Anxiety and feeling a lack of control in your life are highly correlated. I have yet to meet someone who is coping with anxiety who feels comfortably in control of their lives. Think about the different types of anxiety that you have experienced. When you have troubles sleeping because you are worried about tomorrow’s work, you feel out of control about the unknown of what could take place tomorrow. If you have a specific fear, you are worried that that specific phobia will happen to you. In social situations, you are worried about embarrassment.
Many people recognize this, but they do not know what to do about it. The goal is more about accepting the control that you have in certain situations and being fine with this. This is easier said than done. I often ask people to use a 1-10 scale on how fearful or worried they are about a situation. I make them consider extreme crisis situations to place in the 10 slot. These situations need to be life-or-death. Then I have people place their current situation on the same scale. If it is placed too high, we work together on decreasing the significance. If it is an appropriate rating, we use techniques such as grounding and centering to anticipate difficult situations and increase confidence to be able to handle them.
For other ideas on how to overcome problems with anxiety, please e-mail me or contact me to set up an initial consultation to learn how mental health therapy may be able to help.
