies such as wishful thinking and self-blame may benefit from seeing an anxiety expert.
Summary: People seek help from an anxiety expert when anxiety interferes with daily life, self-help methods are ineffective, symptoms become overwhelming, co-occurring conditions exist, specialised training is needed, patterns need recognising, avoidance needs challenging or as a preventative measure. Other reasons can include physical symptoms, underlying causes, trauma and negative coping.
Tags: anxiety, anxiety expert, mental health, therapy, overcoming anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder