Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Weston

Hey There!

My name is Diana Garcia and I specialize in therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Weston, FL.

You may be feeling the following:

  • Worried all the freaking time, your mind goes from 0 to 100 in .5 seconds?
  • Anxious about getting through your day because you find yourself stressed out about all the big and little things that you need to get done, which leads you to having even less time to do them?
  • Exhausted from the constant stress and pressure of keeping it all together and trying to manage all your fears?
  • Irritated at the people around you because they just don’t seem to get it. Are they living on the same planet as you are, where everything is high-stress, high-stakes (even if it really isn’t?)
  • Tense out of your mind, and your masseuse even told you that she worked out more knots than from her professional wrestling client?

Trust me, I get it, and I’m here to help. I help people stop being bullied around by all these worries and build habits to cultivate calm in their lives.

Schedule a complimentary consultation with me today if you’re ready to tackle all this stress and worry.

Signs & Symptoms for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Let’s start off with going through signs and symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder:

  • You worry consistently about pretty much everything. It’s not just focused on one area of your life: it includes excessive worry about all things like your health, finances, job, your relationships, etc. 
  • You find it difficult to manage the worry. That can also look like struggling to relax even when you have the time off.
  • A part of you knows that your worry is out of portion to the stressor(s) because you tend to stress out regardless of the stressor.
  • You’ve experienced some of the following:
    • Feeling on edge or restless.
    • Feeling tired most of the time.
    • Experiencing muscle tension.
    • Feeling irritable.
    • Difficulties concentrating.
  • Maybe you’re experiencing some other unexplained bodily aches like headaches, stomach aches, or muscle aches.
  • You’re easily startled at times, like your partner coming into the room makes you jump, even though you knew they were home.
  • This type of anxiety has caused consistent distress and impairment in your life. 
  • You’ve noticed this anxiety has been present for most days in the last 6 months.

At the core here, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, short for GAD, is an overall apprehension that something will go wrong all the time, which leads to a constant sense of worry. Your mind is busy imagining how things can go wrong and, in essence, trying to get you to start preparing for all these potent worst-case scenarios. This leads to a constant sense of overwhelm due to being focused on scary things happening in the future. This sense of worry and overwhelm can then impact how you behave in your day-to-day. 

For more information on Generalized Anxiety Disorder, here is a helpful resource from the National Institute of Mental Health. Additionally, here’s a free online screening tool for anxiety from Mental Health America.

Sign up for free Generalized Anxiety Disorder sheet!

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Get Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Weston

Struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder is no joke; it can feel like a constant cloud of terrible things is looming over your head at all times. This sense of dread and exhaustion can interfere with your life and make you miss out on enjoying the meaningful moments in your life. If you are ready to start taking control of your life, schedule a free consultation call by clicking on the button below.

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My Approach to Counseling for Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Weston

At the root of most individuals struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder is that consistent worry that tends to dominate their minds. This constant worry of things going wrong can lead to dread, difficulties being present/engaged in your life, and restricting your life in response to the worrying thoughts. Typically, I’ll hear my clients describe a constant sense of overwhelm with all the racing thoughts that something might go wrong and being unable to tolerate uncertainty. This sense of overwhelm leads at times:

  • Acting impulsively because you are responding to these scary thoughts about the future. Your mind tells you, you need to “ACT NOW” or something terrible will happen.
  • Getting paralyzed with fear and not doing the life-enriching activities that are important to you.
  • Stuck in indecision about moving forward in your life and often feel that all these decisions are high-stakes (even when they aren’t). 

My approach to Generalized Anxiety Disorder Therapy in Weston is to help you understand and recognize how the worrying thoughts contribute to your sense of feeling out of control and overloaded. I will work with you to teach you new skills and tools to change how you react to these worrisome thoughts. The goal isn’t to get rid of these life-draining thoughts because spoiler alert: you don’t have control of the thoughts that show up in your head, but to remove how much they are draining your life. The focus will be on shifting your attention and actions to what you can control in your life, which is what you do with your two hands and feet. 

This constant worrying can also be a way to avoid experiencing some uncomfortable experiences. It has been shown that worry can serve to try to control, avoid, or dull emotional experiences. This process might help explain what’s keeping you stuck in the constant loop. The hope is to provide tools to be more able and capable of handling these emotional experiences. 

Additionally, I will work with you to incorporate more mindfulness practices to help you generate more calm in your life. The way to build calm isn’t to get rid of all these uncomfortable experiences but to create routine habits that will help you cultivate a greater sense of peace. 

