Anxiety & Inner Tension

Introduction

Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy. For many, it is experienced as a kind of background noise in daily life. For others, it shows up as panic or acute physical symptoms that can make getting through the day difficult—or even debilitating.

Regardless of how anxiety appears, it is often exhausting. Many people feel as though they are constantly managing something: anticipating problems, replaying conversations, or scanning for what might go wrong next.

From an existential perspective, anxiety can often be understood as a meaningful response to uncertainty or responsibility. It frequently arises when something important is at stake—our relationships, sense of security, direction in life, or core values.

What Anxiety Can Feel Like

Many people expect anxiety to appear as intense panic attacks or racing thoughts. While this does occur, anxiety more often shows up in ways that are largely hidden from the outside.

Ongoing worry, difficulty relaxing, irritability, restlessness, or a persistent sense of being on edge without a clear cause are among the most common experiences. Anxiety may emerge in social situations, where there is fear of judgment or pressure to perform. For others, it may be tied to work, achievement, or unresolved conflict. Anxiety can also be a response to feeling unsafe and, for some, may be connected to trauma.

When we look more closely at the roots of anxiety, it often appears as a felt tension between the present moment and what might happen in the future. Even in lives that seem stable or secure, the mind and body may remain on alert, as though something constantly requires monitoring or preparation.

Anxiety & the Body

Anxiety is often experienced in the body. This may show up as jaw clenching, teeth grinding, leg shaking, tight shoulders or chest, shallow breathing, or a persistent knot in the stomach. Anxiety can take many other somatic forms as well and is increasingly understood as a contributing factor in a range of chronic health conditions.

Anxiety held in the body often reflects long-standing vigilance or emotional responsibility. What once served as a way to stay prepared or protected can gradually become the body’s default posture—even in moments of rest.

The body’s response to anxiety often has deep roots and may reach back to earlier childhood experiences. Working with anxiety at this level is typically a depth-oriented process. Existential–humanistic therapy is particularly well suited to this kind of work, as it has long been concerned with understanding our relationship to anxiety as a fundamental aspect of being human.

Anxiety as Fear, Conflict, or Choice

What follows is an exploration of anxiety from an existential perspective. I’ve organized this understanding into three primary categories: fear, conflict, and choice. This formulation is explored in greater depth in the podcast episode Understanding Anxiety, if you’d like to spend more time with how these forms of anxiety show up in everyday life.

Fear as Anxiety

Some forms of anxiety arise in response to real or perceived threats to safety. This type of anxiety may involve fear-based thoughts, a rapid heart rate, muscle tension, disturbed sleep, or other physical sensations. Often, these reactions are shaped by past experiences and may be closely connected to earlier traumatic or overwhelming events.

Working with fear-based anxiety typically begins by establishing a sense of safety and trust. The therapeutic process often involves approaching these reactions gradually and with care, allowing the nervous system to settle while making sense of what these responses have been protecting against.

Conflict as Anxiety

Anxiety can also emerge from unresolved inner conflict—such as when different parts of a person want incompatible things, or when values, roles, and obligations pull in opposing directions.

This form of anxiety often shows up as indecision, overthinking, or rumination, and chronic self-questioning. Many people find themselves cycling between analyzing a situation and avoiding action. While avoidance may bring short-term relief, the underlying tension usually remains and may later surface as irritability, anger, or patterns of coping such as substance use.

Working with conflict-based anxiety often involves clarifying the nature of the conflict itself and supporting thoughtful engagement with what feels divided or stuck. This kind of work focuses on restoring dialogue and connection with the source of the tension.

Choice as Anxiety

From an existential perspective, anxiety is fundamentally connected to how we make or avoid making choices in the face of an uncertain future. While we tend to feel the weight of choices that seem large, it is often the most subtle choices that have the greatest impact on our lives.

For example, you might slightly alter the way you speak with a colleague in an effort to influence a relationship or outcome. In doing so, you may notice a subtle internal anxiety about how the interaction unfolds or how you are being perceived. In moments like these, anxiety reflects an awareness that our decisions matter and that, as adults, no one else can make them for us.

Viewed through an existential lens, anxiety can be understood as a sensation that arises when we are called to take responsibility for our choices. As we come into closer contact with choice itself, we may begin to relate to anxiety more actively, using it as information that supports engagement and a more intentional way of being.

High-Functioning Anxiety

This is a common form of anxiety appears in the lives of people who carry significant responsibility or hold themselves to high standards while presenting to the world as reliable, capable, or high-performing. High-functioning anxiety may involve perfectionism, constant self-monitoring, difficulty resting, or a persistent sense that something is always slightly wrong.

Over time, this pattern can narrow emotional range, reduce spontaneity, and make rest feel undeserved rather than restorative. Working with this form of anxiety often involves taking small, intentional risks that gradually increase freedom and internal alignment. Because high-functioning anxiety is often deeply woven into identity, changing one’s relationship to it can require sustained, depth-oriented work in therapy.

How Anxiety Develops

Regardless of how anxiety is experienced, its origins develop through a complex interaction of body, mind, relationships, and environment. Early attachment patterns, trauma, major life transitions, and ongoing stressors all influence how anxiety takes shape. Over time, the body and mind may learn to associate certain situations with heightened danger or responsibility, even when no immediate threat is present.

As described in the section Choice as Anxiety, anxiety is also closely connected to how we experience ourselves as free and responsible agents in the world. Viewed in this way, we can begin to see that while anxiety can become deeply limiting, it is also rooted in the very capacities that allow us to act, choose, and engage with life fully.

How I Work With Anxiety

Anxiety is a central focus of my work as a psychotherapist. I was drawn to existentially informed approaches to therapy in large part because they view anxiety not simply as a symptom to eliminate, but as a meaningful and deeply human experience.

My work integrates well-established psychological principles and evidence-based treatment methods while remaining attentive to each person’s unique inner world. I work collaboratively, at a pace that feels respectful and sustainable, with attention to both emotional and bodily experience.

The goal of how I work is not to eliminate anxiety entirely, but to develop greater clarity, agency, and trust in your ability to meet life as it unfolds. Over time, it is often possible to transform one’s relationship with anxiety from something that feels primarily limiting into something that supports a fuller and more engaged life.

Support in Eugene and Springfield

I offer therapy and counseling for anxiety in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, with both in-person and telehealth options available statewide.

If you are considering therapy and would like to explore whether this approach feels like a good fit, you’re welcome to reach out.