Can you help with health anxiety and the root cause?

Hi Carls, 

Thanks for asking about therapy to address the root cause of your anxiety.  As we know, anxiety is just an emotion (the symptom) of something your brain is trying to work through.  Cognitive behavioral therapy has helped to treat anxious feelings and thoughts for many years because it has been effective to manage those uncomfortable emotions.  In CBT we notice the event, recognize the thought we have about that event, and connect it to the feelings that result from the thought.  Simply explained, the goal of CBT is to change the thoughts and feelings so that our response is different, and we feel better.

Of course there is more to it, as we need to know what our triggers are and where these triggers came from to begin with.  I believe that is what you are asking.  Our goal in therapy is both an immediate relief of the current symptoms, but also a deeper dive at why we think and feel the way we do.  Self-actualization and self-reflection takes time with the help of a trusting professional, who knows how to guide you. 

We may be dealing with patterns that have been established way back in your formative years, even before you reached full development of your hippocampus, which holds your memories.  But, the amygdala is your emotional response, and that is active right away.  This is the area in your brain that is responding to keep you alive when perceiving a threat.  This is the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response of your brain, that does not take the frontal lobe into consideration.  For this reason, you may be responding to things that are very difficult to understand on a rational level. 

You ask the question here, "Why am I reacting this way?", and with time and investigation, we may get to the bottom of that question.  The goal in therapy is to investigate without judgement, and to create that safe space to process whatever comes up for you.  I hope you take a chance and find the right therapist to help you through that process.  Good luck!  :)