Dealing With Severe Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety-related symptoms can hinder everyday life. It is crucial to seek treatment and relief.
Traumas, like physical or emotional abuse, or neglect, can increase your anxiety. As do certain life events like chronic health issues and stress.
Counseling (also known as psychotherapy) helps you to change negative thoughts that trigger a variety of anxiety and stress. Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most common form of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety.
Medicines
The use of medication can be a successful way to minimize symptoms for a variety of people. This is in addition to therapy and lifestyle adjustments. There isn't a one-size-fits-all medication that works for all people, so it's vital to determine which one is best for you. Your MDVIP provider will discuss your anxiety-related symptoms as well as your medical history, and goals with you to determine the most appropriate treatment option for your needs.
Benzodiazepines quickly target the gamma aminobutyric (GABA) acid within your brain. They aid in calming down your overexcited brain and promote tranquility. These are often prescribed for short-term use, like when a panic attack or other anxiety-provoking event occurs. Examples include Xanax (alprazolam), Klonopin (clonazepam) and Valium (diazepam).
Antidepressants can be used to treat depression and anxiety disorders. They work by regulating the levels of chemicals in your brain--or neurotransmitters--like serotonin and norepinephrine. These drugs are used to treat anxiety disorders of various kinds, but most often GAD, PDA, and SAD.
Another type of antidepressant, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are also able to be prescribed for anxiety. These are prescribed for mild-to-moderate anxiety disorders, and have been shown to be effective through controlled, randomized tests.
You may need stronger medication to treat severe anxiety disorder. It could be an SSRI, or a tricyclic. These drugs are for patients who have not responded to other treatments. Patients should be closely monitored for adverse reactions such as sedation or depression.
If you don't experience relief from an SSRI, SNRI or monoamine oxidase A inhibitor, your doctor may try adding one. They are usually prescribed after other treatments have failed and they can be very helpful in reducing symptoms of SAD. Common examples are quetiapine and agomelatine.
It's important to keep in mind that medication isn't a cure, and should be taken under a doctor's supervision. You should always discuss with your doctor the dangers and benefits of each medication. This includes possible negative side effects. It is essential to ask your doctor about scheduling and follow-up appointments during your first visit. Anxiety can become worse over time, and routine visits to your doctor are essential to reducing anxiety symptoms over the long haul.
Counseling
The use of medication is essential for treating anxiety disorders, but psychotherapy (or talk therapy) is an important part of the treatment plan. A trained therapist will teach you how to change negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that cause your symptoms.
A variety of psychotherapy methods are available, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It is a well-studied method and the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders. Your therapist could recommend alternative treatments, such as exposure therapy or a mindfulness-based approach called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
Cognitive therapy is a way to examine the negative thinking patterns that can cause anxiety. It teaches you to confront these thoughts and replace them with more realistic, positive ones. These thoughts are typically developed through childhood experiences and are difficult to change on your own.
If your symptoms are severe, they could interfere with your daily life and make it difficult to work or engage in social activities. Your counselor will determine how often you experience anxiety symptoms, how long they last, and how severe they can be. They will also look for other mental health issues that may be contributing to your symptoms, including depression or addiction disorders.
Talk therapy sessions are typically conducted face-to-face with a trained mental health professional, such as psychiatrist or psychologist. Your counselor will be able to observe your facial expressions, body language and other signals to know how you react to specific situations. This will help determine if the symptoms you are experiencing are due to a specific cause such as stress that persists or traumatic experiences.
Anxiety can be a problem for anyone. Finding the correct diagnosis and implementing a treatment plan will help relieve your symptoms and improve your level of living. Remember that overcoming an anxiety disorder requires time and dedication but it's worth it in the end. The treatment plan you have for anxiety should include a robust network of support and healthy lifestyle habits and relaxation techniques. As you practice these techniques, they'll improve their effectiveness.
Exposure Therapy
If you are suffering from a phobia or fear, you tend to connect certain situations or objects with negative consequences. To end this association and stop avoiding the things that cause anxiety, your mental health professional may employ exposure therapy. This technique involves the exposure of you to anxiety-inducing objects or situations for a set period of time in a safe environment. In time, this will help you understand that the feared thing or circumstance isn't really dangerous and that you can deal with it.
Gradually, your therapist will introduce you to more difficult situations or items. This is known as "graded exposure." In the first session, for instance, if your therapist suspects that you're scared of snakes, they will show you images of snakes. In the subsequent sessions, you'll be asked to examine the image of a poisonous snake in glass, before interacting with the real snake. Some people find this type of exposure uncomfortable, which is why a therapist will use interoceptive (or tactile) exposure. This involves deliberately triggering physical sensations that are experienced during anxiety, such as a pounding heart or shaking, and teaching you that although these sensations may be uncomfortable they aren't harmful.
It is essential to find a therapist who has experience and training in this type of therapy. If you don't, you'll end up abstaining from things that cause anxiety, which can actually cause the symptoms to get worse. Your therapist will instead assist you overcome the anxiety and fears that hinder you from living life to the fullest.
Your therapist might also use cognitive behavioral therapy to tackle the beliefs that cause your anxiety. If you think that your anxiety is an indication of weakness, your therapist will help you identify these beliefs and confront them. Your therapist will also teach you breathing and relaxation techniques, as well as other coping strategies to lessen the negative effects these beliefs can have on your life. They will also provide you with information about the physiology behind the fight or flight response and how it is inappropriately triggered in anxiety disorders.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a contemplative practice that encourages the willingness to experience, including unpleasant emotions. It is not a religion or secular belief system, and is accessible to anyone. While mindfulness is often attributed to Buddhism but many of the most prominent practitioners point out that the technique has roots in the ancient traditions of contemplative meditation.
Research has proven that mindfulness meditation can improve mood and self-regulation as well in the ability to detect and react to patterns that are not in sync with our brains. It has also been shown to change the brain's structure and circuits that are involved in processing emotion. These changes are associated with an increase in activity in Default Mode Network which is involved in the aetiology of anxiety.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction are among the most popular mindfulness programs for secular use. These clinical interventions usually involve eight sessions per week, which last between two and three hours. More recent research has focused on shorter, less intensive mindfulness training. These short-term interventions can be taught by a trained psychotherapist without the assistance of a meditation instructor or group leader.
These newer studies found that short mindfulness sessions can have a direct effect on ruminative thoughts. mixed anxiety and depressive disorder can reduce arousal, and also decrease the duration of ruminative thought processes. This research supports the idea that mindfulness training may be helpful in treating GAD.
In addition to its direct effects on emotional reactivity and control of attention It has also been proven to decrease depression and boost happiness and mood. This is due in part to the effects of mindfulness on negative thinking patterns and the reduction of symptoms such as rumination and shaming.
A small study at the University of Waterloo found that 10 minutes of meditation could help to break the ruminative thinking patterns that trigger anxiety. In the study, 82 participants who experienced anxiety were assigned to work on an online task that was constantly interrupted by interruptions. Half of them spent 10 minutes listening to a meditation track while the other half listened to an audio book.
The study results showed that the participants in the mindfulness audio group had significantly lower levels of anxiety than those in the two other groups. This suggests that GAD can be treated using mindfulness training, but further research is needed to determine which techniques are effective. Future studies should examine the effects of mindfulness-based training and other psychotherapeutic treatments.