Anxiety is one of the most frequent reasons people seek therapy. The exact presentation of anxiety varies from person to person, but it tends to have some common features:

• Being consumed by thoughts or worries that are challenging to disengage from

• Feeling on edge, out of control, or unable to fully relax

• Overthinking and second-guessing decisions

• Trouble falling or staying asleep

• Physical symptoms such as muscle tension, an unsettled stomach, or difficulty breathing fully

• Fatigue, restlessness, or a loss of appetite

• Difficulty focusing

• Becoming easily frustrated

If you are experiencing a few of these symptoms, and have been experiencing them on an ongoing basis, you may benefit from therapy focused on addressing anxiety and its impacts.

Anxiety is a healthy and normal emotion to experience. It helps promote safety, preparation, and alertness in important moments.

Much like the story of Goldilocks and the Bears, there can be a “just right” range of anxiety, where it is serving its intended function.

Sometimes, anxiety can exceed this range, where it begins to impede performance or actively impair functioning. Thoughts are no longer sharp, but become overwhelming. Rather than feeling alert, you become fatigued. The level of anxiety felt is not proportional to the situation at hand.

When anxiety is harmful, rather than helpful, or when it has begun to interfere with functioning or performance on a regular basis, it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. While anxiety disorders are not abnormal (they make up some of the most prevalent diagnosed mental health conditions), you could still benefit from professional support for your anxiety.

If anxiety is affecting your work, relationships, mood, or overall enjoyment of daily life, therapy may be worth exploring.

More broadly, if anxiety feels like it's making decisions for you, keeping you from things that matter, or simply taking up more space than you'd like, that's reason enough to reach out. You don't need to be in crisis for support to be helpful.

Sharing personal things with someone you just met can be hard. While it may help to know that sessions are protected by confidentiality, or that your therapist (hopefully) has specific training and experience in navigating your challenges, you still might feel apprehensive about putting it on all on the table. That’s ok!

It is totally acceptable to set limits in what you feel comfortable discussing in any given moment. Clients have the final say in what they share.

The sense of trust you develop with your therapist is not usually built overnight, but is gradually strengthened by how they respond to what you are sharing. If you feel judged for what you share, you may need to find a different clinician. But if you routinely feel understood and accepted as you are, then a sense of trust tends to develop and opening up becomes easier.

Though anxiety has some common factors across people, the way it's experienced and responded to varies from person to person.

For this reason, there's no universal "best" approach for treating anxiety. Different people connect with and benefit from different methods. Some modalities have larger bodies of research supporting their effectiveness, but what matters most is finding what feels genuinely helpful for you.

Common approaches used in anxiety treatment include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Exposure Therapy, among others. Ask your clinician about the approaches they use and their perspective on what might be most helpful given what you're working through.