Anxiety Disorder Treatment

What Are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety disorders are a mental health condition that affects the way people think, feel, and behave. They are characterized by excessive worry about specific events or activities for at least 6 months and can be accompanied by physical symptoms like heart palpitations or chronic pain.

Anxiety disorders may cause someone to develop irrational fears of things such as driving on bridges or talking in public places. This type of fear could lead to avoidance behaviors, resulting in isolation from friends and family members who otherwise might offer support during difficult times.

If left untreated, these avoidant behaviors may become so severe that they interfere with daily life-for example, an individual might stop leaving their home altogether because they are afraid of what will happen when they leave their comfort zone.

Symptoms

Now we’ll have a look at the most common symptoms to watch for if you think you or someone you love might have an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms of anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive worry about specific events or activities fort at least 6 months. Other symptoms may include physical indicators like heart palpitations or chronic pain, as well as irrational fears, avoidance behaviors, and interference with daily life.

Anxiety disorders can affect every aspect of a person’s life. Whether it is causing them to feel on edge throughout their day, or keeping them up at night, anxiety disorders are hard to live with and dangerous if not treated.

Types of Anxiety Problems

Many types of anxiety disorders exist. Although this list is not exhaustive, you’ll find a representative sample of them below.

Generalized anxiety disorder

This is one form of anxiety that a lot of people relate themselves with, feeling uneasy over everything in society today such as debt and terrorism. However, what makes anxiety disorders so serious is that anxiety can really have a detrimental effect on people’s lives. Generalized anxiety disorder affects around 7% of the population and is characterized with excessive anxiety and worry over nothing, resulting in physical symptoms such as tension headaches or feeling tired all day.

People who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder often believe everything they hear on the news to be true, even if it could never happen. One example is when 9/11 happened; some people had general anxiety after this event because they heard there was going to be a terrorist attack every time an airplane flew by.

Social anxiety

People suffering with a panic disorder are prone to often ostentatious episodes where they become dizzy, experience breathing difficulties, or even feel as though they’ve left their body.

Treating Anxiety Disorders

Psychotherapy is a form of treatment that helps patients understand why they feel anxious. Through this, anxiety sufferers can come up with ways to minimize their anxiety through their own experiences.

Psychotherapy can also be useful as a source of information into how anxiety affects your life and how you feel on a day-to-day basis by talking to an expert about what you do and how anxiety affects your thoughts, feelings, relationships etc.

Generalized anxiety disorder can be controlled with medication or CBT treatments combined. The anxiety itself is treated not the side effects like nausea which anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines come with for example. If you are experience anxiety regularly it is worth exploring treatment as a solution. Anxiety can be particularly difficult when combined with a substance use disorder. Southeast Addiction specializes in treating dual diagnosis circumstances like this.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is used to treat anxiety disorders by changing thinking patterns of anxiety sufferers and how they deal with anxiety. For example, negative thoughts such as ‘I’m going to die’ are addressed and turned into positive thoughts say, “nothing bad will happen”. CBT also teaches people general techniques that will help them cope when anxiety arises, such as breathing exercises or just counting down from 10 to distract yourself.

Conclusion

Anxiety disorders are more common than you might think. One in four people suffer from them at some point during their lifetime, and they can have a devastating effect on your mental wellbeing as well as many other aspects of life. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to treat anxiety disorders! Cognitive-behavioral therapy, hypnotherapy, desensitization – the options for treating anxiety range greatly depending on what type it is or how severe it is. If you’re looking for help with an anxiety disorder in combination with substance use, help is available. Southeast Addiction is ready to answer your questions and guide you toward recovery.