Anxiety Therapy
Anxiety Therapy in Huntington Beach
Anxiety left untreated rarely gets better and often gets much worse. Anxiety can be debilitating and can wreak havoc on you living the life that you desire to live. Anxiety can erode confidence, perpetuate self doubt, cause you to question everything you know, and left unchecked becomes a chronic state of stress ro fight or flight in our nervous system. Anxiety can make us avoid the people that we love, cause us to withdrawal from social situations and make life unmanageable.
The good news is that anxiety is actually one mental health issue that is very treatable. There are a great number of ways to handle anxiety that can greatly reduce the unwanted thoughts and feelings associated with anxiety. It is possible to build confidence, self control, and overcome the anxiety which seems so out of control so in our lives.
Meet Brandon Pendergraft, Anxiety Therapist in Huntington Beach
I realize that dealing with your anxiety can certainly bring up anxiety and is difficult to think of looking for help regarding the issues you are facing with your anxiety. I am here to tell you that for 20 years I have been helping people to gain control over their anxiety and get rid of the unwanted and intrusive thoughts that they have lived with for decades. If you are ready to overcome your anxiety and begin living a life free from the debilitating effects of anxiety, please contact me and let’s get started living the life that you deserve to live.
Anxiety Therapy FAQ
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a fear based response. Anxiety arises when we have experiences where we experience fear in the present, and when we come into a situation where our minds or bodies feel similar to the past experience, our anxiety gets triggered. Often I describe anxiety as a radar system, that is always scanning our environment for threats. If we aren’t careful, when we have endured difficult situations, we can set the radar system a little too sensitively, and we begin perceiving everything as a threat. I once heard a lecture about horses and the horse trainer warned us that you have to remember that horses are only afraid of two things, 1) things that move, and 2) things that don’t move. Similarly we have to feel like we have some sense of control on the world around us and that we can affect change in a way that keeps us safe. Anxiety therapy helps you to identify what caused the threat and how to keep yourself safe and feeling in control of what you can control.
What kind of therapy is best for anxiety?
Therapy is most effective when you sit with a person with whom you feel safe and with whom you believe that change is possible. Many types of therapy can be effective with dealing with anxiety, but if you don’t feel safe with the therapist, and thereby aren’t willing to do what the therapy or therapist is requiring of you then therapy most likely won’t be effective.
Therapy has to be done at a pace that is sustainable for you. Rushing or trying to push through your anxiety quickly will often only lead to feeling frustrated. Like a rubber band it will take you stretching to move through your anxiety but we don’t want to stretch the rubber band too tight or it won’t feel good. Run your race at your pace, don’t worry about anyone else, or even what you believe your therapist may want. Take your time and your healing seriously and overcome that anxiety. The great news is that treatment for anxiety is relatively quick and you can make great strides towards eliminating the anxiety with consistent effort.
I urge people to remember that the anxiety didn’t come out of thin air. The anxiety is there because something was wrong or missing from your life. Treating the unwanted elements of anxiety that are getting in your way can be done rather quickly, however treating the underlying cause of the anxiety may take more time. Often I use the analogy of pulling a weed from your garden which is pretty easy but getting at the root may take more effort. Consider getting rid of the weed and the root, to gain true freedom and control over your anxiety.
What is the best way to deal with your anxiety?
Remember that anxiety comes from fear, and dealing with fear is always done head on. You have to face your fears to overcome them. As mentioned above the work must be done at your pace, while also stretching you out of your comfort zone. It is easy to get stuck believing that we just have to live with social awkwardness, unwanted or intrusive thoughts, high levels of stress, etc. but the truth is we don’t and these patterns can be extremely difficult albeit familiar.
Most people don’t have any idea just how stressed they are. In our fast paced society it is so easy to get lost in the constant pushing and prodding that modern society seems to produce. We lose sight of our breathing, exercise, sleep, etc. and we wonder why we need so much caffeine to get up in the morning and wine to bring us down in the evening. It is imperative that we get a baseline of how stressed we are in the body and begin working on bringing that stress level down.
Another part of treating anxiety is to begin understanding the stress that we are putting on ourselves with our thought life, messages from our past, and our worldview. Many people convince themselves that they have to be busy all the time, they need to neglect themselves, they follow the culture at their work, etc. which slowly but surely takes us out of our rhythm and what we need in order to sustain self care in the face of these thoughts, old messages, or worldviews. We need to become aware of those patterns in our lives so that we can begin to make a different choice.
