Anxiety Is A Natural Emotion
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, And Speaker
Healing Conversation #703
— Have you ever felt anxious? Of course, you have. Anxiety is a natural emotion. It is also one of the biggest “disorders” within mental health. Anxiety is vital. You should feel anxious in certain situations; it’s what keeps us alive. Anxiety is what we feel when our body’s sense of perceived threat is awakened. When we are in a potentially dangerous situation, our body reacts – our senses are keener, blood pressure and heart rate increase, thoughts may be racing, we feel a little shaky. If there is potential danger that turns into real danger, these bodily reactions are what put us in the flight, fight, freeze mode to keep us alive. Our bodies are in sympathetic dominance. If we are not really in danger, it is better to bring our bodies into parasympathetic dominance. Bringing the heart rate back to normal, bringing the blood pressure back to normal, loosening the muscles in our bodies, etc. This is a very hard thing to do when someone is constantly perceiving danger and constantly in a state of anxiety. You’ve been told to “just calm down.” or “relax.” This seems so simple, but is so very elusive to those with chronic anxiety. So, is there really anything we can do to bring our bodies into parasympathetic dominance without medication? The answer is YES!
Valeria Teles interviews Meg Young — a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, And Speaker
Meg Young focus is on restoring and strengthening the sense of purpose among burnt out helping professionals. She is licensed in CT and FL and has worked in drug rehab, inpatient psychiatric care, in-home therapy with adolescents and their families, and has been in private practice since 2014.
She knew that she wanted to help people through trauma recovery since 1992 when she went through Hurricane Andrew in Miami. Since then, she’s had many “areas” of interest, but all were in the area of trauma recovery.
While she worked in a psychiatric hospital, she started to notice the burnout in professionals which kick started that part of her career. She started talking to people about this and going to trainings on understanding burnout.
Then several years ago, she had a police officer come to her which REALLY interested her. She’s had a lot of experience with first responders throughout her life, some friends, and some after natural or manmade disasters, but never saw the despair many of them deal with internally. She saw this client’s passion come back and the darkness subside and knew she wanted to work with this population.
To learn more about Meg Young and her work, please visit: https://www.megyounglcsw.com/
— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.