Do I need Therapy?

---

It's normal to feel anxious from time to time, especially if your life is stressful. However, if you have ongoing anxiety that interferes with day-to-day activities and relationships and makes it hard to enjoy life, your anxiety level has risen above what is healthy and normal. In most cases, anxiety problems improve with psychotherapy. Making lifestyle changes, learning coping skills and using relaxation techniques also can help. In excessive cases, you may need to include medication alongside therapy.

Common Symptoms To Look For:

• Restlessness or feeling on edge
• Becoming easily fatigued
• Irritability
• Having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or you have restless unsatisfying sleep
• Having difficulty concentrating or you experience your mind going blank
• Muscle tension

With therapy, you may expect to feel:

• Better control of your thoughts and behaviors
• Increased confidence
• Insight into why you experience anxiety

Everyone occasionally feels blue or sad, but these feelings are usually fleeting and pass within a couple of days. When the sadness lasts over 2 weeks and it interferes with daily life and normal functioning, the person may be depressed. Depression is a common but serious illness, and most who experience it need treatment to get better. When depression is severe and/or present for a long time it can become a medical problem where this is now a chemical imbalance in the brain. Also known as clinical depression or major depression, it can last months or years if left untreated.

Common Symptoms To Look For:

• Feelings of hopelessness, negativity, and pessimism
• Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
• Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex
• Decreased energy, fatigue, being "slowed down"
• Sleep disturbances such as insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
• Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
• Thoughts of death or suicide such as life is not worth living or that others would be better off if you were gone; suicide attempts
• Restlessness, irritability
• Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain

With therapy, you may expect to feel:

• Increased energy
• More positive and optimistic thinking
• Increased feelings of happiness and self-worth
• Decreased suicidal thoughts
• More satisfying relationships
• Insight into why you feel depressed

Stress can affect almost every aspect of an individual’s life, including physical changes, emotional changes, sleep disturbances, sexual dysfunction, memory, concentration and learning. Chronic stress is present in all aspects of life; home, work, school, and personal relationships. Though it is a commonly used term, many people do not understand the physical and emotional implications of stress. The effects of stress make daily tasks difficult because it keeps the brain from working effectively.

Common Symptoms To Look For:

• Sleep difficulties (insomnia or too much sleep)
• Changes in appetite (loss of appetite or increase in appetite)
• Poor concentration or memory problems
• Uncharacteristic mistakes or forgotten appointments
• Anger or tantrums
• Violent outbreaks
• Emotional outbursts
• Irritability and nervousness

With therapy, you may expect to feel:

• Feeling more control over your life
• Ability to make healthy choices related to your wellbeing
• Effective stress and time management skills
• Less irritable
• Feelings of relaxation

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental disorder that follows experiencing or witnessing an extremely traumatic, tragic, or terrifying event. People with PTSD usually have ongoing frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, including with people they were once close to. There are three main kinds of symptoms that clinicians look for when diagnosing posttraumatic stress:  re-experiencing symptoms, avoidant symptoms and symptoms of increased arousal.

Common Symptoms To Look For:

• Re-experiencing symptoms include ways in which the person keeps re-living the traumatic event. These symptoms may include the following:
• Memories of the traumatic event that you can’t get out of your mind
• Recurrent, upsetting dreams about the traumatic event
• Feeling or acting as if the traumatic event is reoccurring in the present
• Emotional and physical discomfort when reminded of the traumatic event
• Avoidant symptoms are ways in which a person tries to avoid anything associated with the traumatic
  event. Sometimes people have a “numbing” effect where their emotional response to other people or  
  events is significantly lighter then normally would have been. Avoidant symptoms include the following:
• Avoiding thoughts or feelings, people or situations (anything that could stir up memories) associated with the traumatic event
• Not being able to recall an important detail of the traumatic event
• Reduced interest or participation in daily activities
• Feeling disconnected from others
• Showing a limited range of emotion, feeling numb or dead inside
• Having a sense of a shortened future
• Symptoms of increased arousal may be similar to symptoms of anxiety or panic attacks. Increased arousal symptoms include the following:
• Difficulty concentrating
• Exaggerated watchfulness and wariness
• Irritability or outbursts of anger
• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Being easily startled

With therapy, you may expect to feel:

• Decreased anxiety
• Stop avoiding people, places, or things that are related to the trauma
• Increased ability to share your feelings
• Less fear
• Thoughts or memories of the traumatic event won’t cause severe reactions or pain