Looking for help for Anxiety?

Here we will review the different types of anxiety disorders that we commonly provide therapy or anxiety treatment for in Hamilton or online in Ontario. Help for anxiety is available  to adults,  adolescents  and  couples  using  a combination  of approaches  including:

CBT,  

ACT,

DBT, 

IFS,

EFT  and  

EMDR.

We  commonly assist  with  the  following  types  of anxiety:

General Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder

Panic Disorder

Agoraphobia

Phobia

Health Anxiety

PTSD 

OCD

GAD is characterized by persistent and excessive worry, that is difficult to control, for a period of at least six months or longer. The worries tend to focus on aspects of a person’s life such as work, one’s health, health of loved-ones, social situations and relationships, the future and day to day routines. 

According to Harvard University, up to 8% of people suffer from General Anxiety Disorder. 

Symptoms of GAD include:

🌱 Frequently feeling restless or keyed up or on edge.

🌱 Being very easily fatigued or frequently tired.

🌱 Difficulty focusing and concentrating

🌱 Feeling frequently irritable

🌱 Frequent or constant muscle tension

🌱 Difficulty controlling worry and feeling frequently anxious

🌱 Experiencing sleep disruption because of worry or feeling anxious 

🗣 If you have frequent worry or general anxiety symptoms its important to know that help for anxiety is available . We can help  when  you  book  an  appointment by providing therapy or anxiety treatment for your anxiety symptoms. We are located in Hamilton and also provide services online in Ontario.

Social anxiety is characterized by recurring significant anxiety when interacting with other people, usually people in a position of authority or peers. The discomfort usually arises from fear and concern about being judged, rejected or embarrassed. 

Social anxiety may be very general or it can be specific to a particular context such as attending a party, eating in front of others, completing a presentation in front of others or speaking in a group. 

Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common types of anxiety. According to Harvard University approximately 12% of people experience significant social anxiety symptoms. 

Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder:

🌱 Social situations inevitably lead to anxiety

🌱 Social situations are either endured with significant distress or discomfort, or are avoided

🌱 Adults usually view their anxiety as excessive or more severe than what others experience in a similar situation.

🗣 Social anxiety symptoms do not have to be endured. Help for anxiety is available in Hamilton or online in Ontario. We can help when  you  book  an  appointment  by providing therapy or anxiety treatment for these anxiety symptoms.

Health anxiety is characterized by recurring and persistent fear or anxiety over one’s health, and or the possibility of being ill or injured. Usually the extent of concern and anxiety is out of proportion to the actual threat of illness. 

According to Harvard University, approximately 12% to 24% or more of people experience significant health anxiety symptoms. 

Often people with health anxiety find themselves spending time searching on the internet to seek out information about their health or symptoms or they frequently attend medical appointments to seek out reassurance about their physical health. 

Some people may experience intense anxiety about their health without having any physical symptoms. Individuals with health anxiety may also be prone to assuming they have a debilitating disease such as cancer, when they have a mild physical symptom such as a headache or sore throat.  

Symptoms of Health Anxiety:

🌱 Recurring and persistent fear and focus in one’s physical health.

🌱 Fear about physical illness that is out of proportion to actual threat of illness. 

🌱 Changes in behaviour because of health anxiety, such as excessive online searching about symptoms or excessive visits to the family doctor or extreme avoidance of situations or objects because of fear of increased risk of physical illness.

🗣 If you suffer with health anxiety, it’s important to know that help for anxiety is available.  We can help  when  you  book  an  appointment by providing therapy or anxiety treatment for these anxiety symptoms. We are located in Hamilton and provide services online across ontario.

Phobias are characterized by an intense fear of a specific object or situation. In general, the fear is out of proportion to the actual danger involved. 

Examples of phobias include intense fear of heights, flying, needles, insects, certain animals, driving, the dentist, medical procedures etc. 

According  to  Harvard  University, approximately  12.5%  of  people  have a  phobia  severe  enough  to  be  clinically  diagnosed.

Phobias can be caused by other conditions such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

Symptoms of Phobia:

🌱 An excessive or intense fear or worry about coming into contact with a specific object or situation.

🌱 Taking actual steps to avoid the feared situation or object or experiencing intense anxiety when having to endure exposure to the feared object or situation. 

🌱 The feared object or situation immediately leads to significant anxiety or distress when encountered. 

🗣 If you have a phobia, or know someone who does, its important to know that help for anxiety is available. We can help  when  you  book  an  appointment by providing therapy or anxiety treatment for phobia symptoms. Services are offered in Hamilton or online across Ontario.

Panic Disorder:

Panic disorder is characterized by a person experiencing unexpected panic attacks. The panic attacks involve sudden intense fear that peaks in intensity within a few minutes. Panic attacks may be cued (brought on by specific triggers) or un cued (occur without a specific trigger).

To be diagnosed with panic disorder, a person must have recurring panic attacks and develop persistent  fear  and  concern over  the  possiblity  of  having  future  panic  attacks. According to Harvard University, up to 5% of people experience Panic Disorder, while the lifetime prevalence rate for an isolated panic attack is 22.7%.

Symptoms of Panic Disorder:

🌱 Sudden physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, trembling or shaking, dizziness, feeling short of breathe, and chest heaviness or pain.

