Fear is a valuable emotion when it helps us protect what is important. The right amount of anxiety stimulates us to an alertness that enables peak performance. But when fear and anxiety become chronic and unproductive they can cripple us. We either come to a complete standstill or lose our way in frantic activity, neither of which reduces our anxiety. We feel in the muscles of our shoulders and neck that constant tension that drains our energy.

We long to feel safe again, but it’s as if our body has forgotten how. We try to remember what we used to believe back in that time before we were so anxious. If that fails, we feel truly trapped. We’ve lost the trail. We find the word “panic” in our thoughts.

So, we develop patterns of avoidance to minimize our fears and anxieties. The avoidance helps a little but creates more problems than it solves. Sometimes we notice the new resulting problems. Sometimes someone close to us does. The net result is that new sources of fear and anxiety have been created.

Many of my clients come for help with managing the fears and anxieties of life. Surprisingly, a barrier to coming is thinking either that the fears you are experiencing are too small and insignificant to warrant professional help, or thinking that they are so large and insurmountable that nothing could possibly help. Barriers like these can often be overcome in the initial phone call. Please don’t let them stop you from getting the help you need.