Anxiety can be overwhelming. Though we all feel stress, anxiety in Tampa FL, and Brandon FL, disorders can cause a person to become agitated, restless, or excessively worried over something others may see as small. Anxiety can come in many forms, whether it’s
Feeling your heart pound and palms sweat
Negative self-talk
Avoiding social situations
Difficulty sleeping and calming down
Racing thoughts and difficulty concentrating
You may not know whether what you are feeling is typical stress, or signs of an anxiety disorder in Tampa FL, and Brandon FL, and that feeling of not knowing brings its own discomfort and additional stress.
WHEN WE DON’T KNOW, WE GOOGLE.
And when we google, we can find that there are many types of anxiety in Tampa FL, and Brandon FL, as well as other disorders in which anxiety plays a part. If you weren’t feeling anxious before, you may feel even more anxious as you flip through online pages of diagnosis after diagnosis. There are some online anxiety tests, and they can be helpful as a starting place to help learn more about anxiety, and to see whether it may be helpful for you to seek professional help. However, online tests have limits.
You’re probably feeling more anxious than normal when you read through a list of symptoms or diagnoses, and that may impact how you answer the questions. Secondly, sometimes the way things are written is not clear. For example, these quiz questions often ask about how often a symptom occurs without providing context – how often is “often” or “sometimes”? Lastly, even if an online quiz can tell you with 100% certainty that you have an anxiety disorder in Tampa FL, and Brandon FL, it may not be able to link you to treatment with a quality mental health professional, nor provide treatment recommendations that are tailored to best fit you.
Pros of Taking an Online Anxiety Test
Learn basic information about anxiety.
Get a starting point to understand your own emotions
First easy step toward deeper self understanding
Free, or low cost.
Cons of Taking an Online Anxiety Test
Possible misdiagnosis
General, often not validated (accurate) questions
Not able to recommend appropriate treatment
Difficulty understanding results
Incomplete, limited results or insights
Knowing yourself is a key part of understanding how to take care of yourself, but figuring yourself out can be a complicated and uncomfortable process. I’ll explain a few ways to get started on your own, as well as ways we can help.
Start a Journal
Often our thoughts and feelings happen so fast that we have a hard time organizing them. Journaling is a great way to slow down our minds and put our complex thoughts, feelings, and patterns out on to paper. It doesn’t have to follow a standard format. For some people, just simple bullet points with their thoughts and feelings about a situation can be helpful to start to see patterns. Find a format that works for you and work to integrate it into your regular routine. This can also help you see if your anxiety in Tampa FL, and Brandon FL, tends to happen in any kind of pattern, as well as help you answer those pesky “often” and “sometimes” questions with more accuracy. When you write, reflect by asking yourself:
When did I start feeling this way?
What events today contributed to how I’m feeling now?
What feelings do these words communicate?
How much do these feelings affect my well-being, on a scale from 1-10?
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