Anxiety doesn't always look like panic or obvious fear. You may appear capable, successful, and completely put together on the outside while internally you're overthinking, worrying about what could go wrong, second-guessing yourself, or feeling unable to shut your mind off.

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Anxiety can affect the way you think, feel, behave, and respond to everyday situations. It can lead to avoidance, perfectionism, procrastination, reassurance-seeking, difficulty making decisions, irritability, physical tension, or feeling as though you're always waiting for the next problem to happen.

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In therapy, we'll work together to understand how anxiety shows up in your life and what may be keeping it going. We'll identify patterns in your thoughts and responses and develop practical strategies to help you manage anxiety more effectively, tolerate uncertainty, and feel more confident in how you handle difficult situations.

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Anxiety is the body's natural response to a perceived threat. It's designed to protect us by preparing us to respond to danger. But sometimes that alarm system becomes overly sensitive, responding to uncertainty, everyday stressors, thoughts, or situations as though they pose a much greater threat than they actually do.

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The Anxiety-Avoidance Cycle

One thing people may not realize is that some of the things we do to reduce anxiety can actually keep it going.

Avoiding a situation, repeatedly seeking reassurance, procrastinating, checking something over and over, or trying to control every possible outcome may provide relief in the moment. That relief can reinforce the idea that the situation needed to be avoided in the first place. The next time it comes up, the anxiety returns—sometimes even stronger. This is one reason simply telling yourself to “stop worrying” rarely works.

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Anxiety Can Show Up in Unexpected Ways

Anxiety may look like overthinking, irritability, perfectionism, difficulty making decisions, trouble sleeping, physical tension, procrastination, people-pleasing, needing reassurance, avoiding situations, or feeling unable to relax even when everything seems fine.

Some people don't initially describe themselves as anxious at all. They may simply feel exhausted from constantly thinking, planning, anticipating, and trying to prevent something from going wrong.