How Do I Know If I Need Help with My Anxiety?

It is hard when we are feeling symptoms of anxiety. We will avoid situations or endure them with distress. Our quality of life is compromised. You might wonder, how do I know if I should seek online anxiety therapy? There are many great reasons why you might want to begin treatment with an online therapist for anxiety.

Let’s start by reviewing the symptoms you are experiencing. You will want to consider whether your symptoms of anxiety are impacting your daily functioning and quality of life. You might note changes in your ability to function well within your relationships, at school or at work. When symptoms begin to lead to frequent impacts on day-to-day activities, it might warrant a further assessment of whether your symptoms meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. In order for a proper diagnosis to be made, you should make an appointment with a healthcare professional with professional training.Psychological diagnoses are provided by physicians and psychologists. This can be very helpful before you begin any type of anxiety treatment online.

If you decide to engage with an online therapist for anxiety, they will spend time providing important information about anxiety, why it occurs and strategies to navigate your life with anxiety. Like other emotions, we cannot suppress the experience of anxiety. But, we can learn how to manage it so that it is not interfering in our daily functioning. Our lives look very different after working with a professional clinician during online counselling for anxiety. 

In general, anxiety disorders all share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioural issues that can accompany those emotions. We can understand fear as being an emotional response to something that we believe is a real or imminent threat in our world. Anxiety is most often understood as the anticipation of a future threat. Of course, individuals can experience these two emotional states in a manner that overlaps with each other. However, fear is more often accompanied by autonomic arousal (think fight or flight), thoughts of impending danger and escape behaviours. Anxiety can be associated with muscle tension and increased vigilance as someone prepares for future dangers and engages in overlay cautious or avoidant behaviours. During anxiety treatment online, you will learn strategies to manage both anxiety and fear.

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According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5TR), there are many different types of anxiety disorders. These include Separation Anxiety Disorder, Selective Mutism, Specific Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder (with or without agoraphobia) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

The focus of the fear is often different within each of the anxiety disorders. For example:

Social Anxiety Disorder
is characterized by an excessive fear of social judgement and negative evaluation, humiliation or embarrassment  

Generalized Anxiety Disorder
is characterized by excessive and persistent worrying that impacts one’s daily functioning

Panic Disorder
is characterized by an excessive fear of physical symptoms and the possibility of experiencing a panic attack

There are other anxiety disorders as well, but the above illustrates how they each have distinguishing features from each other.

Nevertheless, treatment for anxiety disorders can often take similar evidence-based approaches. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety online is a well-researched approach for anxiety that has been found to reduce symptoms and improve functioning. We will discuss what takes place during online CBT for anxiety below.

Overall, it is important to pay attention to your symptoms of anxiety. We all experience anxiety. But if you find these symptoms to be extremely interfering and impact your friendships, relationships, work or school, then it is time to do something to make things better. Anxiety treatment online might be the answer for you!

Should I get Anxiety Therapy Online?

If you have decided that your symptoms of anxiety are interfering in your life, it might be time to look into starting anxiety therapy online. 

We have been discussing online anxiety counselling (as opposed to in-person treatment) for a number of reasons. Online anxiety treatment can provide an individual with many benefits as opposed to in-person treatment.

These include the following:

  • Increased convenience due to the elimination of commuting and taking time off from work
  • Enhanced accessibility for individuals who have mobility issues
  • Enhanced access to best-fit therapists given decreased concerns about geographical barriers to treatment 
  • Ability to engage with anxiety-related triggers in a different manner than attending sessions within an office space
  • Ability to engage family members or partners within the home who play a role in supporting you and might find they are lacking skills and knowledge when it comes to your symptoms of anxiety

Online therapy for anxiety and depression using CBT has also been shown to be highly effective, which allows us confidence in providing this to you.