By what is listed above and consistent work on your anxiety it is possible to make huge strides towards living a life that is peaceful and calm. If you are ready to do the work reach out today and begin getting relief from your anxiety. Often people experience relief just surrendering to the fact that we need help dealing with anxiety, and quite often after just one session you will experience a sense of relief as we discuss plans on how to get a handle on your anxiety.
What are signs you have anxiety?
Signs of anxiety can vary person to person. Anxiety occurs when we are in a state of fight or flight. Our nervous system is similar to a radar screen that we are always monitoring and considering the stress that we are under. We are taught in our society to turn off the warning lights that inform us that we are under stress, until the signs become so obvious that it is hard to ignore them anymore. Often by the time we catch the signs of anxiety it is difficult to turn off as the effects of anxiety released a good deal of adrenaline and cortisol our stress response in the body to combat whatever the threat may be and hopefully eliminate the threat. A great way to see the signs of anxiety on the body is to check in with your breathing. Anxiety produces short and shallow breaths. When we are at a relaxed state our breathing slows with the focus more on the exhale then the inhale. You can check in now if you wish, count your inhale 3-4 count in and 6-7 count out is a healthy breath. How far off are you from a calm relaxed breath? Keep breathing until you can successfully calm your body and breath down. If you can’t get all the way to calm and relaxed, keep practicing, you will get there.
Some other signs of anxiety are sweating, high blood pressure, racing thoughts, intrusive or pervasive thoughts, inability to slow down, feeling constantly wound up, excessively exercising, smoking, fidgeting, can’t sit still, can never sit down, waking up already stressed, not being able to fall back asleep after waking, and many many more. This is a short list of some of the signs of anxiety.
The great news is anxiety is quite treatable! All of these symptoms are capable to being dealt with and can be overcome. Your anxiety is there for a reason there is something that your nervous system or mind is perceiving as a threat. As we work together on understanding and eliminating the threat as well as on breathing techniques and managing the symptoms of your anxiety you will experience a great deal of relief. When you are ready let’s work on gaining control over your anxiety instead of allowing your anxiety to control you!
What are some causes of anxiety?
Anxiety in the simplest form is caused by the perception of a threat internally or externally. The bottom line is that something is happening that is making you feel unsafe physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally or spiritually. When we can learn to seek safety and find ways of eliminating what we are not on board with, through the choices that we are making we can begin to reclaim our peace and move through our anxiety.
it is essential that anxiety is not happening to you but for you. There is something that doesn’t feel right in your life. Sometimes that can occur when we are unsatisfied in one element of our life like a job or relationship. Sometimes there is an acute reason for anxiety like we are bad at taking tests or are afraid to drive after an accident. Sometimes we don’t know what is missing or what we need or how to meet those needs. In any of those cases anxiety is a sign that there is undealt with emotional baggage we need to deal with in order to reclaim our sense of calm and peace.
Often we believe anxiety just comes out of nowhere, but the reality is that it has been building for quite sometime you were just unaware of the signs until they became overwhelming. Sort of like the frog in warm water that slowly builds up to boiling. We don’t notice until it becomes very uncomfortable.
The good news again with anxiety is that you can control your anxiety. You have had the ability to control it all the time, but no one has taught you how to use those controls. Sometimes it feels like going into a gym and being overwhelmed by all the machines. Once you learn how to use the machines and work the controls it becomes quite possible to overcome your anxiety. It will take hard work but you are worth it. When you are ready to conquer your anxiety, let’s go!
Does anxiety ever go away?
Anxiety is quite treatable. Anxiety, in almost all cases, is one of the few disorders in mental health that you don’t have to live with for the rest of your life. It is important to remember that all emotions have a healthy and unhealthy component. We are seeking to get rid of the unhealthy effects of anxiety. It is healthy to be afraid of things that are dangerous and we aren’t trying to get rid of our danger response.
Emotions are literally energy or electricity in motion. We will never be able to stop energy or electricity to run through our bodies and minds, however we can find ways of recognizing and grounding that emotion so that we are not controlled by our subject to that emotion. We also have to learn how we exacerbate or increase the level of that energy running through our system, i.e. often we get anxious over getting anxious, which only makes us more anxious. When we can learn to accept the normal reaction to events and ground out those emotions we can overcome our anxiety and reclaim our sense of peace.