Everyone experiences worries and fears, but seeking counseling is important if your worry:
• Disrupts your sleep, work, relationships, or daily life.
• Affects you most days and is hard to manage.
• You have unexplained physical symptoms.
• You have unhealthy coping methods like excessive screen time or substance misuse.
• You have panic attacks.
Although anxiety typically doesn’t cause physical harm, chronic distress can impact both physical and mental health.
• Fear of being apart from caregivers
• Avoidance of separation-triggering situations
• Nightmares about separation
• Physical complaints related to separation anxiety
• Excessive anxiety or worry occurring more days than not for at least 6 months
• Trouble controlling the worry
• Feeling:
– Restless or keyed up/on edge
– Easily fatigued
– Difficulty concentrating
– Irritability
– Muscle tension
– Sleep disturbance
• Intense fear of something specific
• Avoiding the fear trigger
• Instant anxiety when facing the fear
• Struggling to control the fear
• Difficulty in daily life because of the fear
• Sudden physical symptoms:
– Rapid heartbeat
– Sweating
– Chest pain
– Shortness of breath
– Shaking
– Chills or overheating
– Numbness/tingling
• Sudden emotional symptoms:
– Fear of losing control
– Fear of dying
– Feeling detached
• Fear or anxiety triggered by or about social situations
• Worry about embarrassment in social settings
• Avoidance of social gatherings
• Excessive fear compared to actual thre
• Significant distress from fear or avoidance
•Obsessive thoughts:
– Persistent, unwanted, causing anxiety
• Compulsions:
– Repetitive actions to reduce anxiety or prevent feared event
• Time
-consuming, causing distress or impairment
Tools to manage your anxiety:
• Track your triggers and challenge your associated negative thoughts.
• Consider different perspectives, worst-case scenarios, and long-term impact.
• Practice grounding techniques like 5-4-3-2-1, engaging your senses to stay present.
• Exercise to reduce stress hormones (cortisol) and improve clarity.
• Brain dump in a journal to unload thoughts.
• Talk to a trusted friend for support.
• Maintain physical health with balanced diet, hydration, sleep, and limiting caffeine.
• Use relaxation techniques such as mindfulness, deep breathing, journaling, gratitude, self-care, reading, and prayer for holistic well- being.
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