Anxiety Treatment

You likely found this page because you or someone you know is struggling with some very uncomfortable symptoms.  These might include things like racing thoughts, intense fear, stomach tightness or discomfort, nervousness, shallow breathing, or a racing heartbeat at times. Perhaps, you or your loved one might even be experiencing the dreaded panic attack which comes with a full-blown combination of such symptoms and the incredibly unsetting feeling of a sense of impending doom.  You might wonder if you qualify for a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder and question what you need to do to feel better and get rid of the awful feelings.

Why Do We Have Anxiety?

From our earliest years of life, we begin to learn about safety and survival.  For example, we learn to keep away from a hot stove, to not run with scissors, to take smaller bites, and to keep our seatbelt on.  From the well-meaning advice of those who have gone before us to the hard knocks of painful experiences, we learn all too soon that the threat of pain and even death are realities.  We also learn these hard truths about pain and loss in the emotional and social realms as well.  For instance, if we got hurt by a person we had considered a friend, had a bad experience at a party, or forgot our words during a speech we were giving in school, we may have felt like we wanted to die or could not survive.  So, even if a social rejection won’t physically kill us, it may feel like our sense of self, safety, and a good reputation has been obliviated. Our nervous system hates these threats and wants to protect us.

So, our body and mind remember the thoughts, sensations, memories, and lessons learned so that we can survive.  After all, our nervous system wants to prevent anything even vaguely similar from happening to us again.  However, this protection sometimes comes with a cost.

The blessing of caution is that we can be wise about how we conduct ourselves to often avoid danger and to ensure that we can survive and can live relatively pain-free.  The price, however, is that we learn to subconsciously (and even sometimes consciously) scan not only our external environments but our internal senses to try to determine if we need to take action to stay safe. 

We might check the input we get against scary things we’ve heard on the news, horrible things we or someone we know may have experienced, or even what we see on TikTok.  The accumulated toll of this desire for survival is that we can start to feel like there is danger even when we are actually safe in the present moment. 

However, trying to rationalize with a nervous system that is in fight, flight, or freeze mode is virtually impossible, because the part of the brain that conducts logical thought is basically paused during times of threat.  The deeper parts of the brain are reflexive and reactive and instantaneously trigger the fight, flight, or freeze response, even if the assessed threat level isn’t accurate.  We then feel the uncomfortable nature of the sensations and can have difficulty knowing if this is a real threat or a false alarm. The feeling of threat is real, of course, but not necessarily an accurate picture of whether we are experiencing a true threat to our physical survival.  In other words, we can feel like we are in danger when we are safe.  The very nature of feeling the sensations can set off alarm in our bodies, and the cycle builds on itself if the nervous system is not able to relax.

Types of Anxiety Issues Omaha Trauma Therapy Can Treat

·       Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

·       Panic Disorder/Panic Attacks

·       Irrational Fears (Phobias)

·       Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

·       Social Anxiety Disorder

·       Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

·       Avoidance of Going Out of the Home (Agoraphobia)

·       Acute Stress Disorder

·       Adjustment Disorder

·       Separation Anxiety Disorder

Treatment Options

There are many effective treatment options for anxiety.  At Omaha Trauma Therapy, we provide care from a holistic viewpoint and specifically tailor your treatment to your needs.  We can help you through offering you a variety of tools, skills, and techniques that can help you to not only calm the symptoms of anxiety and stress but to also process the triggers, thoughts, and emotions that you are experiencing.  We can help you to reorganize the way your traumatic pain points are stored in your nervous system, and we do this through the use of various treatments such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy, (DBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). 

When you work with Omaha Trauma Therapy, you will experience highly effective and personalized help for the healing of your anxiety, trauma, PTSD, and stress.

The Outcome

You already know the negative effects of anxiety, but here are the positive effects of treating your anxiety through mental health therapy.  You will learn how to identify sensations and triggers and how to reprocess, replace, and even prevent them from happening.  You will also learn ways to soothe your nervous system and how to observe your experience from a place of curiosity and awareness so that you can choose what tools to employ to meet your needs and calm yourself. 

In addition to the above, should you decide to be treated with EMDR, you will physically process trauma in your nervous system and gain a deep sense of peace, and a sense of stability.  This is because these treatments address the memories still held in your mind and body which get triggered, sending you into high alert.  When processed effectively, you will develop an even greater sense of calm and peace as well as a more relaxed physical body that is less reactive to the things that once disturbed you so greatly.

Perhaps, the biggest thing you will take away with you, when you successfully complete therapy for your anxiety, is the absence of physical tension, irrational fear, racing thoughts, and unhelpful behaviors.  It’s often the absence of these that is the most profound difference that anxiety therapy can make in your life or the life of your loved one.

At Omaha Trauma Therapy, we utilize a variety of treatment options to help our clients overcome the effects of anxiety, stress, panic, depression, and trauma, and we would be honored to help you heal from anxiety, reset your nervous system, and gain tools and skills to utilize.

We can’t promise that life will be smooth sailing, but we can promise that you don’t have to experience prolonged suffering when there is therapeutic help to be had.  Best yet, once your nervous system is better able to regulate itself, and you have some effective tools in your toolbox, you will be able to embrace life, take chances, and move into life without anxiety stopping you.  Anxiety and trauma healing is possible. 

BLOG POST