Too often in my practice, I hear clients struggling with anxiety issues state quite plainly “I don’t know how to carry on living with these feelings”. Anxiety can be so overwhelming and burdening that their lives don’t seem worth living.

The challenge of anxiety can cause even the most high-functioning people to become desperate to escape it. Individual anxiety reactions can range from discomfort or fear to overwhelming feelings of dread or panic – the same sensations they would experience if the worst were actually happening. Often, clients turn to their doctor seeking the instant relief of medication and many doctors will willingly offer anti-anxiety meds when they know a patient can get immediate symptom relief.

What clients often don’t know when they choose taking anti-anxiety meds is the price of depending solely on a medication strategy – there are effective and practical methods that can control and eliminate their symptoms without medication. Unfortunately, many of these clients never learn about the tools available to manage their anxiety, dooming them to be victimized repeatedly whenever they feel undue stress or are challenged by significant life changes. What clients suffering with anxiety need to understand, is that the right counselling can teach them to control their anxiety and that the relief can come in a couple of weeks – almost the same amount of time for a medication to become effective.

Managing anxiety is only part of the story. Therapy can also address the underlying psychological causes or triggers for anxiety which can include past traumas. While the anxiety management techniques can offer speedy relief, it is the longer-term therapy that can address the root causes and eliminate the source of anxiety.

The unpleasant symptoms most likely to be helped by medication are the very ones that the best anxiety-management techniques are intended to correct. They fall into three typical anxiety clusters:

the building physical sensation the constitutes terror or panic;
the “totally wired” feeling of tension or being “stressed out” that can include the overwhelming feeling of doom;
the constant mental torment of rumination – a mind that continuously obsesses on disturbing thoughts.

A therapist trained in the most effective methods for addressing these clusters can offer an anxious client the promise of relief for a lifetime.

Contact me to set up a no-charge consultation about how I can help you overcome your anxiety for life. We offer effective tools through our anxiety counselling in Victoria, BC.