What to Do When Your Anxiety Becomes Debilitating

Woman suffering from debilitating anxiety after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Whether you’ve been dealing with anxiety concerns for years, or are newly experiencing anxiety symptoms, the struggle of coping can really get you down. As the CDC notes, life during the COVID-19 pandemic comes with additional stressors and reasons for concern. Many people around the country are finding their anxiety problems flaring back up or worsening.

When anxiety becomes debilitating, it can seriously damage your quality of life. You may come to realize you’ve withdrawn into an emotional cocoon, losing contact with friends and family and letting your personal and professional goals lapse as you struggle to get through each day. While simple stress can often be dealt with through basic changes, psychological anxiety can be more complex and difficult to handle.

If your anxiety is getting out of hand this summer, turn to the experts at Nugent Family Counseling Center. Our mental health counseling offices, located in San Jose, California, Los Gatos, California, and Reno, Nevada, provide support for new and existing patients with anxiety and stress-related concerns. We also offer telehealth treatment. Here’s what we recommend our patients know about dealing with severe anxiety.

Caught in a loop?

The emotions connected with an anxiety disorder can be connected to real-life problems, but may also be free-floating. Either way, anxiety disorders involve exaggerated responses to problems and concerns. If you have an anxiety disorder, you may grow more distressed than a situation warrants, or struggle to understand what you’re worrying about in the first place.

Anxiety involves the “fight or flight” response hard-coded into your brain. Meant to protect you from danger, these responses engage your physical body in response to your thoughts and emotions. Disordered anxiety can leave you stuck in a cycle of negative physical responses, keeping you tense, sleepless, and stressed out.

Discover ways to find peace

Debilitating anxiety can feel extremely intense, but most often, you’ll be safe to take a moment or two to find your internal balance. Some techniques that can help you calm down, self-soothe, and break negative stress cycles include:

  • Bringing yourself into awareness of the present moment, breathing deeply, counting to ten, or naming objects you can sense around you
  • Taking time to rest and relax, either alone or with loved ones
  • Caring for your physical wellness, getting plenty to drink, eating healthy foods, and getting enough sleep
  • Cutting back on alcohol and caffeine, both of which can trigger anxiety responses

In a mental health emergency, national helplines are always available to assist you during a crisis.

Reach out for support

When anxiety won’t let up, it’s time to reach out for help and support. Let your friends and loved ones know about your struggles, and seek professional support to get to the root of your anxiety concerns. For many patients, professional treatment can resolve anxiety disorders for good, relieving mental symptoms with effective counseling methods.

The team at Nugent Family Counseling Center offers multiple types of support and treatment for patients with debilitating anxiety. In addition to management through medication and psychotherapy, individually or in groups, we also offer hypnosis and microcurrent electrical therapy treatment, also known as neurofeedback. 

Together, we can re-balance your mental and emotional symptoms, and restore the fullness and quality of your daily life. You can reach out to the care team at Nugent Family Counseling Center at any time. You may want to take advantage of our telehealth offerings, to get support for your anxiety without leaving the comfort of your own home. You can schedule an appointment over the phone, or with the online tool.