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Does Free Anxiety Online Counseling Work?

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Many people have been testing out online therapy these days, mostly thanks to the global pandemic. However, many are still skeptical and don’t know if online counseling is as effective as regular counseling. Fortunately, it does work and shows amazing results. Recent surveys show that online therapy is just as effective as traditional therapy for the most part. If you want to try out free Anxiety online counseling chat 24/7, consider visiting a good eTherapy platform today.

Does Anxiety Online Counseling Help Work?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that therapy is always a two-way street that requires commitment from the therapist and the patient. If the patient isn’t willing to commit or take therapy seriously, even great anxiety help online will not work.

To understand if online therapy is effective, you need to know how it works. Here’s a brief look at the treatment process:

1. Questionnaire

The first thing most Anxiety online counseling platforms require is filling out a form. You need to answer a dozen or more questions to give prospective therapists an idea of what kind of support you need. These questions are simple and straightforward. They’re not a test and there are no right or wrong answers.

You need to fill out of the form honestly and make sure the information you provide is true. Being truthful will ensure you get the right therapist for your treatment and don’t need to worry about the information leaking out. All details you share are confidential.

2. Assigning a Therapist

Once you have filled out the form, the eTherapy website will assign a suitable therapist to you. In most cases, the therapists read the details you provide and decide whether they can offer you assistance. A therapist is usually assigned within a day and you can start talking with them quickly.

After you have attended a few sessions with the therapist, you can understand whether they’re a suitable choice for you. Most online therapy platforms allow patients to switch therapists if necessary.

3. Choosing a Medium

The next step is to choose a communication medium. You have the option of free online counseling chat 24/7, phone calls, and video calls. It is a good idea to try all of these methods to see which one suits you. Choosing the right medium is essential for the success of your sessions. For example, if you’re not accustomed to typing and chatting online, you may want to stick with calls. However, if you chat online regularly, a counseling chat may be more suitable.

Some therapists may have their own preferred medium. You can discuss those options with them before making a decision. Of course, this decision isn’t permanent and you can change it at any time.

4. Consistent Therapy

Therapy isn’t a miracle worker. You need to speak with your anxiety counselor regularly to enjoy the benefits. Don’t skip sessions if you can help it and work with your counselor honestly. Consistency will not just help ensure your therapy is more successful, but it will also ensure you finish your sessions easily.

Inconsistency can drag therapy for several months, which can be a waste of money. We also don’t recommend stopping the sessions immediately after you start feeling better. Attend the sessions for a few more weeks to ensure the progress sticks. You should also consider remaining in therapy for the long term, just reducing the frequency. Anxiety can pop up once again if it is triggered and having a trusted therapist at your side can help.

5. The Right Platform

Your counseling will only be successful if you choose the right platform. Don’t settle for the most affordable ones. Research into the eTherapy platform carefully to see whether it can provide the right form of support. Make sure they your therapists are qualified and have the right training for assistance.

You can also try the free sessions to see if the platform lives up to its promises. Once the free sessions are over and you’re still not satisfied with the service, you can always seek anxiety help online from other platforms.

Choosing the right platform and working with your therapist is the best way to see quick progress. Feel free to ask questions and seek more information on online therapy from your counselor.

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

Anxiety and Sleep Disorders


It’s another sleepless night, already 4 am, and you have to get up in two hours. You have yet to sleep. Your mind will not shut off long enough to let sleep come. You keep thinking and thinking, worrying at times. This is insomnia and it’s one of the sleep issues that can arise from anxiety and anxiety-based disorders.

Anxiety and anxiety-based disorders, like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have a strong correlation with sleep disorders. It may be difficult to determine which came first, the anxiety or the sleep anxiety disorder.  What is known is that the two are linked together, causing more and more stress to those who suffer from just one or the other alone.

Causes of Sleep Anxiety Disorder:

For those who suffer from anxiety, are more likely to experience insomnia, the inability to sleep, or suffer from constant waking, not able to enter a deep sleep cycle necessary for good physical and mental health. Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep is often prevented when anxiety is present, which can be responsible for depression, increased anxiety, hallucinations, difficulty in thinking, and increased risk of cardiac events. People who suffer from anxiety may also have difficulty getting to sleep, and have a longer sleep onset length, than people without anxiety disorders. For the average person, it takes 15 minutes to get to sleep, while someone with an anxiety disorder may take an hour. Sleep is vital to living things, and when a person fails to get that, they begin to break down.

Any anxiety disorder may bring on sleep problems, such as insomnia. It is the anxiety, the energy of fear or nervousness, that keeps the mind and body going. The fight/flight/or freeze response is activated, and the body is alert and ready to go, ready to act, as there is some threat somewhere, whether real or imagined, the body does not know, it just reacts to the threat the mind sees. Other mental illnesses can have anxiety associated with them, some types of depression have anxiety as a feature, or the fear and poor understanding of reality can come with thought disorders. No matter the cause, anxiety is a real feature and disrupts the life of the person who experiences it.

