Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is a natural response to stress, uncertainty, or perceived threat. While some anxiety is a normal part of life, it can become difficult to manage when worry, fear, or physical symptoms feel persistent, excessive, or begin to interfere with relationships, work, school, sleep, or everyday life.
Anxiety can take many forms, including chronic worry, panic attacks, health anxiety, social anxiety, perfectionism, and difficulty tolerating uncertainty. Therapy can help you better understand the patterns and experiences that contribute to anxiety, while developing practical strategies to manage symptoms and respond differently to anxious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Common Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety include but are not limited to:
- Racing or intrusive thoughts
- Feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge
- Difficulty concentrating or controlling worries
- Rumination
- Trouble relaxing
- Feeling restless or unable to sit still
- Avoidant behavior
- Increased irritability or feeling easily annoyed
- Difficulty falling or staying asleep
- Panic Attacks
- Feeling afraid that something awful might happen
Physical Symptoms:
- GI distress
- Loss of appetite
- Muscle tension
- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Dizziness
- Trouble catching your breath
- Tightness in your chest
- Racing heart
- Shakiness
- Excessive sweating
- Ringing in ears
- Dry mouth
- Feelings of dissociation
Types of Anxiety
Anxiety can present in different ways and may vary in its symptoms, severity, and impact on daily life. While anxiety disorders share certain features, each can involve distinct patterns of thoughts, emotions, physical symptoms, and behaviors.
Common Anxiety and Related Disorders:
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
- Phobia-related disorders
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Illness Anxiety disorder (Health Anxiety)
- Separation Anxiety disorder
If you are struggling with anxiety, therapy can provide a space to better understand the patterns contributing to your symptoms while developing practical strategies to manage anxiety and navigate difficult thoughts, emotions, and experiences.
What is High-functioning Anxiety in Women?
High-functioning anxiety is a term often used to describe anxiety that may not be readily apparent to others. On the outside, you may appear to have it all together. You may be high-achieving, reliable, detail-oriented, motivated, thoughtful, organized, and driven. On the inside, however, you may experience persistent worry, overanalyze decisions, prepare for worst-case scenarios, have difficulty sleeping, or frequently feel overwhelmed or on edge.
For some women, high-functioning anxiety can show up as placing significant pressure on yourself, always feeling like you should be doing more, or finding it difficult to slow down. Despite appearing capable and accomplished to others, you may struggle internally with self-doubt, perfectionism, and a persistent sense that what you are doing is not enough.
Common experiences associated with high-functioning anxiety may include:
- Negative self-talk or self-criticism
- Intrusive or racing thoughts that make it difficult to concentrate or be present
- Overthinking and second-guessing yourself
- Perfectionism
- Difficulty sleeping
- Persistent worry
- Feelings of guilt
- People-pleasing
- Feeling the need to always be doing more
- Difficulty setting boundaries or guilt when saying no
- Anticipating worst-case outcomes
- Procrastination or avoidance
- Imposter syndrome
- Seeking reassurance and external validation
How Anxiety Therapy Can Help You
Anxiety therapy can provide an opportunity to explore not only your current symptoms, but also the experiences, relationships, and patterns that may shape how you respond to stress, uncertainty, and difficult emotions. Our work will be tailored to your individual concerns and goals, with attention to both reducing symptoms and developing greater self-awareness and self-trust.
My approach integrates psychodynamic and relational therapy with evidence-based approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness, exposure-based strategies, and self-compassion. Depending on your needs, we may focus on challenging unhelpful thought patterns, reducing avoidance, increasing your ability to tolerate uncertainty, and developing new ways of responding to anxiety.
Over time, therapy can support you in feeling more confident in your ability to manage anxiety, navigate difficult emotions, and approach everyday challenges with greater flexibility.
Schedule a Consultation
I offer a complimentary phone consultation to help you gain a sense of who I am and my approach to therapy in order to determine if we'll be a good fit working together.