Anxiety Counseling in Houston, TX
Everyday Anxiety in Disguise
Maybe you feel it in your guts. That tightness that tells you something is wrong. You might not know why, you just know something's up. It's terrible to live with, always feeling the dread. Strangely, if you do feel it, your lucky. Lucky because it means you can engage with it when you are taught how.
More often, anxiety shows up in quieter ways:
-
Overthinking decisions
-
Striving for perfection
-
Worrying and obsessing
-
Holding back from speaking up
-
Avoiding important steps because of fear of what might go wrong
n relationships, anxiety can fuel criticism, mistrust, defensiveness, or even contempt. It drains joy, spontaneity, and closeness.
Anxiety: Friend or Foe?
Let’s begin with something surprising: anxiety, in all its forms, is actually a good thing. It is part of how we survive. If you’re a parent, you know it’s better for your child to have a little too much “stranger danger” than none at all. It’s better to worry a bit too much about schoolwork than not to care at all.
At its best, anxiety is like a friend who helps us stay safe, pay attention, and keep moving in the right direction.
When Anxiety Takes Over
The problem is that sometimes this friend takes over. Instead of calmly pointing out hazards on the road, it becomes the kind of friend who yells at you for braking too late, clutches the armrest, or even grabs for the steering wheel. Anxiety can feel like that, loud, bossy, and overwhelming.
When it takes over, it can turn into panic. For a few minutes, it can feel like we are losing control, unsure which way is up, and convinced something terrible is about to happen.
The Deeper Kind of Anxiety
There is also a deeper kind of anxiety that many people carry. It does not just come from thoughts or everyday worries. It lives in the body at a level below words and stories.
Sometimes it is passed down through families, the result of experiences carried by parents, grandparents, or even further back. This kind of hyper-alertness cannot always be eased by simply changing our thoughts. It often needs approaches that include the body as well as the mind.