If someone had told me a few years ago that sitting on a couch talking about my past could help calm the chaos in my mind, I would’ve laughed. But that was before I gave psychodynamic therapy a real shot for anxiety. I’m not talking about quick fixes or shallow breathing techniques—I mean the deep,…
Let’s talk about something most of us have silently Googled at 2 a.m.—antidepressants for anxiety. I remember sitting on my couch after a panic attack that felt like a heart attack, scrolling through forums and reading article after article, wondering if medication was my last resort or my first real step toward stability. I wasn’t…
If you’ve ever watched your child freeze up completely when someone speaks to them—and I mean not just shy or hesitant, but absolutely silent—you might know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s not rudeness. It’s not just shyness. It’s something deeper, more paralyzing. My nephew went through this, and at first, we just thought he…
Honestly, I used to think separation anxiety was something only kids experienced—like that clingy phase toddlers go through when their parents leave the room. But then I hit my early thirties, and something changed. After my partner left for a short work trip, I felt this overwhelming unease creeping in. I wasn’t just “missing” them….
There was a time when I couldn’t even sit through a flight without breaking into a cold sweat. The fear wasn’t logical — I knew planes were safe — but my body didn’t seem to care. That’s the thing with phobias: they hijack reason, replacing it with dread. Whether it’s spiders, public speaking, or flying,…
I still remember the first time someone casually mentioned “exposure therapy” to me. I’d just confessed how my fear of flying had basically taken over my life. I wasn’t traveling, wasn’t visiting family, and even turning down work gigs. That suggestion—exposure therapy—sounded intense at the time. Like, why would I willingly do the very thing…
There was a time when I thought lavender oil and yoga were just trendy things people posted on Instagram. But during one of my lowest points with anxiety, when my chest felt tight for weeks and my sleep was all over the place, I found myself researching everything outside of conventional meds. That was the…
It started with tight shoulders and a constant loop of “what if” thoughts. At first, I brushed it off as stress—deadlines, bills, the usual grind. But when I found myself canceling plans for the third time in a week because I couldn’t face another conversation, I knew something deeper was going on. That’s how anxiety…