I’m just going to be honest. Everyone experiences anxiety and depression at some point in their life. Obviously to varying degrees, but it’s way more normal than our society discusses. In fact, according to SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) in 2014, “Utah ranked highest in the nation for mental illness.”
Anxiety and depression are simply a way your brain copes with your life circumstances. (I’ll tell you more about the brain details when you see me…. that’s super important to understand.)
Now that we know it’s okay to have anxiety and depression, you have to assess when it becomes a problem enough to come see me. I normally talk about “functionality”. Is your anxiety and/or depression functioning for you? Does it serve a purpose?
Before you quickly shut me down and say “of course it isn’t“, think about it.
If you can tell me your anxiety / depression are getting in the way of your life (wether it’s a small portion of your life, the daily grind, or the big decisions), then it’s time to come see me.
I specialize in helping my clients understand their brain – which in turn helps them understand themselves, their world, their past and then in turn, helps them understand others around them. You’ll then begin to see WHY you think and act the way you do. Understanding this gives you power over yourself. It gives you freedom from your anxiety and depression. It gives you closure for the past, peace in the present & hope for the future.
Before I ramble on further, come schedule an appointment with me to chat about your anxiety and depression. Remember, it’s normal. You aren’t broken because of it. But, that doesn’t mean you have to live with anxiety and depression forever.
Timothy Ponce, LMFT
ABC Family Counseling
801-361-2237
Call today
Accepting new Utah County clients. Call for a free consultation.
For parents of adolescents, our guide to teen moodiness or depression and how to tell the difference may be a useful starting point.
If the person you are worried about is a child, our guide to the signs of anxiety in children that parents often miss covers how it shows up at school and at home.
Depression does not always present as sadness — our guide to depression that looks like irritability, numbness or exhaustion covers the presentations that get missed.
If panic attacks are part of the picture, our guide to what a panic attack is and what helps in the moment explains the mechanism and the avoidance trap.
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If the difficulty is constant worry rather than panic, our guide to chronic worry and why overthinking solves nothing covers what reduces it.
For new parents, our guide to postpartum depression and anxiety describes what it actually looks like.
After a bereavement, our guide to grief after losing a parent covers what nobody warns you about.
If this is being recognized in adulthood, our guide to adult ADHD recognized later than everyone else covers where therapy helps and where it does not.