Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Clinically, anxiety refers to the persistent experience of being so overwhelmed by worry and fear in anticipation of a future threat that it is difficult to continue functioning in day to day life. The anticipatory fear may be general and all-encompassing or very specific (e.g. a specific phobia or something experienced specifically in social settings). For people with clinical levels of anxiety, the desire to avoid the feared threat may make it difficult to leave the house, to achieve one’s academic or vocational goals, or to socialize with others. Some people experience panic attacks – abrupt and transient surges of fear or intense discomfort – that add an extra layer of complexity to their clinical presentation.

What are the signs of anxiety?

Signs of anxiety include, but are not limited to:

• Muscle tension or vigilance,
• Depleted energy or fatigue,
• Difficulty sleeping,
• Racing thoughts or difficulty focusing on the task at hand, and
• Various other physiological experiences that result in feelings of bodily discomfort.

Anxiety related symptoms can lead to an artificial reduction in your daily cognitive functioning. In other words, even if your brain is capable of functioning without difficulty, anxious worry can interfere with its ability to think quickly and clearly. For example, an employee who is preoccupied with fearful and anxious thoughts will likely have difficulty focusing while completing assigned tasks and so miss deadlines or may have difficulty focusing during workplace meetings and therefore have difficulty remembering what new tasks were assigned.

What is the treatment for anxiety?

Whether or not anxiety is determined to be the primary cause of your cognitive dysfunction, our neuropsychologists will offer recommendations that can help you lessen the impact of anxiety-related symptoms on your cognitive functioning.

Thomson’s cognitive rehabilitation therapists can help you learn organizational skills and memory strategies which can help you regain a sense of control, achieve your goals academically, socially, or vocationally, and reduce the chances of an exacerbation of your anxiety related symptoms. Thomson therapists can also work with you, using evidence-based techniques, to address the emotional impact of anxiety on your interpersonal relationships and your day to day functioning. We will always encourage you to consult with your physician to determine whether a pharmaceutical intervention would be appropriate for your individual case.