It's comforting to reach out for a helping hand to overcome Anxiety in its many forms. Anxieties are often underlying problems when you think something else is bothering you.  Worry and apprehension can immobilize you, leave you stuck in place when you want to be moving forward. Anxiety is a normal psychological reaction to stress; but in some cases there's no obvious reason for anxiety, and it can become constant, excessive, and disabling. Psychological Anxiety usually comes with physical symptoms attached, too: oppressive fatigue, muscle tension, aches and pains, and it makes you irritable. Counseling can help you to free yourself from the effects of  Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress (PTSD), Social Phobia, and Panic Attacks. Effective treatments are available; so come, get the therapeutic help that you and your loved ones deserve. Stress Management Skills and Assertiveness Training often help. Talk therapy plus a medical prescription are a winning combination.  (The National Institute of Mental Health is the information source for this page.  For more information on the topic go to www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/anxietymenu.cfm)

Generalized Anxiety characterizes the "worrywart", who can always find some- thing to worry about. Every glorious sunrise carries the threat of sunburn. A fulfilling life involves risk, but risk-taking may seem scary. Anxiety spoils your fun. It poisons intimate relationships. It distracts you from the here and now, because you keep thinking about worrisome future possibilities, although they may never happen.  Is this just a worst-case caricature?  No; it's really what Generalized Anxiety Disorder feels like. A helping hand can help you to shake yourself loose from overblown worry.

Social Phobia is the experience of persistent, intense, and chronic fear of being watched and judged by others or being embarrassed or humiliated by your own actions when you're around other people. It can interfere with ordinary activities like going to work or to the grocery store. You may be self-conscious about blushing and stammering or not knowing what to say when you're in a social situation. These symptoms inhibit your interactions with people and they interfere with your enjoyment of full quality of life.  Let's work ourselves free of them. 

Panic Attacks are sudden and severe.  They're characterized by extreme mental stress and an abrupt onset of physical symptoms like profuse sweating, nausea, trembling, heart pounding, gasping for breath, nausea, dizziness.  A panic attack only lasts for minutes; but worry about it happening again may linger for a very long time. It doesn't have to be that way.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a set of recurring intense anxieties that take shape after a terrifying ordeal in which grave physical harm was threatened or actually occurred. Triggering traumas include violent personal assaults, natural  or human-caused disasters, accidents, military combat. In some instances the traumatic experience occurred many years ago in childhood; but suppressed memories about it still torment the adult. The PTSD experience includes persistent frightening thoughts and memories of the ordeal, efforts to avoid anything that reminds you about it, sleep disturbance and nightmares, emotional detachment, jumpiness, unwarranted guilt, and self-blame. You desperately need a helping hand. 

My Adult Counseling Services office serves both sides of the Potomac River.  The office is located in Alexandria and convenient to Arlington, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Annandale, District of Columbia, and parts of Prince George's County.  For directions to our office.