Douglas
Johns, LCSW Portland, Oregon
(503)252-3739
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Counseling For
Anxiety
Anxiety can be
difficult to identify. Sometimes anxiety
is experienced as depression and some
people cycle between the two. Anxiety is a
lot like stress. Both can make us feel
keyed-up, touchy, vulnerable or exposed.
The constant worry, sometimes just out of
conscious awareness, is exhausting. And
because it's so painful we don't want to
feel it, so we often try not to. In the
long run that's a mistake.
The place to
begin addressing all suffering is by first
admitting it to yourself. "I'm suffering."
That's sometimes easier with depression
than with anxiety. Anxiety feels like
something I should just be able to get
over and be done with. But then that's
part of the problem that fuels anxiety:
Worrying about worrying.
Both anxiety and
depression decrease with similar
interventions: Regular exercise, a more
healthy diet, calming influences. And
perhaps the most important is learning to
feel comfortable feeling
uncomfortable. This means relating
with our experience rather than ignoring
it or trying to get rid of it.
Paradoxically, when we acknowledge the
anxious feeling it often begins to
decrease.
Try this. The
next time you feel stressed-out or anxious
repeat the following to yourself: "There
is stress" or "There is anxiety." Don't
identify with it as in, "I feel
stressed-out." Just label it objectively.
"There is stress. There is anxiety." In
time you can create some space between you
and the feeling. That's hard to describe
in words but this "space" is a place of
increased responsiveness rather than
reactivity. It's like taking a step back
from the experience. Space is created
where we can actually make decsisions, in
the moment, regarding how we respond to
our anxiety. And, as I emphasize
throughout my work, my counseling method
helps people cultivate self-compassion
for the
challenges you face from just being a
human being.
Please call me
with any questions you have about my
counseling practice at
503-252-3739.
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