Responding vs. Reacting to Stress and Anxiety

Alejandra Machado, LPC, therapist in Houston

You’ve had a long day already; it’s raining outside, you were late to work this morning, your boss got on your case, and now you stop through the drive-through to pick up some dinner, and they got your order wrong.  You can’t believe one more thing is going wrong today, you go home and eat the food that you didn’t order, even though you don’t enjoy it, and begin to spiral into negative thoughts about yourself and your life that nothing ever goes as planned and it will never get better. 

Your family starts coming home and wants to interact with you, but you’re over it at this point. Instead of saying you need some time to decompress, you stay quiet, get up, and go to the other room, shutting them out.  

Later you feel guilty because you feel like a terrible person for ignoring your family, and then you start to get worried because what if they get tired of you and think you’re too much, the anxiety starts to set in, and on top of already thinking you’re a terrible person, you think, what am I gonna do, how can I change this?

This is a small example of how we can react to difficult situations, by shutting down and then beating ourselves up, instead of responding to stressful situations by slowing down, taking a breath, identifying what we are feeling, and communicating our needs and boundaries. 

We’ve all been there, our emotions get the best of us and then we say or do something we later regret. 

That’s where therapy can help. 

Therapy can help you identify some of those triggers, how you are interpreting them, and how they interfere with your life. Therapy can help you learn different ways of handling situations, like the one above, without beating yourself up and getting caught up in the spiral of negative thoughts.

Sometimes part of learning to respond differently also means learning to communicate our needs; this is a skill that takes practice, but one that can be developed. With the support of a therapist, they can help you identify strategies to begin taking steps toward positive change.

Reach Out.

If you found some of the above information resonating with you, you’re not alone, feel free to reach out at 281-858-3325, Alejandra Machado, LPC, therapist in Houston.