Anxiety is probably the number one condition that I see in my practice.
Anxiety is a set of feelings that arise when our sympathetic nervous systems are activated. The parasympathetic nervous system, common to all animals, evolved to increase chances of survival when faced with life threatening situations.
Adrenaline is released and various systems in the body respond putting us into flight-or-flight mode. Energy is routed to the systems that will help us battle or flee threat.
What makes anxiety problematic for us modern westerners, is that it is not being triggered by actual external physical threats to our safety, but instead by thoughts we may have that scare us.
The sympathetic nervous system response that would be quite appropriate, and not feel uncomfortable when faced with a bear in the woods, feels very uncomfortable when we’re laying in our safe secure beds and imagining the presentation we might have to do at work, the airplane flight we may have to take, or an upcoming social event.
The most common behavioral manifestation of anxiety is avoidance: skipping the social event or procrastinating about putting that presentation together.
For my approaches to treating anxiety, please see the Modalities section of the website.