Anxiety and Panic
Kim* was a physical and mental wreck.
Kim has always been “a worrier.” During her childhood, she would get stomach aches at school; the school nurse would call her mom to pick her up. According to her parents and teachers, Kim was “faking” stomach aches “to get out of school.”
Kim is a self-proclaimed “type A” personality and a perfectionist. Her friends, family, and co-workers admire her as someone who “has it all together.” Kim resists the label or diagnosis of anxiety because she views such labels as a weakness or not real. Besides, Kim is a fully functioning working mom, so how could she have a “mental illness?”
Her doctor doesn’t seem to be taking her seriously and understand that her problem is a REAL physical MEDICAL problem. Kim has chest tightness and pressure almost daily, and sometimes it feels like her heart is pounding out of her chest, racing, or skipping a beat. She catches herself barely breathing, worrying that these symptoms are signs of a heart attack.
She has neck muscle and jaw aches, pressure at the base of her skull, nausea, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, and even breaks out in a sweat while driving.
Enough of this!
Kim finally went to the emergency room, fearing that a heart attack was in progress. At the emergency room, Kim received an EKG and an echocardiogram, but the doctors found nothing wrong and sent her home with a heart monitor, which revealed no abnormal symptoms.
The doctors diagnosed Kim’s symptoms as a panic attack due to severe anxiety and recommended mental health counseling and anti-anxiety medications. Kim tells me she feels embarrassed and disregarded after all that. She does NOT want to take anti-anxiety medications and wonders if her doctor thinks she is “crazy” if they think she needs mental health counseling. She thought, “Can’t they see this is NOT all in my head? These are REAL PHYSICAL symptoms!”
What used to be “normal worry” about “important things” was now causing Kim to “white knuckle” her way through each day. She started avoiding anything social and unnecessary to just get through taking care of her daily obligations.
Acting like things were normal at work or with her family was not easy, especially while Kim felt mentally and physically overwhelmed on the inside. Kim’s situation worsened, interfering with her job, family, and friendships.
Biofeedback offers a viable alternative.
Without help, anxiety can severely impact your life. Many of my clients report feelings of anxiety triggered by events out of their control, and sometimes (even worse) just randomly, for no explainable reason in that moment. These “episodes” of anxiety gradually increase in frequency and severity if your approach is to “ignore it, and it will go away.” As a result, their anxiety started impacting every aspect of their lives. Kim was no exception.
Kim heard from her doctors that biofeedback offered an alternative to medication. After a few years of waiting, she ended up in my office. One of the worst things about anxiety is feeling out of control, especially as the frequency and severity of symptoms worsen. I explained to Kim that biofeedback therapy puts you back in the driver’s seat!
The involuntary “fight or flight” reaction to stress triggers multiple physical symptoms of anxiety. My sessions use real-time biofeedback and self-regulation techniques to reverse the stress response and “dial back” those symptoms.
Biofeedback offers REAL HOPE for those suffering from anxiety.
Biofeedback helped Kim and can help YOU!
We will work together using biofeedback to give you the tools to take your life back and be in the driver’s seat!
Whether at home, work, or driving, Kim can now voluntarily reverse her anxiety symptoms as they happen. She has the whole bottle of anti-anxiety medication in her medicine cabinet “just in case” but never has to take the pills.
Using what she learned and mastered in biofeedback therapy, Kim feels in control, can calm her body, and quiet her mind.
Anxiety is not “all in your head.” Your mind and body are intricately interconnected, and biofeedback therapy helps address both. Kim took back control of her health and life, and so can you.
Call me today, so we can work at putting YOU back in the driver’s seat and take control back from anxiety without medication.
*Name changed to protect client confidentiality.