When Worry Becomes a Pattern: Spotting the Signs of Anxiety

Do you ever overthink situations or interactions for hours—or even days—after they happen? Wondering if you said something “wrong” or “stupid”?

Do you experience feelings of panic or dread on a weekly basis, sometimes with no clear trigger?

Is your self-esteem or mood tied to how productive you are? Do you find it hard to sit still without feeling guilty?

How are your sleep and eating patterns? Have you been feeling more restless at night or noticed changes in your appetite?

If you answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, take a moment to reflect on how often you experience these thoughts or behaviors. How long have they been part of your daily life?

Everyone experiences anxiety to some degree throughout their lifetime. It’s a natural, human emotion. Sometimes, anxiety helps us push ourselves, trust our gut instincts, or recognize when it’s time to slow down and take care of ourselves.

There are also different types of anxiety that we can experience and just because someone may feel more anxious in social settings, doesn’t mean they worry about existential things in life. The different types of anxiety can be broken down into several different categories, so I just wanted to hit on the major ones that are unfortunately most common nowadays.

Get Informed About Your Anxiety

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

  This form of anxiety shows itself when we are constantly worrying about everything we can imagine. We tend to worry excessively about finances, health issues, work stress, perfectionism, or general worries in life. What makes this type of worry/anxiety significant as a disorder is that typically we have immense difficulty redirecting these thoughts and may even experience physical symptoms such as fatigue, panic attacks, or difficulty concentrating on other tasks.

• Social Anxiety (Social Phobia)

  This is more than just feeling nervous meeting new people. This type of anxiety can become debilitating for some folks and lead to a persistent fear of social situations. Usually we have some awareness that people may judge us by our appearance or what we say, but our social anxiety brains have a hard time rationalizing that in the moment so we end up avoiding social interactions altogether.

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

  OCD is often misrepresented by people who “like things clean and organized.” But folks with true OCD experience intrusive and unwanted obsessive thought patterns, often followed by repetitive behaviors (compulsions) as an attempt to relieve the distress built from those obsessions. This form of anxiety can significantly impact a person’s life, leading to issues with eating habits, strain on relationships, and overall day-to-day functioning.

• Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia

  These two are often paired together, but can be experienced separately as well. When experiencing panic attacks, it feels like a sudden and intense episode of fear. There isn’t always a reason for experiencing the panic either, but once we experience one panic attack sometimes our brains then develop a fear of having another panic attack in the future. Agoraphobia can have many layers to it, but in essence it’s when we develop a fear of situations in which it may be difficult to escape from. Or even when help might not be readily available. 

While anxiety exists on a spectrum, and not everyone needs therapy to manage it, the impact it has on our lives can’t be ignored. Anxiety can impact our sleep patterns, causing us to feel more fatigued and tired each day, and even lead to us feeling anxious to fall asleep if we start to dread the next day. It can lead to restrictive eating habits or even patterns of over-eating to cope with high levels of stress in our lives. Anxiety can also feel very isolating when we try to convince ourselves that nobody understands what we’re feeling and we should figure it out on our own.

Anxiety may take us to the extremes mentally, emotionally, or physically and can completely control our lives. But I’m living proof that it doesn’t have to. Your anxiety does not have to define you. A diagnosis does not limit your potential to heal.

The first step is awareness—recognizing how anxiety shows up in your life and how it impacts your well-being. But awareness alone isn’t where the journey ends—it’s where it begins.

If your anxiety is starting to affect your relationships, sleep, work, or your ability to feel present in your life, know that support is available. You don’t have to navigate this alone. I’m here to help guide you on this journey, because I’ve been where you are right now. And I’m here to tell you that life does get better and you don’t have to feel anxious about everything in life. There is hope in the healing.

Take the next step toward healing.

Reach out to schedule a consultation with myself, talk to your doctor, or even open up to a trusted friend. Therapy can be that safe space for growth; for you to reclaim your life again. Therapy can help you build tools to better understand yourself and create a life that you feel excited about each day. Therapy can help provide you relief from your anxious thoughts and feelings.

You are capable of healing.

You are worthy of loving yourself fully.

And you deserve to feel better—starting today.