If you follow Every Day Incredible at all, you’ll very quickly see that I often focus on anxiety and depression. Partly, that’s because I’m a therapist and that’s what I do; but also because it is such a common struggle.
Anxiety is something that so many of us have struggled with at one point or another, and it can hard to talk about because we tend to worry about what some else is going to think or say. We fear others won’t understand and will judge or criticize us because of how we struggle. Really though, that’s not necessary. I have a feeling that if you were to tell people that you struggle with anxiety, you would probably have a lot of people who say, “oh, me too!”
If you’re trying to understand the symptoms of anxiety and trying to understand if that’s what you’re struggling with, I just want to share some of the symptoms that are common to anxiety. To do that, I’ll walk you through what may be a typical first session with a new client.
We’ll call her Jill. That’s not really any specific client that I’ve ever had, but she is just a combination of some of the clients that I’ve worked with over the years.
Jill comes in she sits down in the office and we’re going through the new client paperwork, the policies, disclaimers, and all of that new information. I can see that she’s tense. Her posture may be curved inward, as if she is protecting herself or ready to run for the door. She might be having shallow breathing, and may even be holding her breath, taking fewer deep and shaky breaths to compensate. She’ll tell me that she’s been easily agitated, and she’s irritable with people around her, and that she worries about every. little. thing.
She’ll tell me that she’s exhausted, feels isolated, and she’s losing hope. She even confides in me that she feels like she’s going crazy because her emotions are so jumbled. She has trouble making sense of what she even thinks or feels because she feels one thing but believes something else. She’s anxious and growing more depressed and hopeless by the day.
So if you have ever felt those symptoms, you know what Jill feels like. You know that it’s a very overwhelming experience.
What typically happens when I’m working with a new patient is that we’ll go through the diagnostic assessment and I’ll probably call out different symptoms that she might be dealing with ask her yes or no. At first it might be discouraging for clients to answer yes to so many of the symptoms that are listed, but something I really like to point out is that if those symptoms are there on the list, it’s because so many other people have experienced those things too.
The purpose in saying that is not to minimize the symptoms but it can be really helpful to know you’re not the only one. You’re not the only person that deals with those things, and they are treatable! That’s why they’re on the list. It’s because that’s something that we deal with as therapists, but it’s important to know that if you’re dealing with anxiety symptoms, anxiety is a very treatable condition. It’s something that you can have lots of progress with and there are many ways to address it.
The isolation that’s created by anxiety and depression is one of the biggest parts of it because that isolation and not talking to other people about those symptoms, it keeps you kind of trapped by them. It keeps you trapped by the that experience if you don’t feel like you can talk to anybody who understands, and it can really complicate those symptoms.
One of the biggest challenges that I’ve recognized in my clients overcoming anxiety and depression both its lack of accountability. I can’t follow my clients home to make sure they implement the things we talk about in session. If the things that are discussed in sessions are never implemented, there’s not gonna be a whole lot of progress.
Having a good support group to check in with can really make those things learned in session, and those realizations that they’ve experienced in session be much more effective.
As always, I want to remind you that you can find a wonderful group of ladies at Every Day Incredible Ladies: Finding Christ-Centered Life Balance on Facebook. It is a group that’s open to anyone who wants to join, and I encourage you to come and share in the discussion there with us. For those who are interested in digging a little deeper, we actually have a group called Digging Deeper, and that is a premium membership group for those who are really serious, dedicated and motivated to become prayer warriors and view your lives through that lens that is God’s Word. To be able to really dig deep in putting on your spiritual armor; not just playing dress-up, but really putting that armor on and learning to pray in the spirit and learn to approach every situation in your life from that attitude- from the attitude of God’s truth, and to be able to find that kind of Christ-centered life balance.
I look forward to seeing you in the groups, and again, hit like and subscribe so you won’t miss anything from every day incredible! As always, remember there are opportunities every day, so make every day incredible!