Is Anxiety Treatable?
Anxiety is a very usual human experience. It is so general that every human being might have faced anxiety at some point in time. But there is a discrete difference between anxiety as a brief, comprehensible concern that occurs when thinking about the future (like an exam, bills, or a life change) and the unbearable form of anxiety that affects day-to-day functioning and takes over your everyday life. That’s when it's probable to be an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders are the most ordinary reason why people search for help from mental health experts. As per the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, around 40 million adults experience an anxiety disorder. That’s about 18% of the populace! Yet many feel ashamed to confess to even having such symptoms. In one survey, only a third of people obtained treatment for their anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders can vigorously impair a person’s ability to function at work, school, and in social situations and can hinder a person’s relationships with family members and friends. Providentially, though, there are efficient treatments for anxiety.
Everyone worries or feels worried from time to time. Anxiety is a normal human feedback to worrying circumstances. But for people with anxiety disorders, those qualms and worries aren’t transitory. Their anxiety persists, and can even get shoddier over time.
In few cases, medications have a position in treating anxiety disorders. Nevertheless research shows behavioral treatment, alone or in mixture with medication, is a extremely efficient treatment for many people with an anxiety disorder.
Understanding anxiety
Anxiety disorders are widespread in both adults and children. About 18% of U.S. adults and 25% of adolescents age 13 to 18 will go through anxiety, as per the National Institute of Mental Health. About 4% of adults, and almost 6% of teens, have anxiety disorders categorized as severe.
There are numerous major types of anxiety disorders:
Generalized anxiety disorder has feelings of worries or getting anxiety. People who go through this disorder have tension about various concerns like health problems or finances and may get a sixth sense that something worst is going to occur. Symptoms comprise restlessness, bad temper, muscle tension, difficulty in focusing, sleep problems, and usually feeling on edge.
Panic disorder is noticeable by repeated panic attacks that comprise symptoms like sweating, shaky, shortness of breath, or a feeling of choking; a throbbing heart or quick heart rate; and feelings of terror Such attacks frequently happen abruptly, without warning. People who go through panic attacks frequently become fearful about when the next episode will happen, which can cause them to change or confine their normal activities.
Phobias are powerful fears about some objects (spiders or snakes, for example) or situations (like flying in airplanes) that are distressing or disturbing.
Social anxiety disorder is also described as social phobia. People with this disorder are afraid of social situations in which they might feel uncomfortable or judged. They naturally feel nervous spending time in social settings, feel awkward in front of others, and concern about being discarded by or offending others. Other common symptoms comprise having a hard time making friends, evading social situations, distressing for days before a social event, and feeling shaky, perspiring, or nauseous when spending time in a social setting.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is understood by constant, unmanageable feelings and thoughts (obsessions) and routines or rituals (obligations). Some general examples comprise compulsive hand washing in reaction to a fear of germs, or frequently checking work for errors.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can generate after a severe physical or emotional trauma like a natural disaster, serious accident, or crime. Symptoms comprise flashbacks of the trauma, nightmares, and frightening thoughts that obstruct a person’s everyday routine for months or years after the traumatic familiarity.
Treatment
Treatments will comprise a combination of psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, and medication.
Alcohol dependence, or other conditions, depression, can at times have such a strong effect on mental well-being that treating an anxiety disorder must hold on until any fundamental conditions are brought under control.
CBT
This type of psychotherapy works to identify and change destructive thought patterns that form the basis of anxiety and troublesome feelings. In the procedure, practitioners of CBT hope to restrict distorted thinking and alter the way people react to objects or situations that activate anxiety.
For instance, a psychotherapist providing CBT for panic disorder will attempt to strengthen the fact that panic attacks are not heart attacks. Experience to fears and triggers can be an element of CBT. This motivates people to tackle their fears and aids reduce sensitivity to their common triggers of anxiety.
Medications
A person can hold up anxiety management with various types of medication.
Medicines that might control some of the physical and mental symptoms comprise antidepressants, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, tricyclics.
Benzodiazepines
A doctor may recommend these for definite people with anxiety, but they can be highly addictive. These drugs tend to have few side effects except for drowsiness and possible reliance. Diazepam, or Valium, is an instance of a commonly prescribed benzodiazepine.
Antidepressants
These usually help with anxiety, even though they also aim for depression. People frequently use serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), which have fewer side effects than older antidepressants but are probable to cause jitters, nausea, and sexual dysfunction when treatment starts.
Additional antidepressants contain fluoxetine, otherwise Prozac, and citalopram, or Celexa.
Tricyclics
This is a group of drugs older than SSRIs that give benefits for most anxiety disorders other than OCD. These drugs may be the basis for side effects, comprising dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, and weight gain. Imipramine and clomipramine are two instances of tricyclics.
Supplementary drugs a person might use to treat anxiety comprise:
monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
beta-blockers
buspirone
Look for medical advice if the bad effects of any prescribed medications become severe.
Psychotherapy for anxiety disorders: What to anticipate
Psychotherapy is a mutual procedure, where psychologists and patients work together to make out particular concerns and expand concrete skills and techniques for coping with anxiety. Patients can anticipate practicing their new skills outside of sessions to direct anxiety in situations that might make them painful. However, psychologists won’t push patients into such scenarios until they’re sure they have the skills they need to efficiently tackle their fears.
Psychologists are highly trained and will adapt a treatment plan to tackle the exclusive needs of each patient.
How to treat anxiety without drugs?
Shout it out
Discussing with a faithful friend is one method to handle anxiety. But there’s something even better than talking: yelling at the top of your lungs. As a kid, you were possibly taught not to shout and told to utilize your “inside voice.” But as an adult, you can create your own rules. So if you’re dealing with pent-up frustrations and nervousness, let it out.
Get moving
Work out is probably the last thing you want to do when your mind’s in overdrive. You may concern about post-workout tenderness and is not capable to walk or sit for the next two days. Or your mind may go to the worst-case scenario and you fear over-exerting yourself and having a heart attack. But in actuality, exercise is one of the best accepted anti-anxiety solutions.
References:
https://www.insightactiontherapy.com/mental-health-blog/anxiety-common-and-treatable/
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323454#treatment