Anxiety is a part of life
The human condition makes it necessary to feel anxiety from time to time. Our enormous freedom, our own mortality and our incurable loneliness are some of the conditions that make a life completely free of anxiety impossible. Human life is difficult and unpredictable. The experience of anxiety is therefore something we all share and recognize, although it can look very different from person to person. In the existential view of anxiety, it is something we want to listen to and understand, not just remove. It is common that the discomfort we feel tells us something about our lives, our choices and the place we are in at the moment. Learning to deal with it, to listen to it and to use it brings a great deal of freedom. Some parts of life will always involve a certain amount of anxiety, such as difficult choices, courageous actions or a leap into an unknown future. To be able to do this, we need to know that we have the capacity to feel and manage it. A life without anxiety is not possible to live, but a life with more helpful ways of dealing with it is quite possible. Thus, feeling anxiety is not in itself a pathology or something that must necessarily be eliminated at all costs.
Sometimes anxiety takes over too much
However, there are times in life when anxiety becomes overwhelming, when it creeps into our lives in devastating ways and prevents us from living the life we want. It can be suffocating, difficult to understand and sometimes feel unbearable. It can manifest itself in physical symptoms such as dizziness or nausea, creating blockages in our thoughts and in our world of experience. It can make it difficult to eat, sleep and relate freely to the people closest to us. There are times when it seems to be all there is, when it has taken over so completely from everything else that is trying to go on at the same time. It's as if the anxiety has us, rather than us having the anxiety. In these moments, it's worth reminding ourselves that anxiety is something that can actually be worked with.
Whoever has learned to feel anxiety in the right way has learned the greatest thing.
- Søren Kierkegaard
Psychotherapy in Gothenburg to manage anxiety
As a psychologist, I encounter anxiety in many different forms. It has unique expressions, unique causes and often requires unique solutions. By exploring the anxiety and bringing it into the light, it is possible to reduce its power and understand what it wants to say. Once it has been addressed, it usually stops screaming. More helpful ways of living with anxiety can be found, which often have the paradoxical effect of enabling us to live with less anxiety. Psychotherapy is a proven way to get help for anxiety problems and free yourself from the weight it can sometimes carry. Talking to a listening outsider can create the opportunity to both understand your anxiety and make it more manageable. Contact me if you want to know more about how I can help you with your particular anxiety or to book a first conversation.
