Chronic Stress & Anxiety
What's Happening
No matter what walk of life you come from you are familiar with the impact that stress has on you once it’s in your awareness. You may experience some of the familiar feelings of discomfort in your body, upset stomach, headache or feelings of unrest.
ACUTE STRESS
Acute Stress happens when there are some types of time-limited stressors or events that happen and then generally goes away in a relatively short period of time once the situation has passed. When the stressor is gone, the anxiety and discomfort disappear and things return to their natural flow. Of course, everyones situation is different and over time your bodys response to stress may change.
CHRONIC STRESS
When situations, events or stressors are prolonged you may notice that things do not pass quite as easily as they used to. More intense symptoms may arise and they hang around longer; this is known as Chronic Stress. You may feel like you have less control over your ability to relax and yet crave that sense of relaxation more and more because you’re in a state of persistent over-drive within yourself.
SYMPTOMS
Depression, anxiety, mood disorders or mood disruptions, angry outbursts, reduced patience, irritability, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, problematic eating, bowel issues, menstrual problems, reduced sex drive, decreased sexual arousal, decreased interest in relationships, a sense of dread about your day, wishes that the stresses of your life would just disappear so that you could feel peaceful again.
PREVALENCE & THERAPEUTIC PROGRESSION
Stress-related diagnoses are prevalent in today’s world. In your first session we’ll spend about 45 minutes talking to get a brief outline of how stress has been impacting you mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. After the first 3-5 sessions, you’ll be given more room to just openly explore what’s happening for you that week, month or in your life as a whole. My sessions often move into the deeper personal themes of your life and what’s truly keeping people stuck. We may start with something immediately connected to stress and then end up in themes of your childhood…it’s all connected and I’ll help you draw those connections if you’re interested. It’s important to remember that the session time is yours to use as you wish, whether that’s to talk about a specific event that happened, recent stressors in your life or to go deeper into something you’ve really wanted to talk about from your past.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE ROOM
- What you can expect from me: Trust, respect, patience, honesty, commitment to you and your process.
- What I expect from you: Trust, respect, patience, honesty, commitment to you and your own process.
- The truth is that we’re all susceptible to stress. Therapy can help if it’s something that you want to do for yourself. Contact me today to set up an appointment.
