When you are experiencing anxiety, looking for a therapist can feel overwhelming. Add a global pandemic…and you might be ready to just erase it off your to-do list altogether. Sure, you’ve heard of online anxiety therapy, but does it really work? Can you actually have a meaningful online therapy session through a screen?
In a word: yes. This year, virtually everything has gone, well, virtual. So it can feel easy to write off online therapy as just another way you have to “adjust” your life.
But the truth is, online anxiety therapy is not only just as successful as in-person counseling, it comes with benefits.
If you’re looking for anxiety treatment in Columbus, Ohio, but feeling unsure about whether it’s worth it, here are five major benefits to going digital for therapy:
1. Online therapy in Columbus, OH is particularly helpful for people with social anxiety.
More than 200,000 people are diagnosed with social anxiety every year. And social anxiety impacts both introverts and extroverts. So no matter what your social life looks like, you may know a thing or two about social interactions putting you on edge.
Here are some other common symptoms of social anxiety:
- Social situations almost always make you anxious or nervous
- Interactions, where you might be subjected to scrutiny by others, leave you feeling fear or anxiety
- You are afraid others will see how anxious you are, leading to negative thoughts about you
So how is online therapy good for social anxiety? It’s really important that therapy for social anxiety includes comfort with your therapist. Online therapy is just between you and your therapist––no other interactions involved. Plus, it’s completely private and from the comfort of your own home. It’s your space, allowing you to feel at ease throughout the entire experience of anxiety treatment.
2. You can’t get COVID-19 from online therapy.
Ok, this one’s obvious. But it’s also important. Navigating social distancing in order to protect yourself and your loved ones may be causing you a lot of worries and, quite frankly, caution fatigue. COVID-19 is stressful. Partly because so much about this pandemic is out of our control. So doesn’t it sound nice to have one less thing to worry about?
Online counseling removes the possibility of contracting COVID-19 as a barrier to getting counseling. No worries about crowded waiting rooms or whether or not someone is wearing their mask correctly. Online therapy gives you a lot more protection than six feet of distance––keeping you totally safe and healthy. So basically, it reduces anxiety (rather than causing it).
3. Anxiety makes it hard to slow down…online therapy fits into your schedule.
Life is busy and work is stressful. But we don’t have to tell you that. Work/life balance is more like work/life stress. And it might be one of the reasons you’re seeking anxiety treatment in the first place. But before you can figure out what slowing down could mean for your life, you have to find the time for a therapy session. Between working late or squeezing in some extra emails on your laptop over dinner…it can be hard to figure out where a whole hour for online therapy would fit on your Google calendar.
Online therapy for anxiety allows you to click out of a meeting and into a session––any time that works for you. Before work, right after, or even during a break, online therapy fits into your day instead of you scrambling to rearrange everything to fit into its schedule.
4. It’s completely private.
Asking for help is a strength. However, there are times when you’d rather keep things 100% private. And feeling anxious about someone else knowing about your therapy experience when you might not be ready to share could hold you back from letting down your guard.
Online therapy eliminates any possibility of running into your coworker––or your mom. It’s as easy as computer on, computer off. You get to prioritize your mental health, feel better about your life, and be completely in charge of whether or not anyone you know (or don’t know) gets to weigh in.
5. Online therapy in Ohio is just as effective for GAD symptoms as in-person counseling.
There is a difference between feeling a little stressed and anxiety taking over your work, relationships, and overall happiness. When anxiety starts consuming your life, you might be showing signs of GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) symptoms.
Here are some other common symptoms of GAD:
- Unable to control constant worries about life for six months or more
- Overthinking plans and obsessing over all possible worst-case scenarios
- Muscle aches
- Feeling on edge with no notable cause
- Inability to focus
- Trouble sleeping
Think you might have GAD? You’re not alone. GAD affects 6.8 million adults (or 3.1% of the U.S. population). The good news: all the research shows that online anxiety therapy is just as effective as treatments for anxiety in-person. So you can rest easy that online therapy can help increase your calm.
A bonus benefit of online therapy in Ohio:
This might seem out of left field, but there’s something kind of futuristic-Star Trek-cool about online therapy. While it’s not a flying car, it does make you take stock of what’s possible now as opposed to 15 years ago. Online therapy: the final frontier… Aaanyway…
Begin Online Therapy for Anxiety in Columbus, Ohio
Ready for online counseling for anxiety in Columbus, Ohio? We’d love to help at Open Pathways Counseling in Columbus Ohio. Our counseling clinic has a caring therapist who can help you feel more relaxed and secure. Follow these super-easy steps to get started:
- Click here, email, or call today for a free 15-minute phone consultation.
- Schedule a time to meet me, your new therapist, for your first appointment.
- Stop feeling stressed. Start finding your calm.
Other Services Offered at Open Pathways Counseling
Online therapy isn’t the only service I offer from my Columbus, OH-based counseling practice. In fact, I’m an ADHD specialist and would love to talk about your superpowers in therapy for adults with ADHD. In addition to online therapy in Ohio, I offer anxiety treatment, therapy for creatives, therapy for young adults, counseling for men, quarter-life-crisis counseling, and depression counseling. Let’s talk now about how you can live your best life in the future. If you have questions about therapy or working with me, please visit my “About Me” page
