Health Anxiety

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Every so often, patients book appointments with me for anxiety treatment and it turns out that they are suffering from a very specific kind of anxiety. These patients are suffering from what is called “health anxiety”. In other words, they are experiencing immense amounts of worry and fear around interpreting benign physical sensations as an indication of a serious medical condition. These clients have so much distress about possible illnesses that it’s hard for them to even function. Increased prevalence due to COVID Health anxiety has increased during the pandemic. Researchers have noticed that COVID has tipped a lot of … Read more…

Anxiety or Harmful Perfectionism?

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I see many anxious high school and college-age clients in my practice. As I get to know them, I have noticed that a large number are anxious because they are struggling with harmful perfectionism. While it is good to challenge yourself to do well and improve your performance it is possible to take it too far. There is a big difference between having challenging goals and having standards that are impossible to meet.  Standards so high that meeting them sacrifices your social life, physical health, and mental well-being. Many of my clients who have gone too far. They have swallowed … Read more…

Anxiety First Aid

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Anxiety Anxiety is a natural emotion, it’s easy to feel when your anxiety is being triggered. Some people’s telltale signs are fast breathing, racing thoughts, or an elevated heart rate. Many people find, especially in these uncertain times that uneasiness and worry are escalating and interfering with their lives and peace of mind. There is a complicated process going on in the brain when anxiety escalates. As you become nervous and worry sets in, your brain’s primitive fight or flight response is triggered and stress hormones flood your body. The purpose of this ancient automatic response is to give you … Read more…

What is Anxiety?

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What is anxiety? Anxiety is one of your body and brain’s survival mechanisms. The emotion and discomfort of anxious feelings helped primitive man notice impending danger and flee from it and avoid taking dangerous risks. Modern people are not often in physical danger in the same way as primitive man was and we experience chronic stress and social risks rather than attacking lions and bears. Anxiety is not the key to human survival like it used to be and can cause problems at work or in relationships. What are the signs of anxiety? The following is an inventory of anxiety … Read more…

How to Spot Pandemic Back to School Jitters in your Child

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This summer has been too short for many students to recover from the upheaval of last school year and most are feeling disappointed that we are not going to get the September that we were promised. In July, the vaccinated were going maskless and we were told that we could have Fourth of July picnics. Now, right before school starts, we are back to wearing our masks because of the Delta Variant. Ugly battles between parents and teachers, politicians, and principals about mask and vaccine mandates are all over the news. We were all hoping that they would not have … Read more…

Boundaries

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Many of the anxious people I treat struggle with having a clear sense of their identity. Their anxiety disorders make them second guess themselves, their thoughts and question their worthiness. They become extremely apprehensive about making people angry, losing friends, or being fired if they dare to say no or stand up for themselves. Because of these fears they often have very poor boundaries. If you are an anxious person you owe yourself some boundaries.  Boundaries not only help define or redefine your identity, they also reduce tension and restore feelings of self-worth. Boundaries are just personal rules that protect … Read more…

Location

Lucia Wallis Smith, LPC, NCC, CCATP
707 Alexander Rd #208 Princeton, NJ 08540

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