ANXIETY
Redefining Anxiety as Your Ally, Not Your Enemy
WHAT IS ANXIETY?
Anxiety is a normal human emotion that is universally experienced. However, for many, anxiety can feel like a nuisance, illogical, and unnecessary. Thus, it might feel intuitive that the way to deal with anxiety is to try to get rid of it or rationally reason why you shouldn’t feel this way. Sometimes that can work, but for many, the more they try to push away anxiety, the worse and ever-present it becomes. So what do you do?
First and foremost, it’s essential to recognize that anxiety is not your enemy. Anxiety has a well-intentioned purpose, which is to protect us from harm, to motivate, and to remind us of what is most important in our lives.
However, it can be easier said than done to view anxiety in this way.
WHY ADDRESS ANXIETY?
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You feel overwhelmed with anxiety, stress, worries, and fears.
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You constantly worry, and that worry doesn’t seem to ever go away no matter how hard you try or how much you accomplish.
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You experience uncomfortable racing thoughts, restlessness, exhaustion, headaches, nausea, or muscle tension that interfere with productivity, concentration, and general functioning to get through your day and responsibilities.
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You have anxiety that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to enjoy your life and be present with friends, family, and activities/hobbies. Perhaps you have started avoiding these things in order to avoid anxiety as well.
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You experience phobias or fears that interfere with your life.
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To manage anxiety, you engage in problematic or compulsive behaviors that may temporarily ease anxiety in the short-term but then create other problems that complicate your life.
HOW CAN DR. YU HELP?
Dr. Yu provides tangible and practical mental strategies that you can start applying immediately in your life to ease anxiety. Dr. Yu can teach you how to live and work with anxiety, rather than feeling like you must constantly fight with it. Even if it doesn’t make rational sense for you to feel anxious, Dr. Yu can teach you alternative ways of relating with anxiety, that don’t necessarily involve having to solve it, reason with it, or make it go away. This means learning to observe from a distance your racing thoughts and uncomfortable anxious sensations, so that they do not feel so overwhelming and suffocating. It’s about learning to separate anxiety from your identity and understanding that you are not anxiety, but rather someone who experiences anxiety.
Dr. Yu also helps you get back into your valuable activities and actions that maybe you have been avoiding, due to anxiety. In other words, he can help you live your life the way you want, even when anxiety is present. Just like if it is raining, you can still go out to play. Sure, you will get wet, but that doesn't have to stop you. Similarly, even if worries or fears show up, you can still go out, live your life, and engage in the things that are meaningful to you.
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So the beauty of all this is that to experience anxiety relief, you don’t have to eliminate anxiety and hope that it will never come back. You can learn how to increase acceptance and resilience to anxiety, so that when it does inevitably show up, you will know how to handle it and how to keep on living life the way you want.
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Anxiety services can be provided to individuals or groups/organizations. Please see the General Info & Rates page for more information or contact Dr. Yu today.