- Our Mental Health Affects our Physical Health:
Our thoughts affect our emotions and our actions. Our emotions and our actions are connected to our physical health and wellbeing. If you are experiencing symptoms in your body, and your doctor is unable to connect these symptoms with a physical cause, these symptoms might be caused by your thoughts and emotions. Anxiety can cause many physical symptoms in our bodies. Some of these symptoms are:
- Muscle aches
- Stomach pain
- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Intestinal discomfort
- Sluggishness
- Brain fog
How can anxiety cause physical symptoms in our bodies?
If you are under consistent or constant anxiety, your body is filling with two stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol. These hormones are helpful in dangerous situations in which we need our flight or flight response to kick in and help us survive. However, having too much of these hormones in our systems on a regular basis can cause physical problems, such as, increased heart rate, high blood pressure, suppressed digestive system, and suppressed immune system.
If you are having physical symptoms, I urge to to visit your doctor and get checked out. There may very well be a physical problem causing your symptoms. However, If you have already seen your doctor and explained your symptoms in full, your doctor has run any necessary tests, and bloodwork and cannot find a cause, it is time to look at your mental wellbeing.
Are you having any of the above listed symptoms? Have you had panic attacks? Are you feeling constantly stressed and overwhelmed? Are you having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep? Are you constantly on edge for feeling unsettled?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, it is time to consider counseling. Counseling can greatly increase your quality of life. Anxiety counseling at Empower Counseling In Birmingham can help you with your anxiety. By using Acceptance Commitment Therapy or ACT, which is scientifically proven effective in the treatment of anxiety, I will help you obtain the tools to greatly decrease the effect anxiety has on your life and greatly increase how much you enjoy the life you have.
- Covid is Making America’s Loneliness Worse:
According to a survey by Cigna loneliness levels in 2018 were at al all time high. That was before Covid-19. Loneliness is not only a threat to our mental wellbeing but also a threat to our physical wellbeing. According to studies analyzed by Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor at Brigham Young University, loneliness or lack of social connection affects physical wellbeing or health as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or abusing alcohol. Not only that, but, loneliness is twice as harmful to our physical wellbeing and health as obesity.
Loneliness is linked to a number of other health problems, as well, such as:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Dementia
- Substance Abuse
- Self-harm
79% of college age young adults reported feeling lonely in 2019….before Covid-19.
It sounds ironic to say, but if you are feeling lonely right now, you are not alone.
Empower Counseling offers scientifically proven effective depression counseling in Birmingham, Alabama. Empower Counseling also offers online depression counseling for college students anywhere in the state of Alabama. Don’t let you symptoms of depression get any worse. If you are experiencing:
- Worthlessness
- Feelings of Guilt
- Fatigue
- Changes in sleep patterns
- Changes in Appetite
- Anger or Irritability
- Persistent Sadness
- Difficulty Concentrating
- Isolation
- Lack of Interest
Call Empower Counseling for depression counseling. Depression counseling with Empower Counseling in Birmingham, Alabama can effectively get you to a place where you are enjoying your life again.
3. If you are struggling with your purpose or direction in life, Empower Counseling in Birmingham can help you find your way.
If you are a college student or are experiencing another big life transition, it can be difficult to make decisions about which direction to go. I use Acceptance Commitment Therapy or ACT to help clients uncover their obstacles. There is a reason you have not been able to figure out which way to go in your life…which major to choose….what type of job you would be happy having…or even who you are down deep. It comes down to what you believe about yourself and what words you use when talking to yourself. Yes, your own thoughts may be the obstacles keeping you from clarity about your next steps.
Empower Counseling can help you through these difficult life transitions by uncovering your obstacles, exactly what has been holding you back or keeping you stuck. Then Empower Counseling will help you find clarity about what is important to you. This typically includes sifting through the layers of what you have learned about life and rigid rules you have created for yourself due to what you have learned. We will get to the bottom of what you want, not what others want for you. Then we will determine what actions will get you there. Often times what we say to ourselves creates anxiety or depression.
Through in-person or online counseling, Empower Counseling will provide you with the necessary anxiety counseling or depression counseling in Birmingham, Alabama. After we move you away from the grips of anxiety or depression, Empower Counseling will help you determine what you want to do in your life, find your purpose. Then we will determine what action is necessary to get you there. Counseling for anxiety or depression with Empower Counseling can not only help you find relief from what is bothering you, I help take you many steps further. We will focus not only on pulling you away from the life you do not want, but propelling your forward to the life you want.
4. Empower Counseling will help you build self-confidence, which will benefit you in every area of your life.
I have seen so many of my clients come for anxiety treatment or depression counseling with Empower Counseling in Birmingham, Alabama, only looking to relive their anxiety or depression symptoms. I do help with that. But clients often walk away with way more than anxiety relief or relief from depression. They walk away with self-confidence.
How?
Acceptance Commitment Therapy, or ACT, which is the scientifically proven method I use to help clients who are experiencing anxiety or depression, has the welcome effect of increasing self-confidence. I have found, through my work with so many clients with anxiety and depression, that once we remove the obstacles, the negative self-talk keeping you from acting toward the life you want, we can increase self-confidence. After the obstacles are removed we focus on what is most important in my client’s life and the actions that will move my client closer to what is most important. When my clients take action toward what is most important, things he/she has not been able to do in the past, trust in themselves increases. As this trust increases, so does self-confidence.
Therefore, anxiety counseling and depression counseling, either in-person or online with Empower Counseling in Birmingham, Alabama, can and most often does help increase self-confidence.
5. Anxiety can lead to depression.
As anxiety establishes it’s hold on your life, it shrinks your world and your level of enjoyment of your life. As your life shrinks and you are enjoying it less and less, you are more likely to become sad, unsatisfied with life, and depressed. For this reason, it is necessary to seek Anxiety counseling or anxiety treatment with Empower Counseling before your anxiety is compounded by depression. Empower Counseling offers college students, young professionals, and seasoned professional anxiety counseling in-person or online in Birmingham, Alabama. Empower uses Acceptance Commitment Therapy, a method proven effective for anxiety treatment.
BEGIN ONLINE COUNSELING FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH EMPOWER COUNSELING
Starting college can be a scary transition, especially with our new reality. There’s added pressure that wasn’t there before. Fortunately, online therapy for college students with Empower Counseling can help. I can help you find your way, with online counseling for Auburn Students, online counseling for Alabama students, online counseling for Samford students, or online counseling for Birmingham-Southern students. As a caring online therapist, I help college students discover who they are and what they want. To start your counseling for college students, follow these simple steps:
- Contact Empower Counseling to set up an appointment.
- Get to know me as your new online therapist.
- Feel confident about your abilities and future.
OTHER COUNSELING SERVICES PROVIDED IN ALABAMA
Online therapy for college students at Auburn University, University of Alabama, Samford University, and Birmingham-Southern College is not the only service I provide. I am able to see clients in Birmingham, AL counseling clinic or through online therapy. I provide anxiety therapy, depression counseling, and counseling for difficult life transitions. In therapy, I can also provide counseling for teens to help them with new challenges. In addition, I offer life coaching and healthy technology lifestyles. When you’re ready to get to work, I’m ready to meet you!