Sleep Anxiety Disorders are unfortunately too common with some estimating that 40 million people in the country suffer from them, with anxiety playing a significant role for many of them. This does not have to be and should be addressed immediately with your healthcare professional. With a combination of education, medication, and talk therapy to help calm the mind and re-evaluate stressful situations, a person can begin to find relief and get a stress-free night’s sleep again.

Start a Free trial of online counseling and learn how to deal with anxiety and insomnia.

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

The Science Behind Sunlight and Sleep: How Light Influences Your Rest

sunlight and sleep

According to a recent study, individuals who are exposed to sunlight or bright indoor light early in the morning experience less stress, feel less depressed, and sleep better at night than those who are not. Exposure to sunlight during the day and less light at night supports the body’s healthy sleep patterns by appropriately calibrating the body’s circadian clock, the biological system that helps regulate sleep.

The study published in “Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation” found that people who were exposed to bright light between 8:00 am and noon fell asleep more quickly at night and experienced fewer sleep disturbances than those not exposed to bright light early in the day. Additionally, office workers who were exposed to bright light between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm reported lower levels of depression than individuals not exposed to bright light all day.

Although exposure to bright, natural sunlight is best, even office workers benefit from exposure to short-wave “blue” light. In recent years, many businesses have reduced lighting to be more energy efficient, but this trend may be changing as many offices are moving towards brighter lighting because happier, well-rested employees are more productive employees.

For years, we have known that sleep quality affects several mental, emotional, and physical problems, including mood disturbance and difficulty with metabolism and the immune system. One way to improve our quality of sleep is to pay attention to how much light exposure we receive especially early in the day. More light in the morning equals better sleep at night.

If you are struggling to find quality sleep because of anxiety, depression, or other emotional difficulties, you may also want to consider talking to a therapist online.

Start a Free trial of online counseling and talk to a counselor today.

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

The Anxiety Hypothesis

If you think you might be suffering from anxiety or someone has suggested it as an explanation for what you are going through, you may be wondering how to find out for sure. This article explains how to test The Anxiety Hypothesis.
the
/T͟Hē,T͟Hə/
determiner
Used to point forward to a following qualifying or defining clause or phrase.
anx·i·e·ty
/aNGˈzīədē/
noun
A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
hy·poth·e·sis
/hīˈpäTHəsəs/
noun
A proposed explanation made on the basis of evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Anxiety is a natural and common response to all kinds of life circumstances. We all experience it in varying degrees in our day to day lives and it’s an excellent survival skill – when it’s working correctly. If you are going through difficulties right now you can be sure anxiety is a part of your life. It’s natural and appropriate to feel in a variety of situations including, but not limited to, diagnosis of a disease, loss of employment, infidelity, or facing an immediate danger.
This article isn’t about the natural anxiety that comes to us all from time to time. It’s about prolonged generalized anxiety that happens even when there is no disease or danger. Prolonged anxiety can happen as a result of the above circumstances but also for no apparent reason at all. Sometimes it is the reverse of the above scenarios – an unending feeling of worry and fear that eventually leads to a false belief that there is a disease or an immediate danger.
What causes the feeling of uneasiness? It’s different for everyone but the common theme is that your mind perceives danger where there likely is none. For some people it’s easy to identify the situations that trigger the anxiety. Perhaps they feel uncomfortable and awkward in social situations so they may experience anxiety associated with being exposed to people. It’s unlikely that this person will encounter any real danger chatting with coworkers in the break room but doing so might terrify them. For these people it’s easier to accept that undue anxiety is wreaking havoc in their lives.
There is another group of anxiety sufferers who can’t easily tell what’s causing their symptoms. These people believe they are too strong to be affected by any stress or emotions. When anxiety is a part of their lives long enough, they will start to experience strange physical symptoms such as a tightness in their chest, a shortness of breath, or heart palpitations. They immediately suspect there is something wrong with their body and quickly wind up in the doctor’s office or emergency room. Thus begins a quest to discover what their malady might be. The more tests that come back negative the more they worry and the worse their symptoms become.
First, experiencing anxiety is no weakness – it is part of the human condition and one of the most powerful survival skills we have. Second, although I don’t know your situation and can’t say for sure, it is likely that anxiety can explain all the symptoms you are currently experiencing. For a complete list do a Google search for “anxiety symptoms”. For now, here are just some sensations anxiety can cause:
  • Elevated heart rate for days or weeks on end
  • Chest pain
  • Heart Palpitations
  • Tightness in chest
  • Shooting pains in back, chest, face
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Numbness in hands, feet, head
  • Scalp pain
  • Severe headaches
  • Pain and soreness all over the body
  • Twitches & tightness
  • Muscle spasms
  • Pain in joints
  • Insomnia
  • Burning / Tingling skin
  • Severe neck and back pain
If you are in situation in which you suspect anxiety might be the cause of your unusual sensations there is a way you can experiment on The Anxiety Hypothesis and find out for sure. Before moving on it’s important to say that this article is not an instruction to quit seeing your doctor. If you have been consulting with a doctor and doing tests to discover the source of your symptoms please print this out and discuss the possibility of anxiety with them. You should continue to work with your doctor while you conduct your experiments.
Before discussing these experiments I want to tell you that you can gather important data from the times when you feel your uncomfortable symptoms. I wouldn’t knowingly encourage you to take action that would cause them to flare up but you can gather data when they naturally occur. Start taking notes when you notice that you are starting to feel off. Were you running late for work? Did you just read a bit of disturbing news? Were you in a crowd? Did you watch a thriller? Were you thinking of something negative?
Ask yourself if something in your environment might reasonably trigger anxiety or a panic attack. You may find the data you gather taking these notes will show a pattern. It may reveal that although sometimes your strange symptoms seem to occur for no apparent reason, they do consistently flare up in situations in which any person might experience anxiety. This will give you some support for The Anxiety Hypothesis.

