How Anxiety Treatment Can Help You
If I ignore my anxiety (or any feeling), it will just go away. This isn’t true! Learn how anxiety treatment can help you not do this below.
How many times do we utter the words above to ourselves when we don’t want to deal with something? When we wish that something would just go away, it’s common to ignore it. Because if you don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist, right? And for the very short term this is true.
Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is often the worst thing we can do for ourselves and out mental health in the medium and long term. It not only can have dire consequences on your mental health but also on your physical well-being and steal your joy from life. Trying to ignore anxiety or its symptoms is definitely something that should never be done.
Here are four reasons why you should never ignore anxiety and how anxiety treatment can help you prevent and overcome avoidance anxiety
1. Ignoring Anxiety Doesn’t Make It Go Away
Out of sight, out of mind, right? That may be a useful phrase for that pile of laundry we ignore, but it does not apply to anxiety. Or any mental health concern, for that matter.
Unfortunately, our brains are programmed to hold on to things, even if we aren’t actively thinking about them. So if you are trying to ignore anxiety or what is causing you stress, it’s likely not working. Understanding this is one key way to understanding how anxiety treatment can help with anxiety (and life).
Even though you are just willing anxiety to go away, it doesn’t mean it will. In fact, trying to ignore the symptoms won’t make those go away, either. Your brain is holding on to the anxiousness, and when it is unresolved, the symptoms of anxiety won’t be either and can lead to a more serious anxiety condition.
2. Anxiety Weakens Your Immune System
It may be surprising to hear, but when you ignore your anxiety, you are also causing harm to your immune system. Read that again! Ignoring anxiety can harm your immune system. If that’s not a powerful reason to learn how anxiety treatment can help, I don’t know what is!
When you are feeling anxious, your body goes into overdrive. When your body is constantly in this state, it can never truly be in a rested state, called the rest and digest response. The rested state tied to healing and repairing the body is never reached. So when that happens, your body never even has a chance to heal or repair the immune system.
With this much pressure, you are more prone to becoming sick more frequently. Chronic fight / flight freeze response is not good for your mind and not good for your health. Even if you don’t get sick, anxiety can prevent you from really enjoying your life and fully connecting to what matters most to you.
3. Anxiety Can Lead To Constant Muscle Tension Or Chronic Pain
When you are constantly anxious, a part of your brain called the amygdala (or alarm center) sends signals to your nervous system in response to this stress. The stress response causes your muscles to become increasingly tight or to contract.
This can lead to cramping, stiff, or sore muscles, and aches and pains. Additionally, in some cases, it can lead to chronic pain issues such as arthritis or even fibromyalgia. This is But there is good news here! Llearning how anxiety treatment can help you to manage anxiety can help you learn to manage both muscle tension and chronic pain.
4. Anxiety Can Cause Panic Attacks
The longer anxiety is ignored and left untreated, the worse it will get. And when it is not treated, it can eventually lead to panic attacks. Panic attacks are characterized by a variety of symptoms but can include:
- Sweating
- Chills
- Difficulty breathing/hyperventilating
- Chest pain
- Pounding or racing heart
Suffering through panic attacks is no joke and should not be taken lightly, especially when some of the panic attack symptoms can mirror other serious conditions such as a heart attack which although not dangerous can be very scary.
This is why learning how anxiety treatment works can be a powerful antidote to managing and preventing panic symptoms and more full blow anxiety / panic attacks.
How Anxiety Treatment Can Help In Detail
It doesn’t matter how long you have been suffering through anxiety or how long you have been ignoring it. Whether it has only been a few months, a few years, or decades—you can learn to manage your anxiety healthier.
One of the best ways to do this is through anxiety treatment. By working with a licensed counselor, they can help you reshape the way you think of anxiety and how it affects your life.
It teaches you useful skills through treatment methods that can change the way you think, feel, and behave forever! Yes, learning how to rewire your brain for less anxiety and more joy is not only possible, but likely when you get the right kind of anxiety treatment, with a therapist you feel comfortable with.
Anxiety is a common problem that many people deal with. You are definitely not alone in these struggles, and you should not feel any shame for needing support. If you are ready for support, reach out to my Honolulu or London office for a test drive appointment to explore how anxiety treatment can help you manage anxiety and thrive!
I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Hawaii and an Accredited CBT Therapist in the UK with over 16 years of experience. I specialize in anxiety treatment and have received advanced specialist training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy.
How Anxiety Treatment Can Help You
Anxiety treatment based on cognitive behavior therapy will teach you cognitive (thinking) and behavioral (action) tools based on the latest neuroscience to help rewire your brain and body for less anxiety and more joy. Anxiety treatment can help you learn how to do this on your own in a matter of weeks to months, not years. Discover how anxiety treatment can help you learn what causes anxiety, how to lower your baseline alarm (anxiety) and what to do when acute anxiety or panic attacks happen.