As described, anxiety therapy online allows you to have more options in terms of a therapist to work with. Although online anxiety therapy in Canada is possible, clinicians often do have geographical limitations. At Forward Thinking Psychological Services ®, our clinicians are able to provide services throughout different parts of Canada, including Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick. 
At Forward Thinking Psychological Services ®, we have an experienced team of mental health clinicians who are able to work with you on your symptoms of anxiety. We also have clinicians who work directly with adolescents and teens and can engage in online CBT for anxiety with them.

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What Happens During CBT for Anxiety Online?

You might be wondering what cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety online actually looks like. What will I be doing with my therapist?

There are different types of therapies for anxiety. Of course, you want to make sure that the therapy you receive is evidence-based (i.e., research supports its use) and has been shown to be effective for your presenting concerns. At FTPS, we only provide online anxiety treatment that has been found to be effective. Many of our clinicians will use CBT for anxiety online as well as acceptance and commitment therapy. 

Let’s focus on CBT for anxiety online and discuss what you can expect. 

When beginning online anxiety treatment that focuses on the delivery of CBT, you will learn many important skills and strategies. By engaging in CBT for anxiety online, you will learn a lot of skills that you can use on your own, in between sessions. These skills will help you to change your relationship with your anxiety.

Here are the types of skills you will learn:

  • Psychoeducation about anxiety
  • The experience of anxiety is uncomfortable, but it is not dangerous
  • Connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviours
  • How to face situations, thoughts and physical sensations that you fear
  • Doing Exposure Therapy – in-session and on your own
  • Challenging thoughts that underlie core fears and drive your anxiety and avoidance behaviours 

There are also different types of skills built into the different treatments for anxiety, given the focus of the fear is different. For example, when someone engages in online therapy for social anxiety they will want to work on their fears regarding intense fear and judgement from others. This could involve some exposure therapy in which they expose themselves to triggers they might otherwise avoid or endure with distress. This might involve approaching new people instead of avoiding them, reaching out to make plans with friends or speaking up in class or during a work presentation.

During online therapy for social anxiety, you will also be able to engage in exposure therapy. This could involve sending off emails together that you fear you might be judged for, practicing a work-related presentation or role-play having a conversation with someone in your life. This will be in addition to cognitive therapy strategies that will allow you to examine the core fear driving your social anxiety. 

During anxiety disorder treatment online, you will also have the opportunity to do cognitive strategies with your therapist. This can take the form of thought record work.

During thought record work you will learn many skills, including:

  • Raising your awareness when your mood shifts due to unhelpful anxious thoughts
  • Understand the emotions that accompany these anxious thoughts when you experience significant mood shifts
  • Understanding the types of automatic anxious thoughts that you experience
  • Gaining perspective towards your thoughts by reframing them with evidence that both supports and does not support your anxious thoughts
  • Learning more about your core fears that drive your anxiety

Online cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety has been found to be effective for youth, teens and adults. If you engage in this type of therapy, you can be confident that you will be receiving an intervention that has been shown to help individuals with varying types of anxiety disorder presentations. Following your initial assessment with your therapist, you will often then discuss whether you want to begin with cognitive therapy work, such as thought record interventions, or exposure therapy treatment. These are essential discussions to have with your therapist during online anxiety treatment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Although there is a range of treatments for anxiety disorders, one of the best evidence-based treatments for anxiety is cognitive behavioural therapy. Within this type of anxiety treatment, you are able to learn a variety of skills and strategies that include learning connections between thoughts and feelings, understanding how behaviours can contribute to avoidance and increased anxiety, unhooking from difficult thoughts and feelings as well as perspective-taking when it comes to the experience of anxiety.

This type of treatment approach, when used for the treatment for social anxiety disorder, also involves exposure therapy. This is a highly effective type of anxiety treatment and provides people with skills to approach social situations that have been challenging in the past. Overall, if you are seeking treatment for anxiety, working with a therapist who is skilled in CBT interventions is a great choice to ensure you will receive evidence-based treatment for your recovery.

