Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Anxiety - Therapy and Counseling

By Gordon Dalwood

Dealing with anxiety and panic attacks is never an easy venture. For many, these problems can lead to a great reduction in the quality of a person's life. That is why it is critical to seek the proper treatment to reverse the ravages of these problems. One of the most common strategies is to seek therapy and counseling with a qualified mental health professional.

Using counseling and therapy are the tools most often used to find the anxiety causes within the human mind. By finding the cause of the problem the ability to turn the damaging affects around is possible. But the realization of the practicality of the therapy is a must in order for it to work.

First and foremost, one needs to realize that a counseling session is not intended to deliver a quick cure for one's anxiety issues. Some have the notion that a counselor will reveal a number of secrets that will alleviate anxiety once and for all. Actually, it does not work this way. The counseling session will seek to reverse the problems associated with anxiety in incremental steps. With time, patience, and consistency, great progress can be made with reversing the excess anxiety.

One should also bear in mind that while there are standardized psychological tests, the specific questions asked and also the actual approach will vary from one mental health professional to the next. Of course, each mental health professional will have their own methods for administering these tests in order to make a diagnosis. As such, there's no "one-size-fits-all" approach with regards to counseling or therapy sessions.

This brings up another point: there is no right or wrong answers to any questions the therapist might ask. Simply answer all the questions that are posed to you in as clear and direct a manner as possible. It is also critical to be truthful in your responses and avoid holding anything back during the questioning. This will simply undermine the potential success of your therapy sessions.

The counseling sessions are not just the series of questions that you must answer. You may also ask questions of the counselor in an attempt to understand your problems and to help in the reduction of the problems you are having with anxiety.

When you are not in therapy, you should keep a log book and keep an accurate account of how you are dealing with the anxiety since the start of your sessions. This will allow you to notice what exactly it is that triggers some of your more anxious moments. Ultimately, through keeping an accurate log of your behavior you can gauge how well your therapy sessions are going.

Therapy sessions are the number one way of treating anxiety. They may not only help to decrease your feelings of anxiety but may help to turn around the effects of other psychological problems that you may be experiencing which will be brought out during these sessions. For those who want to regain control of their lives this is a sanctioned way of doing so.

About the Author: