Me & the Boss

Me & the Boss

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Anxiety - Therapy and Counseling

By Gordon Dalwood

As any sufferer can attest to, having to deal with anxiety and panic attacks can be notoriously difficult and because this condition can virtually destroy the quality of a person's life, seeking professional treatment is vital. In this case, the most common approach is to seek counseling and therapy from a duly qualified mental health professional.

Therapy and counseling are utilized to get to the psychological roots of the anxiety. The goal here is once the root of the problem is discovered it can be possible to reverse the ravages of the problem. However, one needs to have realistic expectations about these sessions in order to get the most out of them.

The first thing that should be realized is that one therapy session is not a total cure for the anxiety problems. The expectations that many deeply hidden secrets will be revealed by a counselor and cure the anxiety is not a reality. Counseling will attempt to turn the affects of anxiety around by increasing the steps of the sessions. The quick-fix does not work. Only time, persistence and regular sessions will achieve the end result of turning the damaging effects of anxiety around.

How will the counselor or therapist approach the sessions? There really is no single, unitary answer to this. There are standardized psychological tests that can be administered in order to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. The specific questions and approached that might be employed during the actual therapy session will vary among the many mental health professionals in the field.

Another aspect to the testing is there are no correct or incorrect answers to the therapist's questions. The questions should be answered to the best of your ability. It is very important to be completely honest with your answers and do not keep anything to yourself. This will interfere with the success of the sessions.

Also, it is important to point out that counseling sessions are not one way streets. That means it is not just the therapist that asks questions and you respond. You should always ask questions of your counselor in order to learn more about your condition and to help reduce your problems with anxiety.

Keeping a journal of how the anxiety is affecting you and what you have done to deal with this problem since the beginning of the therapy is another thing you may do when you are not in the sessions. This may help to show you what it is that may cause the attacks to start. Through keeping this journal you may better understand your behavior and see if you think the sessions are helping.

Considering the remarkable results which are achieved through therapy, it's hardly surprising that counseling and therapy remain the single most common treatment for anxiety. Furthermore, counseling can also often help to determine other psychological problems, which then too can be dealt with. If you suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, you'd be well advised to try this approach in order to take control of your life again.

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