Evidence-based social anxiety treatment can be highly effective. When people are experiencing symptoms of social anxiety, they will often feel uncomfortable in a variety of social situations. These may include approaching strangers to ask questions, eating in front of others, public speaking and more. Therefore, treatment for social anxiety will focus on helping the person to increase comfort in situations that are typically uncomfortable. This is often done through cognitive behavioural therapy interventions. This type of treatment approach has been considered to be one of the best types of treatment for social anxiety.

Other strategies for treating social anxiety can involve examining the types of thoughts experienced in these settings and learning whether there might be other ways of understanding the situations. Therapy is highly effective at enabling individuals to work closely with a therapist to be able to learn these tools and strategies and carry them out on their own so that they can learn to be their own therapist over time.

You might wonder whether the best anxiety treatment is close to home so you can easily access it. However, because you can easily access an online therapist for anxiety, your choices of where to receive treatment have dramatically grown in the last several years. In fact, some of the best anxiety treatments can be accessed through online services and afford you an opportunity to work with triggers of anxiety that exist in your home during your therapy sessions. In order to be able to receive anxiety treatment across Canada through online therapy, you need to ensure that the therapist you are working with is regulated within that province.

For example, when working with a psychologist, they might be registered in more than one province in Ontario. This allows you to find options for treatment that would not have existed prior to the accessibility of online anxiety therapy. You might live in Ontario and be looking for anxiety treatment in Toronto and realize that you actually have your pick of therapists who practice throughout Ontario. This can afford you more options and ensure that you are able to find the best-fit therapist, no matter where you live in Canada. There are many online therapists for anxiety and depression, and it is important to look for one who has the proper credentials and experiences in order to ensure you will receive evidence-based treatment.

Similar to other anxiety disorders, evidence has found that cognitive behavioural interventions can be very effective as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder. Like other anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety disorder treatment can be conducted online. If you are engaging in this approach online, you will work with your online therapist for anxiety in order to learn a variety of skills and strategies. These will include psychoeducation regarding anxiety and the pervasive nature of generalized anxiety disorder. You will also learn about essential connections between thoughts, feelings and behaviours and how these work together to main symptoms of generalized anxiety.

Within treatments for generalized anxiety disorder, you will also learn about the perceived function of worry and why it is not always a helpful strategy. In doing so, you will learn about ways to manage symptoms of generalized anxiety so that you can live a more meaningful life. Acceptance Commitment Therapy is another evidence-based approach that is also considered one of the best anxiety treatments. It is referred to as a third-wave cognitive behavioural therapy approach. Through this type of anxiety and depression treatment, you will learn about how you can make space for difficult thoughts and feelings and continue to live a life that is meaningful and in the service of your values.

Sometimes, it can be hard to know whether what you are experiencing is “everyday stress” or something that might require treatment for anxiety. However, there are a few clues that someone might benefit more from treatment for anxiety with a healthcare professional.

What might those signs be? If you find you are experiencing significant impacts within a work or educational domain, or within your relationships with friends and family, it might be a sign that it is time to seek out treatment for anxiety disorders with a qualifies professional. You might be wondering what the best anxiety treatment is. That can be difficult to answer, However, it does mean that you will feel comfortable speaking with your therapist and they you ensure that are a regulated healthcare professional (or under the supervision of one) and they have the necessary training and experience to be able to work with you on your presenting issues.

When seeking out treatment for anxiety disorders, you will want to ask your therapist whether they conduct evidence-based assessments and treatment planning to ensure they fully understand the nature of your anxiety and that they can help you. You will also want to learn about their treatment approach and ensure it is evidence-based and tailored to your needs and presenting issues.

How Can I Find Anxiety Therapy Online? 

Does FTPS provide anxiety therapy online near me? We provide it throughout Canada, with an ability to treat people within Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick.

We provide anxiety therapy online for adults, teens, parents, families and couples. 
Please contact us to learn more and get started!

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