Now on to positive experiments you can conduct. I call them prevention and distraction.

Prevention is making positive and healthy changes in your lifestyle. For example, you might change your diet and exercise regime or you could start practicing mindfulness. As the name implies, you don’t do the preventive measure when you are feeling anxious. Some prevention takes place throughout the day, like choosing to cut out caffeine. Others, like exercise or mindfulness, should ideally be done at the same time every day. Just pick one thing you are going to change for the better and start.
For people that are feeling anxiety it can be difficult to feel motivated to make these types of positive changes in your life so the goal here is to make sure you are consistent. In other words, the frequency of these activities is more important than the duration. Start small. Here are some examples. For diet, try making sure you drink the recommended 64 ounces of water every day. For exercise, try doing a minute of stretching at the same time every day. For lifestyle, try cutting out TV/internet for 30 minutes prior to bed. For mental health, try spending a few minutes outside appreciating nature each day.
The idea here is to make one small and consistent positive change in your life. Try to increase the duration over time if you can. So a minute of stretching every day might turn into five after a couple of weeks. These types of changes are good for you even if your challenge isn’t anxiety. But if it is what ails you, prevention measures should help to reduce it just a bit and that should be enough to give you data to support The Anxiety Hypothesis. In other words, if making these changes reduces your symptoms you will know that anxiety is a factor, if not the entire problem.
Distraction experiments are ones you conduct when you start to feel your unusual sensations coming on or even when you are having a full blown panic attack. As the name implies, you are going to try and distract yourself. It’s important to note here that distraction will not cure anxiety. It’s merely an effective tool to diagnose it and reduce your immediate symptoms. If you don’t believe your problem is anxiety you will never accept it and you will keep fighting which will make your symptoms worse. But if you can use distraction to convince yourself that anxiety is your challenge, you will be able accept it. Acceptance is the best way I know of to overcome anxiety and heal permanently. So, distraction doesn’t resolve anxiety but it puts you on the pathway there.
What was I talking about?…oh right, distraction! Put together a list of 3-5 activities you can do that will engage both body and mind – activities that require you to think and move at least a little. Do not attempt to meditate as a distraction. That’s more of a prevention tool. The idea with distraction is to see if engaging in the activity reduces your sensations or feeling of unease. If it does, you will have some data to support The Anxiety Hypothesis.
So, keep it simple. Puzzles are good. Models are good. Coloring books for grown ups. Legos are great – especially a set with instructions. A Rubik’s Cube works. Just about any craft or woodworking project will do. When you first start to feel off head to the distraction. It may not be easy but remember, this is an experiment.
Try to follow these rules. Have a couple of distractions ready. So go prepare the puzzle or craft now and have it all ready to go. Make sure at least one distraction is portable like a coloring book or handheld puzzle. Only use the distraction when you are feeling off or you think panic is coming on. Perform the distraction experiment for no more than ten minutes at a time then check how you feel. If you feel a little bit better you can do more and see if the improvement continues.
If you incorporate either prevention or distraction or both and notice that it is having a positive effect on your “symptoms” then you have gathered data that validates The Anxiety Hypothesis. The more you do this the more convinced you will be that anxiety is the real problem. And proving this to yourself is the first step toward healing.
Start your Free trial of online counseling and discuss The Anxiety Hyppthesis with a counselor today.

 

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.