Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety comes in many forms Anxiety is one of our main responses to uncertainty, but for some, it becomes overwhelming and persistent. Anxiety can manifest as

• constant low-level background anxiety, persistent worrying or second-guessing one’s life choices, worrying about the past, the present, and/or the future
• persistent and more pronounced anxiety permeating many areas of life, for a long period of time (Generalized Anxiety Disorder- GAD)
• specific phobias, or situational fears: (e.g., social anxiety, fear of leaving the house, fear of being in a closed room, fear of driving, etc.)
• panic attacks: an intense physical sensation accompanied by a sense of doom that may or may not be short-lived, but re-occurring, strongly disrupting daily life 

Many people struggling with anxiety will try to avoid the situation that causes the anxiety, if there is a clear cause. While this may alleviate symptoms in the short-term, it rarely presents a solution, and usually only tends to increase the fear or anxiety that was present in the beginning. 

Anxiety and Life Transitions

Anxiety is so good at getting our attention right away. Sometimes, it rises to the top of our awareness as the first thing we notice, and are able to clearly identify, before we dive deeper to understand the greater experience we are having below the surface.

Anxiety may accompany any big life transition you are embarking on:

• Starting or ending a new job
• Beginning or ending an important relationship
• Becoming a parent or an “empty nester”
• Facing health issues,
• or loss, in its myriad forms.

Each life transition comes with an impact on the way in which we see ourselves as part of the world, what we understand our role and purpose to be, and while growth may absolutely accompany every single step of your way amidst the change, it may also bring up a sense of the impermanent nature of life, which can feel unsettling.

Our today’s culture is often dreadfully lacking of any kind of ceremony or festivity marking and celebrating such life transitions as the important milestones that they are. Life transitions want to be witnessed; they want to be acknowledged and honored. It is from this perspective that I approach working with life transitions in a therapeutic context.

Anxiety and Masking

Sometimes, anxiety may nudge you to the process of self-reflection and inner work, until a greater understanding of yourself gradually reveals itself. In fact, you may begin to recognize

• your deeper nature as a highly sensitive, gifted, or neurodivergent person;
• you may understand that you or your lineage has been impacted by complex, perhaps transgenerational trauma,
• or you may begin to grasp yourself as part of a group of people sharing a profound experience of marginalization or oppression.

While some aspects of ourselves may be clear to us all our life, other more subtle aspects may take years to realize – especially if we’ve been masking, in whichever way, to be loved, and to survive.

Masking is a high-energy activity that produces a constant level of stress that we may get used to and cease to notice after a while, because we learned or were taught that this is the way in which we get to  survive. While the process of gradually, gently, and authentically unmasking in your life may initially increase fear and worry, in the longer term, it tends to decrease the anxiety that lies underneath.