Understanding and Addressing Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, Anger, and Alcohol or Substance Abuse
In our current society where individuals and families are often pushed beyond their capacities with overwhelming personal, financial, work, or family challenges, many individuals are finding themselves grappling with various mental health challenges. Among the most common mental health responses are anxiety, depression, anger, and issues related to alcohol or substance abuse. These issues, while distinct, often overlap and can significantly impact one's overall well-being. Therapy can play a pivotal role in navigating these challenges, offering a path toward healing and recovery.
Understanding and addressing mental health challenges can help you build resilience, improve emotional well-being, and develop healthier relationships with yourself and others. Below are some of the most common.
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is more than just feeling nervous before a big event. It's a persistent and often overwhelming feeling of worry or dread. For some, anxiety can manifest as physical symptoms like a racing heart, sweating, or trouble breathing. It can also lead to avoidance behaviours, where one steers clear of situations that might trigger their anxiety.
Anxiety is the alarm system in our bodies that causes us to become stuck in physiological arousal of terror or panic, feelings of being "wired" or tense, and cognitions of ruminating and distressing thoughts. Anxiety can hold us hostage in the future unknowns; meanwhile, in comparison, trauma can keep us trapped in the past.
Anxiety can severely impact daily life functioning, which can disrupt sleep hygiene, eating habits, job employment, and personal relationships. Experiences of anxiety can also be related to specific experiences and stressors, such as violence, family life, illness, financial security, poverty, racism, spirituality, and loss. Cognitive schemas of negative self-beliefs and negative views of others or the world also can create anxiety. Anxiety, perfection, performance, and self-identity are often intrinsically linked.
Therapy, particularly approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), can be highly effective in treating anxiety. CBT helps individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns, while EMDR can help process and desensitize traumatic memories that may be fueling the anxiety.
Understanding Depression
Depression is a pervasive sense of hopelessness and despair that can make it difficult to engage in daily activities, maintain relationships, or even get out of bed in the morning. Depression can be debilitating, affecting both the mind and body, leading to fatigue, changes in appetite, and sleep disturbances.
Depression can have detrimental effects seen through losing the desire to engage in activities of previous interest, disconnecting or isolating from loved ones, feeling hopeless about the future, and having suicidal thoughts or attempts. Depressive responses are often seen in daily functioning challenges, such as having difficulty with concentration, motivation, hygiene, eating, sleep, job performance, or school attendance.
Anxiety and Depression Are Often Closely Linked
Anxiety and depression can act as close friends, often being interconnected, which makes it difficult for us to understand and cope alone. Anxiety and depression are often linked with experiences of anger and sadness. Coping mechanisms for these difficult underlying emotions can often be through alcohol and substance use to numb, avoid, or dissociate from the painful feelings and experiences. Traumatic or negative experiences throughout a person’s life can create negative self-beliefs creating guilt, shame, blame, anger, and sadness that can lead to anxiety, depression, and alcohol/substance use responses.
Therapy offers a safe space to explore the underlying causes of depression. By working with a depression therapist, individuals can learn to identify negative thought patterns, build coping strategies, and develop a more balanced and hopeful perspective on life. Therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) have been shown to be particularly effective in treating depression.
Anger as a Mask for Pain
Anger is often misunderstood and made out to be a negative response. It can be a natural and healthy response to certain situations, but when it becomes frequent, intense, or destructive, it can be a sign of underlying issues. Anger can mask other underlying emotions such as fear, sadness, grief, despair, or feelings of powerlessness.
In therapy, individuals can explore the root causes of their anger. Through techniques such as anger management, mindfulness practices, and emotional regulation strategies, therapy can help individuals learn to express their anger in healthier, more constructive ways.
Alcohol and Substance Use as Coping and Escape Mechanisms
For many, alcohol or substance use begins as a way to cope with stress, anxiety, or emotional pain. However, what starts as an occasional escape can quickly spiral into dependence or addiction. Substance abuse not only affects the individual but can also strain relationships, work life, and overall health.
Therapy plays a crucial role in recovery from substance abuse. Through individual counselling, group therapy, and sometimes family therapy, individuals can explore the underlying reasons for their substance use, develop coping strategies, and work towards long-term sobriety. Therapies such as Motivational Interviewing (MI), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are often used in treating substance abuse. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is also effective with alcohol or substance use to reduce urges and cravings by exploring triggers and past trauma connected to this coping mechanism.
How Can Therapy Help in Understanding and Addressing Mental Health?
Whether you are struggling with anxiety, depression, anger, or substance abuse, therapy can offer a way forward. It provides a supportive environment where you can explore your thoughts and feelings without judgment, learn new coping skills, and work towards a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Psychotherapy and counselling can support clients who experience anxiety and depression to be able to cope with emotional overwhelm, preoccupation with unknowns, feelings of isolation, thoughts of suicide, hopelessness, panic attacks, and difficulty connecting to others. Counselling can help clients increase their ability to sit with discomfort and uncomfortable emotions, situations, or experiences.
Being able to explore life experiences that have created anxiety, depression, anger, alcohol/substance, or trauma responses can help understand the root of these responses to help move forward.
I have experience supporting people to explore these mental health responses through multiple trauma-informed and evidence-based approaches. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy can help examine experiences leading to these mental health and behaviour responses, as well as negative self-beliefs, to help find a new way forward. Mindfulness, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical-Behaviour Therapy (DBT) techniques can also be helpful approaches surrounding these mental health responses. These approaches are based on challenging harmful thoughts, lowering emotional distress, improving emotion regulation, increasing mindful awareness, increasing coping skills, and gaining greater tolerance or acceptance for the duality of challenges. The result of these can often be an improvement in relationships with self and others.
My goal as a psychotherapist is to act as a compassionate witness present to explore painful experiences and responses to help support people find a pathway forward and towards meaningful engagement in their lives and relationships.
The types of therapy offered and used in the therapeutic relationship are collaboratively discussed and driven by the person in counselling, as well as their goals of what they would like support with.
How to Begin Understanding and Addressing Mental Health
If you or a loved one are experiencing challenges surrounding anxiety or depression responses, please do not hesitate to reach out. I offer complimentary phone consultations where we can discuss what may be most supportive to you. These challenges are not meant to be faced alone and I am here to support.
Please note:
If you require immediate emotional support, please call the 24-hour crisis line at 604-872-3311 or toll-free at 1-800-SUICIDE.
If you are afraid for your physical safety, please call the emergency number 9-1-1 for the police.
If you are feeling suicidal, please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest hospital emergency department.
