Needing therapy for your anxiety is nothing to be ashamed about. The 21st century is a time of understanding and accepting mental illnesses, and anxiety is the most common psychiatric disorder out there.
However, attending an anxiety therapy session for the first time can be nerve-wracking. Though it’s important to help you learn to deal with anxiety and learn how to manage anxious thoughts, it’s difficult to reveal so much of this part of your personality to someone for the first time.
This article will walk you through some things you can do to manage anxiety during your anxiety therapy session.
Table of Contents
Understand the Benefits
One of the biggest sources of pre-therapy nerves is not being sure if the therapy will work. Of course, it’s important to be open that the therapist might not be right for you, but you should always go into your first session as optimistic as possible.
Familiarize yourself with the benefits of therapy for anxiety by conducting research. Understand that by going to therapy, you’re going to relieve yourself of stress and improve your quality of life.
People go to therapy when they want to experience change in their lives. Trust that therapy will help you move forward.
Write Things Out
Another source of grief before a therapy session for many people is not remembering what to say. You can have a lot of problems weighing on you and might feel like you’re not capable of letting the therapist know all of them.
To remedy this, make a list of subjects you want to talk about. Don’t make yourself more nervous by thinking about these things more than you have to. Simply write down bullet points representing general topics.
This will help you feel like you’re not going to your session completely blank. If your memory fails you, you can look down on this list and figure out what to talk about next.
Relax
We understand that many people in today’s world have busy lives. However, you owe it to yourself to create some time to relax before your therapy session starts.
Routine and structure are important to people suffering from anxiety. It can be tough to introduce something new to your life, such as therapy.
To make this experience feel more routinized and pleasurable, set yourself a time before therapy where all you can do is relax and prepare. When you head to your therapy session, you’ll be more ready to open up.
Prepare for Your Therapy Session
Ironically enough, attending an anxiety therapy session for the first time can actually be a source of anxiety. To make this experience as beneficial as possible, make sure that you understand all of the good the therapy session will do you, prepare notes for yourself to read from and set yourself time to relax before your session.
For more information on therapy, contact us today.
