Anxiety Treatment
Our warm and caring Melbourne-based Psychologists in clinical practice are experts in anxiety treatment. Effective tools from the comfort of your own home and device.
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Medicare & Private Health Rebates
now available for online psychological support
What is anxiety?
Excessive anxiety can result in a mental health disorder characterised by feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one’s daily activities. Symptoms result due to a perceived threat or stressor and the disproportionate emotional response of the individual within the context to the identifiable stressor or event. It involves the individuals excessive worry and their inability to control their worry, therefore resulting in a range of emotional, behavioural, cognitive, and physiological anxiety symptoms.
Did you know that anxiety is actually a normal and healthy human emotion experienced by everyone at some stage in their life?
Anxiety can often be experienced above the recommended threshold and therefore cause the individual to experience difficulty functioning day-to-day. It is important to know that everyone feels anxious from time to time – this certainly does not mean there is something wrong with you!
Individuals are wired to scan their environments (e.g., work, home, etc) for perceived threats as a survival mechanism. However, sometimes we experience “false alarms” and actually respond to certain situations (e.g., starting a new gym class, going to a party, relationships, starting a new job, breaking up with a loved one) as a perceived threat and experience panic or increased anxiety.
Prolonged symptoms of anxiety are often classified as one of the below:
> Generalised anxiety
> Social anxiety
> Phobias and fears
> Stress and burnout
> Health anxiety
> Panic attacks
> Obsessions and compulsions
> Post-traumatic stress
> Separation anxiety (in children)
Perhaps you have started to experience, or a loved one has displayed the following symptoms:
> Irritability
> Uncertainty
> Lack of tolerance
> Uncontrollable worry
> Unhelpful and ruminating thoughts
> Excessive fear
> Assuming the worst
> Catastrophising
> Mindreading what other may be thinking of you
> Jumping to conclusions
Physical symptoms of anxiety:
> Difficulty breathing
> Shorter-shallow breaths
> Rapid heart rate
> Heart palpitations
> Hot flushes
> Tightness in the chest
> Muscle tension in the head and shoulders
> Headaches
> Sweaty palms
> Dry mouth
> Difficulty swallowing
> Feeling of nausea
> Trembling hands
Cognitive symptoms of anxiety:
> Lack of concentration
> Intrusive thoughts
> Irrational thinking
> Unhelpful thinking patterns – incl. jumping to conclusions, mind reading, catastrophising
> Unwanted thoughts
> Racing thoughts
Behavioural symptoms of anxiety:
> Hypervigilance
> Irritability
> Restlessness
> Difficulty sleeping or insomnia
Emotional symptoms of anxiety:
> Feeling anxious
> Feeling on-edge and keyed up
> Irritability
> Excessive worry
> Feeling of constant fear
> Feeling of impending doom
Treatments for Anxiety Disorders
It is important to reach out for professional support to treat anxiety disorders. Left untreated, anxiety can last a lifetime and cause significant disfunction in daily activities. Evidence-based psychological treatments for anxiety include:
> Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT),
> Exposure Therapy (Behaviour Therapy)
> Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
> Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
> Positive Psychology
> Narrative Therapy
> Read more here at the Black Dog Institute
How Can Positive Wellbeing Psychology Help?
At Positive Wellbeing Psychology, we work with you to understand the function of anxiety and explore evidence-based strategies and tools that are proven to reduce your baseline level of anxiety. Individuals who experience high levels of anxiety due to prolonged stress or burn out, often benefit from psychological support.
You may benefit from talking to a Psychologist at Positive Wellbeing Psychology, to learn a little more about what lifestyle factors may be maintaining your cycle of anxiety, as well as to explore some proven techniques shown to effectively reduce anxiety symptoms including irritability, restlessness, sleep disturbance, excessive worry – among other emotional, cognitive, behavioural and physical changes.
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