Anxiety

"I over-think everything."

"I can't sleep."

"I feel stressed all the time."

Anxiety can make it difficult to quiet your mind, be present with the people you love, or simply enjoy your life without anticipating what might go wrong. It can show up as overthinking, restlessness, perfectionism, difficulty sleeping, or a constant feeling that you should be doing something differently. 

When something bad has happened, a heightened form of anxiety and panic may still live in the mind and body.  Trauma is often talked about like a wound from the past. It can also be understood as a kind of split in the inner world. Part of you keeps moving through classes, work shifts, relationships, Instagram reels, errands, deadlines. 

Another part gets frozen somewhere else entirely. It might stay stuck in fear, shame, numbness, anger, or loneliness.  It's like a tab left open in the background draining your battery all day without you realizing it.  

Interested in a depth-oriented approach to trauma? Read about how depth therapy can help you make sense of difficult experiences, and how it differs from approaches like EMDR.

“I’m always bracing for the moment someone decides I’m not worth staying for.”  

“When you don’t text back, my mind fills in the worst possible story.”  

If these thoughts feel familiar, you're not broken. You may have learned to stay especially alert to signs of rejection, disconnection, or abandonment. Sometimes these patterns are connected to earlier relationship experiences, but wherever they come from, they can change.