Anxiety Treatment

If you feel you are suffering from anxiety, you are not alone. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults aged 18 or older every year. This is around 20% of the population.

The good news is that anxiety disorders are highly treatable, but only 36.5% of those with anxiety disorders receive treatment.

Anxiety attacks can come on suddenly, with little or no warning and they affect every area of your life. They can affect relationships, your work, your sports and hobbies and even simple things like going grocery shopping or driving your car. You can be left feeling embarrassed, nervous, scared and fearful about going out in public as you may worry that an anxiety attack may happen again.

During a severe episode of an anxiety attack, you can feel as though you are unable to breathe and cannot get enough air into your lungs. You may feel as if you will die as you can’t breathe properly, and this can lead to the attack becoming even worse. You can start to feel dizzy and unable to focus on anything; your fingers and toes can start to tingle. But it there is good news, there is hope and help available for you if you are trying to live with an anxiety disorder or anxiety attacks.

At The Center • A Place of HOPE we will come alongside you and work with you on your journey of anxiety and give you hope that there is a way forward for you.

Anxiety disorder treatment

Treatment for anxiety disorders will depend on the type of disorder you have been diagnosed with. It is important that you consult an experienced health professional to help you to understand the type of anxiety you may be suffering from.

It is important that treatment is tailored to you as an individual. Treatment should address all areas of your life – your mental health; your physical health; as well as your diet and exercise habits.  All of these other parts of you play a role in your mental health.  Care needs to be holistic to ensure that you can walk away from treatment feeling more balanced and more in control of yourself again.

The Center • A Place of HOPE will be a thorough assessment of all areas of your life – fitness assessment, health and medical assessment, your nutritional health and eating patterns as well as your mental health assessments. This helps to tailor your treatment to you as the individual and helps to give you full well-rounded care to ensure you can start your and continue your journey to wellness.

Anxiety attack treatment, social anxiety treatment and generalized anxiety disorder treatments will all be tailored to each individual and the symptoms they are suffering with. Each one of these types of anxiety, will require something slightly different in the type of treatment. The overall type of treatment might be similar, but at The Center • A Place of HOPE they will tailor the treatment to you and your specific type of anxiety disorder.

Types of treatment for anxiety

Psychotherapy

This is also known as talk therapy. The most common and effective form of psychotherapy is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – this looks at your beliefs and helps you to learn specific skills to directly manage your worries and can help you to gradually return to activities you may have avoided due to the anxiety.

Medication

There are different types of medication that may help you with your anxiety disorder. Doctors may start with the antidepressants first as they are often the first line of medication to treat anxiety, and depression.

Your health professional will help you to find the right medication for you and that works well for you in your journey to wellness.

Natural treatment for anxiety

There are other things you can do that can help your anxiety disorder. You can do things like:

• Staying active – exercise can work as well as medication to ease anxiety in some people, both in the short and longer term.
• Avoid alcohol – alcohol can seem to relieve your frayed nerves and calm you down, however anxiety can return with vengeance later once the alcohol has worn off.
• Stop the caffeine – caffeine can cause jitters and nervousness, and it has been shown that it may worsen the symptoms of anxiety disorders.
• Sleep is important – you may have insomnia but making sure you get enough sleep every night can help with your anxiety disorder. Try to only sleep when you are tired; avoid watching TV or reading in bed; avoid using your phone or tablet in bed; avoid caffeine, larger meals and nicotine before bed; and you can try writing down your worries in a journal before bed.

These are only some ideas, and it is still advisable to see professional help as they will guide you through every step of this journey. You are not alone and all the people at The Center • A Place of HOPE are wanting to work with you and help you with your treatment and return to wellness.