Overcoming Anxiety and Depression
If only you could shut off your mind…
The worries feel out of control. You think about all the worst-case scenarios, and then you can’t get those frightening images out of your head. What if? What then?
You try to find solutions but end up ruminating until you exhaust yourself and feel defeated. The worries distract you during the day, and they rob you of your sleep at night.
And your body, too…
Your heart is racing…
Your breaths are shallow…
Your chest is tight…
Your face is flush…
You’re sweating as your muscles tense…
You can’t seem to get the words out…
Your vision gets fuzzy, and it feels like the room is closing in…
“Am I having a heart attack?”
When anxiety rules your life…
When you’re mind and body are in a state of emergency, that’s when you snap and yell at the people you care about (fight)… or think about escaping to some faraway place (flight)… or curl up under the covers so that you don’t have to feel it anymore (freeze).
Anxiety makes you overthink every little thing. It makes you analyze everyone else’s intentions and assume the worst. It unearths your deepest insecurities and fears and makes them seem like reality.
It holds you back from accomplishing your dreams, making friends, sleeping, and being productive at work. To put it simply, it steals your joy.
“I’m not going to do this today,” you say to yourself, but it’s already too late, and you’re feeling out of control. It feels like this is just one more thing you can’t do right, and you’re terrified someone will notice.
Anxiety and Depression are best friends.
Where there is chronic anxiety, there is likely depression, too. Anxiety causes you to constantly look to the future, anticipating dangerous situations that could occur.
Depression is all that… with the addition of: “I don’t think I can do this any longer. I just want to give up.”
You might be afraid to make a wrong decision, so you procrastinate and ultimately feel guilty and ashamed.
You start to shut down and give up because you’re completely overwhelmed, and you feel hopeless that you’ll ever escape the impending doom in every situation.
You feel trapped inside your head as the weight of the world rests on your shoulders. In time, you start to disconnect from your partner, your kids, and your friends. The more time you spend alone, the more you begin to believe that no one cares about or understands you.
The anxiety-depression cycle is vicious and exhausting, but it can be broken.
Anxiety and depression ARE treatable!
The reality is that there will always be stress in your life. But it isn’t the stress that’s making you miserable; it’s the way you respond to the stress. Learning how to handle the stress will circumvent the anxiety/depression response.
When we’re overwhelmed with stress, we go into survival mode, where our focus shifts to protecting ourselves. When we don’t have effective tools to deal with the stress, we cope by trying to numb with alcohol, TV, food, shopping, and many other things. This, of course, only causes more stress, followed by more unhealthy coping and more feelings of shame.
As our internal critical voice gains control, we feel terribly inadequate. The more inadequate we feel, the worse our brain functions. So how do we get off this anxiety-depression train?
In therapy, you’ll learn to use stress as an opportunity to lean into your emotions and listen for their important message. Instead of escaping life, we’ll dive more deeply into it. You’ll learn to tune into your body for cues to name your emotions. That pit in your stomach? Could that be helplessness and sadness? That narrowing of your throat? That could be fear. When you really allow yourself to feel these emotions, what comes up for you? Pain or shame from our past experiences with emotion may contribute to our avoidance of it the present.
In therapy, you’ll find your emotions and share them with an empathetic listener. When we allow ourselves to be authentic with our feelings in a safe relationship, we then feel connected, which is the best remedy for pain. You’ll also learn how to connect to yourself, calm your nervous system with mindfulness skills and reframe your thinking more positively.
There is so much joy waiting for you in this life. Let’s find it together.
Can you imagine what your life would be like without all this worry and sadness weighing you down and holding you back? Picture yourself stepping forward onto the path you were always meant to walk, a lot lighter and stronger.
You’ve got this!
Give me a call for a free 20-minute consultation at (916) 705-2896 or send an email to hello@fullcupwellness.com.