Stress has always been your normal. You have always been able to tolerate and work around it. But now, it has started to impact everything and you want that shit gone. Noises are too loud, textures feel wrong, every word your friends say feels extra hurtful. You feel out of control, like your skin is crawling with bugs or your brain is buzzing.

Irritability and agitation are just two words to describe the feeling of being overwhelmed - it’s what happens when your nervous system is on overdrive.

We first want to recognize and validate how you became so irritable and agitated in the first place. Maybe it was how stressful your life has been - or how angry you wish you could be. Grief, loss, transitions, and oppression all can send you into a spiral of irritability.

Then we want to address your nervous system as it has been working overtime - likely never allowing you. to complete the stress cycle. Together we will use body-based approaches to move through the natural cycle of emotional processing.

Then, we will see how we can prevent future irritability and agitation by routinely completing the stress cycle, in session or adding this to your daily routine.

When we experience a stressor, such as a change in our environment, relationships, energy level, or resources, we often take all of the feelings we have and stuff them into the deepest closet we can find. But we aren’t completing the stress cycle. We say we’re okay, we react with neutrality, and we move on. But the thing that just happened to us was worth the reaction.

When we actually get to complete the stress cycle, we are taking the energy of disappointment, sadness, anger, disgust, and even happiness and actually doing something about it. We sigh, we cry, we rage, we rant, and we move our bodies in ways that represent how we are truly feeling. Because we don’t do well when our emotions are closeted. Truly nothing goes well in a closet besides that sweater you can never let go of.

Yes, irritability and agitation are common symptoms of chronic stress. We can feel on edge no matter if we are experiencing identity stress, traumatic stress, or relational stress.

Together we will practice ways to release irritability and agitation, identify triggers, and explore underlying issues that are affecting your nervous system regulation.