Nearly everybody has experienced anxiety at some time or another; it is simply a part of life in the modern world. Fortunately it is most often not severe and doesn’t require seeking any professional help.
However, with the Corona virus running rampant these days the stress level for many of us is nearly off the charts. Fear of getting sick, the pressure of striving to keep others from contracting the disease, the stress of being confined to our homes and the upending of our normal routines, along with the huge strain that comes with struggling to make ends meet after losing a job have all contributed to leaving many of us teetering on the brink.
With that in mind, seeking some help may be something to seriously consider. It is certainly nothing to feel strange, ashamed, nervous, or inadequate about.
In fact, if our family is typical, and it seems to be from our discussions with friends, almost every family has faced the need to ask for psychiatric help at some time… especially during this pandemic. Here is an article from BetterHelp that helps to explain the process of psychotherapy for anxiety.
You may think that it’s no big deal. Everyone gets stressed out, right? Yes, that’s true, but there are signs that your stress levels may be approaching a danger point and that something much more severe than the normal strains of day to day life are taking place. With all that is happening right now it is vitally important that we are on the lookout for these red flags.
Often the symptoms can come on slowly, so it may be hard to notice them at first. But difficulty sleeping even though you feel fatigued is a warning sign, as is difficulty concentrating or focusing or feeling fearful or panicked for no apparent reason. This leads to never really being able to relax or calm down.
If these warning signs progress and begin to manifest as physical problems, such as dizziness, nausea, high blood pressure, or heart palpitations, then you are definitely experiencing something well beyond normal stress or anxiety.
Finally, if there are any thoughts of suicide or self-harm it is imperative that you seek help immediately.
In our family’s case, we have had several relations that embraced psychotherapy through the years in order to manage anxiety. As would be expected with this pandemic, a couple of those occurrences were this year, and we have no doubt that the Corona virus was the main contributing factor in these episodes.
For the sake of privacy I will not go into too much detail about the individual incidents, but suffice it to say it was serious and stemmed directly from the factors that we mentioned earlier in this article.
Luckily other family members were around and noticed that things were slipping into dangerous territory. As the anxiety escalated, the whole family rallied and was onboard with doing anything and everything that we could to help.
That meant pushing for seeing a trained therapist and participating in psychotherapy. Once we accomplished that, we then we made sure to offer our support and encouragement to follow all of the therapist’s recommendations.
We were very fortunate that the person who experienced the anxiety was open to this process and was willing to devote the time and effort to give the therapy a good chance of success.
Encouragement toward the goal might just be where family and friends can be the biggest help. In our case, the whole family rallied around and made ourselves available to join in group therapy and help to facilitate a full recovery.
We were fortunate enough to have a positive outcome. We also learned the valuable lesson that anxiety can strike anyone, any time, so we need to remain diligent in watching for the warning signs, especially until this current situation gets better.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
