Transitioning and AnxietyBy Kathleen Jordan,
Licensed Therapist & Certified Hypnotherapist
 Sara was going through a difficult divorce. She and her husband John had been married for 20 long years; most of them spent bitterly arguing. The divorce was no different, and Sara was suffering with severe stress from it.
Sara’s work in a medical office was beginning to suffer. She found herself getting irritated easily at the patients. She couldn’t concentrate on her paperwork. She felt tense and uptight around the staff, and often felt like she couldn’t breathe. By the end of her shift, she was exhausted.
At home Sara spent evenings feeling upset and troubled about the divorce. She couldn’t stop worrying. She couldn’t’ relax. She started to have problems sleeping at night.
Sara was suffering from anxiety.
Sara’s case is different from a person’s typical experience of a life transition. It’s normal for transitions, like a divorce, to disrupt a person’s life. The disruption will end when a person completes the transition. Life then resumes a regular rhythm.
In some cases, though, the disruption is more serious, and can cause problems of severe anxiety.
Symptoms of problematic anxiety can include:
- Feeling extremely worried and nervous most of the day
- Finding it hard to stop the relentless worrying
- Feeling anxious trying to deal with normal, everyday events
- Feeling tense or irritable
- Trouble concentrating
- Easily fatigued
- May experience panic attacks
The good news is that problems of anxiety can be resolved successfully. In some cases, by following guidelines on reducing anxiety, a person can resolve their own anxious symptoms. For others, it will be more beneficial to reach out for help from a qualified therapist.
If you’re struggling with anxiety, you can learn to manage your anxious symptoms better. You can practice taking 5 to 10 slow, deep breaths down to the bottom of your stomach, and gently breathing out. Do this during your day and you’ll relax a lot more.
You can practice other techniques to calm yourself down. Buy a progressive relaxation CD and listen to it at home. Or, put on some soothing music, close your eyes and practice your slow, deep breathing. Take a long, warm bath to calm your nerves. Get some exercise to take the edge off of feeling tense and restless.
Learn to “manage” your worry. Set aside some time every day to write a list of your worries. Then, evaluate your list. What items can you take care of today? What items need more time to complete? How can you solve other things on your list? This method will help you decrease your anxiety.
If techniques like this aren’t helping you feel significantly better, consult with a licensed therapist for more help. Sometimes we simply need a little more support in life, and you deserve to feel better.
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