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Marriage Counseling & Psychotherapy
Beverly Hills and Woodland Hills, CA
David Gorton, Ph.D.
Anxiety Symptoms and Treatment
Many people I see in therapy suffer from anxiety --- a very unpleasant and sometimes crippling experience. No one likes to feel anxious and yet we all do from time to time.
The Symptoms of Anxiety
We all experience anxiety in our bodies. One of the most common signs of anxiety is difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath. Some people report to me of having palpitations or chest pains and then worry that they might be having a heart attack. While it is important to see your doctor to rule this out, it is seldom the case.
Anxiety headaches, stomach pain and nausea are also common. Trembling and excessive perspiration often accompany panic attacks (the more extreme form of anxiety). Feelings of being helpless or hopeless often go hand-in-hand with anxiety.
What Anxiety Is
Anxiety is the body's way of getting us to deal with a threat... usually an imagined threat of something that may or may not happen in the future. Fear, on the other hand, is of a real, present, external threat.
In its milder form anxiety may mobilize us to deal with something, such as when a student is preparing for an exam or a business person is writing a report for work, for instance.
In its more extreme form, anxiety is debilitating and interfes with our lives, since we are imagining that we are incapable of doing something or of having the kind of relationship we desire, for example. This is the kind of anxiety that brings so many people into my office for therapy --- and some with an anxiety panic attack.
Anxiety is the "unseen" danger since it is mostly created in our imagination. But our body cannot distinguish between what we imagine and what is actually there in the real world, as long as we believe that what we imagine is true. If we believe something in our minds then our body and emotions will respond.
People often feel that there is something wrong with them because they are "worried over nothing"... not realizing that it only feels like "nothing" because it is not something tangible that we can see.
Treating Anxiety
In overcoming anxiety it is important to first that I understand what you are experiencing and that I appreciate how hopeless you feel.
It is then important to make the "unseen" danger both seen and heard to help you be able to articulate just what you are imagining will go wrong, whether this be done in words, images or both.
When we are small children we learn to anticipate what will displease our parents to avoid punishment or possibly withdrawal of their love. It is this anticipation that we often carry into adulthood that usually does not serve us well... we anticipate that our wife or husband is going to leave us, or that we are going to get fired from a job even though our reviews have been good.
It is difficult to understand why something that works so well in childhood causes of such grief now, but this is usually the case.
As we work together in psychotherapy in dealing with anxiety we can make the imaginings about danger that may never happen more conscious, we can begin to question the assumptions inherent in them, thereby giving them far less power in our lives.
Most people I have treated for anxiety report feeling calmer and better able to deal with life's real issues successfully.
If you would like help with anxiety, please call me for a free phone consultation: (818) 347-2633.
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Dr. David Gorton, Ph.D.
Psychotherapist & Marriage and Family Therapist
Lic. No. MFC7027
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