My therapeutic approach primarily combines Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Interventions. I also tend to be eclectic; I will weave interventions from different modalities as long as it helps you move towards the life you want. 

FAQ for Generalized Anxiety Disorder Therapy in Weston

We all experience anxiety and stress in our lives, so it’s definitely a valid question to know when it is just everyday stress vs. an anxiety disorder. A prominent factor would be how severe and intense this worry seems to be? Does it feel like you’re managing it well? Or are you noticing that you can’t control the constant fear, and it’s interfering in your day-to-day? Does it feel like it’s restricted to one area of your life or a highly stressful time, or are you noticing this has been a persistent struggle in your life? Have you tried different strategies and tools to manage, yet are you still feeling stuck? Depending on the answer to those questions, you can decide whether it’s time to seek some counseling.

Now a caveat is that even if you don’t have a diagnosable anxiety disorder, I believe you could still benefit from some counseling. Having your own dedicated time and space to process and really delve deep into your thoughts, feelings, and history can be highly beneficial (disorder or not). This is also where the “High-Functioning Anxiety” label comes in, meaning your anxiety hasn’t impacted your functioning as much, and yet it’s still distressing.

There is no one clear cause for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Some research shows a potential genetic link since it sometimes will run in families. However, the way you were raised could also play a role in developing and maintaining these behaviors.

Additionally, some researchers have found certain parts of the brain involved in fear and anxiety. How you perceive fear and anxiety could play a role. Your personality and life experiences could also be factors.

I often tell clients not to focus exclusively or rigidly on the “why” of their mental health because sometimes that can lead to more frustration or uncertainty. Yes, it’s helpful to have some knowledge and understanding of potential factors and explore your history. Yet, be wary of getting too stuck on finding one all-encompassing reason. It could just further feed your mind’s tendency to find a “solution for your anxiety,” which inadvertently feeds it.

Yes, research has shown therapy to be effective in treating individuals struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. In particular, research has shown Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness-based approaches, and Acceptance Commitment Therapy to have positive outcomes. Additionally, medication can also be beneficial either alone or ideally in combination with therapy. I am not a psychiatrist and cannot prescribe medication. Typically, we would collaboratively decide if that’s an option you want to explore, or I would make a recommendation.

Since Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a persistent and uncontrollable worry about everyday concerns, it can manifest in different areas of your life. Here’s a hypothetical tidbit of someone who struggles with Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

You wake up feeling tired because it took you a while to get to sleep due to not being able to turn off your brain last night, but you did finally get to sleep. Yet you wake up tired and already slightly irritated (note you haven’t had your coffee yet either). The first thing that pops into your head is worrying about everything you have to do and everything going on in your life. You start worrying about:

  • That work project with a looming deadline. You start to think about all the possible ways this project can bomb and even begin to imagine what that would look like. No one else on your team feels the same, but you can’t help bringing this to mind. You consider all the ways you can prevent this from happening, which means you spend extra time and energy on it. 
  • Then your mind goes to the concern that you haven’t paid the water bill yet, although it’s not late yet, you start to stress about that. That leads you to generally think about money, and you get stressed about the state of your finances. Even though your partner says you guys are mostly stable, and you shouldn’t be concerned. 
  • That leads you to think about the double date you’re going on tonight with close friends, which you’re looking forward to. Still, you realize you’re on a tight schedule, and you really hope your partner is ready on time. Just thinking about it reminds you of the last time you were 20 minutes and got into a spat with your partner. It almost makes you wish you scheduled it for another day. Since you might not be able to enjoy yourself thinking about everything else.
  • Then you remember that you still have to go to the vet and pick up Spot’s Heart Guard even though he still has a month left. But then you start to freak out about when his last vet visit was, and if you’ve already lapsed on that?
  • Then you spot the laundry bin in the corner full to the brim. You remember that you’re backed up on folding and will be running out of bras soon. You start to feel an overwhelming sense of pressure. 

Before you’ve left your bed, you’re feeling mentally exhausted from thinking of it all, and you have a sense of dread of having to tackle it out. That’s just one glimpse into what a hypothetical scenario can look like for someone who struggles with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Granted, this is just one example, and it can look different for you and your experience. 

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Other Areas Served for Counseling for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Davie, Plantation, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, South Florida.

My office is located 5 minutes away from Exit 15, Royal Palm Blvd W, of I-75, allowing me to provide counseling for Generalized Anxiety Disorder to residents in the areas listed above. Additionally, I offer Telehealth (video) sessions across the state of Florida. So I can offer video sessions if you’re physically located anywhere in Florida from the comfort of your home. If you have any questions about Telehealth, contact me here.