When (and Why) to Consider Therapy for Your Anxiety

Anxiety can completely change how you live your life. You might not notice it that much at first; you just don’t feel like going out as much because being in crowded places makes you feel nervous, or trying new things makes your chest tight.

If your anxiety has reached a point that it’s preventing you from doing things you used to love, therapy might be your best option for taking your life back. 

At House Call Doctors of Pacific Northwest PLLC, with offices in Bellingham, Snohomish, and Everett, Washington, our team, which includes Bernadette Kimemia, DNP, ARNP, FNP-C, and Phyllis Muthee, NP, ARNP, offer behavioral health treatment, including therapy for anxiety.

Anxiety affects millions of people—you’re not alone!

Reports show that anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults every year, making this the most common mental health issue for Americans. Sadly, only about one in three anxiety sufferers is looking for or getting any help for their anxiety. 

Untreated, anxiety typically gets worse and worse, curtailing your normal activities and leaving you feeling like a nervous wreck most of the time. If your anxiety causes significant behavioral and physical symptoms, it’s time to seek help.

Signs of severe anxiety

These signs of advanced anxiety should be a wake-up call to seek therapy. If you don’t, you could end up with your anxiety causing other mental health problems, like depression.

A constant, negative inner voice

It’s okay to have an inner voice. However, if yours constantly feeds you negativity, encouraging you to feel panicky and unsettled and making you catastrophize every event in your life, you need therapy. The right treatment can help you reform your inner voice, so you can channel positivity and strength instead.

Difficulty focusing

An inability to stay focused makes a lot of people assume attention deficit disorder (ADD) is to blame, but anxiety can also put roadblocks in the way of accomplishing tasks and school work, or in your own home. Anxious thoughts keep interrupting your process, making it all but impossible to stay focused.

Trouble sleeping

When your mind keeps racing and you’re tossing and turning all night, or if you wake up with a jolt from constant nightmares about anxiety-inducing scenarios, your anxiety is interfering with your sleep. Good sleep is essential to good help, so get therapy and find out how to restore a normal sleep pattern.

Actual panic attacks

A panic attack can present in a lot of different ways. You could have chest pains, you might hyperventilate, you could freeze up completely, or you might try to hide from any eyes looking at you. If you are experiencing panic attacks, your anxiety has moved to the next level and therapy is probably your best option.

Awful physical symptoms

Not everyone knows it, but anxiety can cause a whole host of debilitating physical symptoms, including (but not limited to):

• Bouts of dizziness or vertigo
• Constant stomach pains
• Nausea or vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• Muscle cramps or tension
• Reduced sex drive
• Racing heartbeat

Addressing the anxiety through therapy can often reduce or eliminate physical symptoms as well as the behavioral ones.

Don’t wait to treat anxiety with therapy. Whether or not your doctor prescribed medication to help with your anxiety, therapy is the best way to learn natural coping mechanisms that can help you overcome anxiety and get your enjoyment of life back.

Interested in learning more about therapy for anxiety? Book your walk-in appointment, house call, or virtual visit by calling House Call Doctors of Pacific Northwest PLLC or clicking the online scheduling tool now.