🌱 Sudden intense feelings of impending doom.

🌱 Feelings of being out of control. 

🌱 Persistent concern about the possibility of having a future panic attack.

🌱 Avoidance of tasks or situations where one perceives they may be at an increased risk of having a panic attack. 

🗣 Panic Disorder symptoms do not have to be endured. We can help when  you  book  an  appointment  by providing therapy or treatment for these anxiety symptoms.

Agoraphobia:

Agoraphobia is characterized by someone experiencing intense fear in more than one situations such as going into public places, being in open spaces, using public transportation, being in a crowd, or being away from home or being alone. 

Some people with agoraphobia become house-bond, where they feel unable to leave home because of their anxiety. Often agoraphobia goes hand-in-hand with panic disorder. According to Harvard University, the prevalence rate for agoraphobia with panic disorder is appropriately 1%. 

Agoraphobia can be caused by panic Disorders, as well as other conditions such as PTSD, OCD or social anxiety. This means that many cases of agoraphobia are better accounted for by another condition. This means that the 1% prevalence rate of significant anxiety that leads to avoidance or inability to leave one’s home is likely much higher when all causes are taken into account. 

Symptoms of agoraphobia:

🌱 Fear and anxiety is elicited when attempting to leave home or go into a number of situations such as public places, crowds, or using public transit. 

🌱 Situations are avoided because of anxiety.

🌱 Entering the feared situations may or may not trigger a full panic attack. 

🗣 If you experience Agoraphobia symptoms or know someone who is anxious evRey time they leave their house, its important to know that help for anxiety is available. We can help by providing therapy or anxiety treatment for these anxiety symptoms when you book an appointment. Services for anxiety are available in Hamilton and online across Ontario.

OCD  is  characterized  by  intense  anxiety focused  on  thoughts. These  intrusive,  hard  to  control, thoughts  are  referred  to  as  ‘obsessions’. Examples  of  thoughts  that cause  anxiety  for  OCD  sufferers  include:

🌱  Thoughts that  one  will  become  contaminated  by a  virus  or  chemical  or  other  substance.

🌱  Thought  that  one left  things  on or  unlocked,  even  thought  they  already  checked.

🌱  Thoughts that one will  commit  a  violent  or  self-harming  act,  even  though  the  person  doesnt  want  to.

🌱  Thoughts  that  someone  will  die  or  suffer  harm  because  of  a  thought.

🌱  Thoughts  that  one’s  thinking  will  become  true  if  thought  about.

🌱  Thoughts  that  the  person  did  something  wrong  and  will  be  punished,  even  though  there  is  not  an  actual  recollection  or  evidence  of  completing  the act.

Often  when  thoughts  elicit anxiety there  are  attempts  to  somehow  neutralize  the  thoughts  by  engaging  in  some  kind  of  compulsion or  ritual. Examples  of  compulsions  include repeatedly:

🌱 hand washing.

🌱  checking  locks,  doors, appliances or  other  objects.

🌱  counting.

🌱  ordering  things  in  a  very  specific  way.

🌱  saying things  in  a  certain  way,  often  repeatedly.

To  be  diagnised  with  OCD, a  person  has  to have  either  obsessions  or  compulsions  and their symptoms  must cause  clinically  significant  distress  or  impairment.  In  particular,  the  person  must  be  either  very  distressed  about  their  symptoms,  or  the  symptoms  must  interfere  with  their  personal  life  or  ability  to work  or perform  in  school.  Alternately,  the  symptoms  must  take  up  a  very  significant  amount  of  time  every  day. 

According  to  Harvard University,  the  prevalence rate for  a  clinical  diagnosis  of  OCD  is  approximately  1.2%.  Many  other  people  suffer  with  more  mild  OCD  symptoms.

An important  feature  of OCD  is  the idea  of  ‘thought-action-fusion’.  Thought-action-fusion is  where  a  person  is  more  inclined  to  feel  as  if  their  thoughts  have  concrete  meaning. In particular,  the  person  may  believe  that  thinking  a certain  thought  can  make  an outcome  more  or  less  likely.  For  example,  a  person  may  believe  that  if  they  have  a  random  violent  thought enter  their  mind,  that  based  on  having  the  thought  they  are  more  likely  to  commit  a  violent  act.

In reality, thoughts  are separate  from  actions.  People  may  chose  to act  on  their  thoughts,  however, people  commonly  have  hundreds  of  thoughts  everyday  that  they  do  not  act  on  in  any  way.  For  most  people,  their  brain  will  filter  out  thoughts as  irrelevant  or  ‘junk’.  

For  people  with  OCD  tendencies,  their  brain  will  have  greater  difficulty  filtering  out  thoughts  as ‘junk’  that  doesn’t  need  to  be  attended  to.  Instead,  their  brain will  trigger  an  alarm  response  when  the  thought occurs  and  they  will  then  experience  anxiety,  fear and  even  panic.

If  you  or  someone  you know  suffers  with  OCD  symptoms,  its  important  to  know  that  help  for  anxiety  is  available.  When  you  book  an  appointment  we  can  assist  by  providing  further  assessment,  therapy  or  anxiety  treatment.  Services  are  available  in  Hamilton  on  online  across  Ontario.