Empowering Women: Overcoming Anxiety with Online Therapy In Maryland

Women can benefit from anxiety treatment with online therapy in Maryland.

Providing online therapy in Maryland, I daily see the ways that women are showing up in the world, and the difficulties we face. March is Women’s History Month, we just celebrated International Women’s Day, and today is Equal Pay Day! The ways in which women contribute to our societies and communities are countless, and we also need to recognize that the challenges that women face are still ongoing from wage inequity to violence against women and threats to bodily autonomy.

Women are twice as likely as men to experience symptoms of anxiety and to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder sometime in their lifetime. In addition to the challenges listed above, women also carry the lion’s share of unpaid and emotional labor in our country, from caregiving to emotional support to the never-ending mental checklist of everything that needs to be done for everyone, everywhere in their lives. IYKYK, right?

WHen Is Anxiety a ProbLEM?

Having some anxiety is part of being human and isn’t going to entirely go away—which is good! Some amount of anxiety is healthy for us; it keeps us on our toes to look out for danger and remember things that are important to us. Our brains evolved this way because brains that remembered threats to survival were brains that survived. Even when that doesn’t translate into modern experiences of what sets off our survival alarms, we can see how some anxiety is just expected in certain situations, like giving a big speech in front of a group or waiting for results of a medical test or taking a final exam. In those situations we may feel keyed up, jittery, antsy or worry about what’s going to happen. When that happens, we can be kind to ourselves and acknowledge that some anxiety about this is completely understandable (being critical of ourselves and feeling bad that we can’t “snap out of it” is only going to make things worse), and use some calming skills that we’re going to talk about later to get through the moment as best as we can.

But when the anxiety is so strong that it swamps our ability to function reasonably in stressful situations, or continues on long after the stressful events have passed, or begins to spread out over multiple areas of life and have a negative impact on our health, mood, relationships, responsibilities and functioning, then we might want to look at engaging a more comprehensive approach to understanding, reducing and managing the anxiety.

Women & Anxiety Over the Lifespan

Women at all phases of life can experience anxiety.

As mentioned above, girls and women experience anxiety and anxiety disorders at twice the rate that men do. It can show up in lots of different ways and also shift and change focus over time as developmental changes occur. Teen girls are experiencing problems with anxiety at alarming levels and there is a lot to understand and unpack about what’s going on during this challenging time of life. For a terrific overview about anxiety and teen girls, please check out this interview with Dr. Lisa Damour. She specializes in teen mental health and has a wealth of experience to share about understanding the context of these challenges and how to support teens through them.

Adult women in the working years face stressors from all sides—unequal pay at work, a heavier share of unpaid labor at home (even when earning more money), and the extra difficult demands for women in the “sandwich generation” (caring for children and older parents at the same time). All of this leaves so little left for women to meet their own needs and they end up perpetually at the bottom of their list. Many women in this age group have been so out of touch with their own wants and needs for so long that they don’t realize how depleted they are until distress symptoms become so loud and strong that they can’t ignore them (a panic attack or reflux symptoms that are so bad that they feel like a heart problem will get your attention).

Older women in retirement face their own challenges. The long-term impacts of unequal pay and time away from the workforce for caregiving needs manifest in lower retirement savings for women and higher rates of financial difficulties in later years. Older women can feel particularly anxious and vulnerable if they are feeling isolated and lack the supports they need as they age (and so many people do because our country relies on the unpaid caregiving of other women to fill so many care gaps).

Also: Hormones. Sigh.

Anxiety treatment in maryland that understands women

Help is available throughout the state with online therapy in Maryland.

Here’s a thing that really grinds my gears—it can feel like so much of the advice about managing anxiety for women carries a subtle message that the purpose of getting a handle on the anxiety is to better manage the entire pile of stressors outlined in the section above with less distress or complaint. Not a fan of that idea. There is no amount of breathing exercises that is going to make up for the unbearable burden of being the only caregiving support for both children and elderly parents. Sometimes, in addition to all of the cognitive reframing skills and nervous system relaxation exercises we hope are going to help, we have to do the hard work of looking at what things are flooding our lives with stress and dumping gasoline on the fires of our anxiety, and do what we can to make even a little bit of change in those areas. That might mean needing to set and maintain healthy boundaries around what you can and can’t do, ask for help, gather additional resources, or advocate for changes.

Therapy for Anxiety

Effective therapy for anxiety can include a lot of different approaches and will be most helpful when it is tailored to address your unique concerns. Someone who is constantly scaring themselves with stories of worst case scenarios may benefit from some different inventions than someone who is ending up with panic attacks, seemingly out of nowhere, without a clue as to why they might be happening. But in general, therapy for anxiety will often include building skills for soothing the body and nervous system, understanding and revising unhelpful thought patterns that drive anxiety, and making useful adjustments in your life that can support more calm and confidence. Working with someone that specializes in anxiety treatment can help you follow a plan that nudges you along to a life with less interference from anxiety, in a way that encourages your growth without overwhelming you and creating even more panic and distress. For more details on how therapy for anxiety walks this fine line between support and growth, see this blog post, one in a series of 5 myths about anxiety and treatment.

Anxiety relief with online therapy in maryland

One of the barriers to getting help with anxiety is that it can feel like one more thing in a schedule that already has zero room in it, creating even more stress in trying to figure out how to make all the pieces fit. The good news is that the difficult years of the pandemic taught us that online therapy can be extremely effective and that people were able to reap the benefits of being more consistent with their appointments because so many of the variables that trip us up were taken out. No commute that ended up taking twice the estimated amount of time due to construction or rain. (If you live in Maryland, you know exactly what I mean about the rain. Why? Nobody knows.) No spending as much time getting to and from the therapy office as you spend in the appointment. No need to cancel because your boss scheduled a meeting for the hour after your appointment or your child is home from school for the day. All you need is one hour of time and door that closes for privacy. Because I am licensed in Maryland, I see clients for online therapy in Maryland who are in Maryland at the time of their session.

A free consultation For Online Therapy Maryland

If you are looking for support in finding more calm and confidence around your anxiety, please reach out. I see folks for therapy in College Park, MD and offer online therapy in Maryland. You can explore more information about my services throughout the website, including more about anxiety treatment in Maryland. Feel free to contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation.