Anxiety and related concerns
Many anxiety disorders (e.g., OCD, social or generalised anxiety disorder) are perpetuated by different types and degree of avoidance behaviours. Based on what our clinical psychologists learn during the assessment, our approach can range from managing thoughts to exposure tasks inside and outside of therapy sessions.
Seeing a Psychologist for Anxiety and/or Anxiety-Related Concerns in Australia
According to the National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing in 2020-2022, around 17.2% of people living in Australia struggled with an anxiety disorder for more than a year; that’s almost two in ten people. A psychologist can help manage and provide therapy for a number of different disorders, including those categorised as generalised anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, specific, social anxiety, separation anxiety and selective mutism under the DSM-V.
Currently, Medicare provides 10 subsidised sessions with a psychologist in each calendar year. It is important to work openly with your psychologist so that they can help you plan treatment and therapy and aid you in your recovery. An Orchid Tree psychologist will usually spend the first one or two sessions of therapy getting to know you and making a hypothesis about how your concerns and experience of anxiety are perpetuated.
Psychologists often use exposure therapy as a common treatment tool for anxiety. Imagine someone with arachnophobia who wishes to face this fear and overcome it. Their psychologist might develop a therapy where they experience gradually increasing exposure to spiders, learning how to face this phobia by spending time in the same room as an arachnid. It’s important that an experienced psychologist guide this therapy so that it addresses the phobia and does not escalate it. For different types of anxiety (e.g., certain sensations for those with panic disorders, or obsessive thoughts for those with OCD), a psychologist needs to help design a therapy that addresses the relevant concern. An Orchid Tree psychologist will set a goal to uncover individuals’ triggers and set up appropriate exposure tasks as part of therapy. Simultaneously, our psychologists help you learn different skills in therapy, so that you feel equipped to tackle anxiety.
FAQs
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is an emotion that appears with a range of discomforting sensations like an increase in heart rate or shortness of breath. A psychologist would traditionally define anxious feelings as being brief, only lasting while we are exposed to an immediate threat, before receding. But many threats in our modern, busy lives do not go away that quickly (e.g. a deadline for a task or a big work assignment). What’s worse, much of the time, we end up using certain coping behaviours to deal with the anxious feelings which end up making the anxiety worse! The role of a psychologist is thus to help develop therapy that makes an individual adept at coping with anxiety.
When anxiety becomes something that obstructs our functioning, it can be classed as a disorder (e.g., Social anxiety, OCD). A clinical psychologist may thus have to treat multiple forms of anxiety and develop appropriate therapy for each. The first step is to identify what type of anxiety you are struggling with and figuring out which maintaining factors are present (i.e. vicious cycles that make the anxiety worse). An Orchid Tree psychologist will work with you in a structured way to ensure that therapy is individualised to you and your needs..
When to see a psychologist for anxiety?
There is no wrong time to see a psychologist for anxiety, especially if you feel like it is causing you frequent distress. At the same time, a psychologist is not always required. Many self-help books and podcasts aim to teach people how to better manage their emotions and avoid the need for therapy. That being said, it is best to start therapy early when the anxiety symptoms are just emerging. This can allow a psychologist to provide the most effective intervention and prevent the symptoms from worsening. Whether utilising your own strengths and resources, or taking a skills-based approach, an Orchid Tree clinical psychologist will assist you in finding a therapy solution that is focussed on you.