How do you know if you have severe anxiety?

Hey there, 

Thanks for your question. I am sorry to hear about your challenges with anxiety. I have a couple thoughts that I hope you find helpful and give you some things to think about. 

Everybody experiences anxiety in some form. In fact, it is generally a helpful feeling that we experience and aids us in trying to decide if something is a threat or harmful. While this regular anxiety can be good for us, clinical anxiety is something that can inhibit us and affect our thoughts and emotions. Normal anxiety tends to spring up situationally or on a short-term basis while clinical anxiety is persistent and doesn't typically resolve itself over time. If you are feeling constantly anxious and this has been going on for a while, you may be experiencing a more serious form of anxiety. 

There are a few helpful things to try to reduce these overall feelings of stress and anxiety that you are experiencing. One thing can be to identify triggers that tend to cause your anxiety to peak. These could be certain situations, people, places, etc. If you can identify if there are triggers that cause this response in you, you can work to avoid them (when possible and within reason), prepare yourself for them, or practice calming strategies when you know you have to go through with them. You can utilize different strategies such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation (if you can incorporate this before or after), making a plan of how you will handle the situation, or talking with someone about what is going on to help release some stress. 

Additionally, it is so important to incorporate a self-care routine that meets your different needs. When thinking about self-care, it is necessary to consider if you are meeting your social needs, psychological/emotional needs, professional needs, physical needs, and spiritual needs. Having outlets in each of these different areas may help you address and release your anxiety in different ways. For example, journaling may allow you to write things down and make connections on your own about what makes you stressed. Connecting with friends or family may help you vent a bit and get feedback. Exercise may help you release some built up stress. And so on. It can be incredibly helpful to come up with ways to meet these different needs and then start engaging in your plan so that you can feel better. 

I hope you found this helpful and that you feel some improvement soon. If not or you have more concerns, I always recommend speaking with a mental health professional who can provide you with a more individualized treatment. I wish you all the best on your journey and hope you feel better soon. Take care!

Cory Bedtke, LCSW