Calgary Anxiety Therapy 

​​​​Anxiety is a buzz term that is often thrown around. But for those of us in Calgary who experience significant anxiety, we know just how debilitating and crippling anxiety can be. Anxiety can present in many ways; anywhere from physical symptoms (e.g., heart racing, sweating, panic attacks, muscle tension, sleep difficulties, etc.), to mental (racing thoughts, uncontrollable worry, etc). ​

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Anxiety can affect our lives in many ways, and often get in the way of us engaging in our lives in the ways that we want. 

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​To cope with anxiety, many of us can end up engage in avoidance to try to get away from the feeling of anxiety. For example, if we struggle with social anxiety, we might avoid social situations such as parties, get togethers, presentation at work, contributing to meetings etc. and feel relived immediately after. However the next time we are invited to a social event, the anxiety is right there again. 

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So, even though these avoidance behaviors feel helpful in reducing anxiety in the short term, in the long term avoidance can be problematic and even lead to maintaining or intensifying our anxiety.​

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There are many types of anxiety, but here are some of the most common ones:

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1. Social anxiety disorder:
In simple words, social anxiety is when when we feel extremely anxious, nervous, stressed and afraid in social situations. Often this is tied to a fear of being judged by others. As a result you can find yourself avoiding various social situations, and struggle in different parts of your life including school, work and with friends. For example, you might feel debilitating anxiety before a presentation at work, or struggle in classes where you have to contribute to discussions. 

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If you think you have social anxiety disorder, you can read more here
 

2. Generalized anxiety: 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): This is when you feel worried or anxious about many things, not just one specific situation. Often those experiencing GAD describe it as a constant sense of unease or dread or fear about everyday life—whether it’s work, health, or something else. It’s more than just occasional anxiety, it’s ongoing and can feel overwhelming and affect many and most aspects of our life. We can be worried about things from success at work, the health of our family members, something going wrong during a trip, etc. Sometimes these worries occur simultaneously and that can feel extremely overwhelming. 

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If you think you have GAD, you can read more here

3. Panic disorder or agoraphobia:

If you’ve experience a panic attack, you know just how unnerving this experience can be. It can feel like a sudden wave of fear and panic, and sometimes out of the blue. It can lead to us feeling like we may be loosing control and feel like we are “going crazy” or having a heart attack. 

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For those who have had panic attacks, you know they can wear you out and also often lead to a fear and worry about the next time you’ll have another one. This can lead to what is called agoraphobia, where we develop a fear of any situations where a panic attack might occur and we might feel trapped or stuck. For example, we might worry about travelling in a pubic bus due to a fear of not being able to escape if needed. This often leads to us starting to avoid any places where we deem there is a level of risk of developing another panic attack. Sometimes this can lead to our lives shrinking and doing less and less. 

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If you think you have panic disorder, you can read more here

3. Phobias:​

We have a phobia when we have an intense and out of proportion fear of something. There are many different phobias; for example: emetophobia (fear of vomiting), arachnophobia (phobia of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights), fear of blood or getting injections, fear of flying, etc. 

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For those who have a phobia, you might go out of your way to avoid any situations where your phobia might come up. Sometimes this feels manageable to do; however, other times, this might impede your life and make it difficult to do things you want to be able to do. It can also sometimes affect your relationship with others, especially if you feel like they don’t understand your fear and don’t know how to support you

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If you think you have a specific phobia, you can read more here

4. Health anxiety:
This is sometimes called being a “hypochondriac”  referring to someone who feels excessively anxious about their health. 

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Do you experience any physical symptom and automatically jump to the worst case scenario? For example, having a headache and wondering if you might have a brain tumour. 

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You might also obsess over physical symptoms, and spend a lot of time seeking reassurance or getting information by googling your symptoms, going to doctors appointments, getting medical tests, etc. 

Health anxiety can impact your day to day life, making it difficult to concentrate and focus on anything else, and can affect your sense of wellbeing and also relationship with others. It can feel quite debilitating and get in the way of living your life the way that you want. ​​

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We are happy to support people in and around Calgary with anxiety therapy sessions.