Anxiety disorders are estimated to be the most common mental health problem in the United States with over 40 million adults struggling. Unfortunately, although anxiety is so common, only about 36% of these people receive treatment.
Many people may neglect to get anxiety treatment because they struggle to recognize when their anxiety has reached the level where it’s considered a disorder. When that worry or panic starts to hinder your everyday life, it is time to seek anxiety disorder treatment at a mental health facility.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are a type of mood disorder that deals with intense fear or panic that is accompanied by mental, physical, and behavioral symptoms that can hinder a person’s life.
Types of anxiety disorders include:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) – consistent feelings of anxiety and worry that are unprompted
- Social anxiety disorder – excessive fear surrounding everyday social situations and the opinions of others
- Panic disorder – sudden instances of fear and terror that can come without warning
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) – recurrent thoughts accompanied by repetitive behaviors to try and alleviate these thoughts
- Specific phobias – intense anxiety and fear of a specific place, situation, or thing
Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
Anxiety can affect everyone differently. These disorders trigger both psychological and well as physical responses. So how does anxiety affect physical health?
Common symptoms include:
- A churning feeling in your stomach
- Avoidance of situations or places for fear that they could trigger anxiety
- Changes in sex drive
- Light-headedness or dizziness
- Nausea and/or vomiting
- Panic attacks
- Problems sleeping
- Rapid breathing
- Restlessness or the inability to sit still
- Stomachache
- Teeth grinding, especially while sleeping
- Thumping or irregular heartbeat
- Using the bathroom more or less often
Physical symptoms of anxiety are normally caused by the individual’s mental symptoms.
Common mental effects of anxiety include:
- Depersonalization, which is a type of dissociation where you feel disconnected from your mind or body
- Derealization, which is another type of dissociation where you feel detached from your surroundings
- Feeling like other people can see you are anxious and are looking at you
- Feeling like the world is speeding up or slowing down
- Feeling like you cannot stop worrying or that terrible things will happen if you stop worrying
- Having a sense of dread or fearing the worst
- Low mood and depression
- Rumination, which refers to frequently thinking about bad experiences or thinking about a situation repeatedly
- Wanting a lot of reassurance from other people
- Worrying constantly about things that might happen in the future
- Worrying about anxiety itself, such as worrying about when panic attacks might happen
- Worrying that people are angry or upset with you
- Worrying that you are losing touch with reality
Anxiety can contribute to both physical and mental distress. For instance, a person who becomes anxious about having to speak in front of a crowd may feel a strong urge to use the restroom due to a sudden upset stomach. Without mental illness treatment, the individual’s symptoms can become severe enough to disrupt their day-to-day life and increase their risk of long-term health problems.
Our Anxiety Disorder Treatment
At Banyan Mental Health, we understand that anxiety can be debilitating. We focus on treatment for mood disorders including anxiety treatment to help people overcome and manage their mental health disorders.
Because there are numerous types of anxiety disorders, treatment can vary from case to case. Generalized anxiety disorder treatment will be slightly different from social anxiety disorder treatment. Also, everyone is unique and what works for one person may not be as effective for another person. Because of these differences, we work to create tailored treatment plans for each patient. While every patient will be exposed to a variety of mental health treatment methods including therapies and clinical approaches, as the patient progresses through our programs their treatment will be adjusted as necessary based on what is and is not working for them.
During their anxiety treatment, all patients will participate in one-on-one therapy with their designated therapists and group therapy sessions. These therapy sessions allow patients to dig deeper into their problems and gain a greater understanding of their mental health disorder. This discovery allows for more personal growth and provides a stable foundation for long-term progress.
What Is Therapy for Anxiety Like?
So how does therapy for anxiety work, and how can it help me? At Banyan’s facilities for mental health, anxiety treatment is made up of multiple evidence-based practices, each led by licensed experts with years of experience. Anxiety disorders are treatable and manageable with the right kind of support.
Patients who seek professional help for their anxiety will undergo a medical assessment to determine the best level of care. There are various levels of care for mental health treatment, ranging from intensive inpatient programs to outpatient services. The continuum of care chosen for the patient’s treatment depends on the severity of their symptoms.
During treatment, patients can expect to individually meet with a therapist and engage in a unique therapy method, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), depending on the individual and the type of anxiety they have. In some circumstances, anxiety medication will be administered to patients who need it.
Individuals in treatment will learn new skills that will help them manage symptoms in an everyday setting and to overcome uncomfortable situations. Each therapy session will include attainable goals that the patient will set and learn how to achieve.
In addition to individual care for the patient, anxiety treatment programs sometimes offer family therapy to support the patients’ loved ones. Mental illness can impact the entire family, straining relationships and making at-home support less attainable. For this reason, our PHP and residential mental health facilities offer family therapy that incorporates individual sessions for family members and group sessions with patients.
Moreover, depending on the facility, clients may also have access to aftercare services to further support them in their transition back to home life. It can be difficult to go from 24-hour support to being at home on a different schedule. Aftercare programs provide additional support for individuals who have completed treatment to ensure that after rehab, they adjust as smoothly as possible to their lives.
Get Help Today
For patients who have turned to drugs or alcohol as a means of coping with their anxiety and have consequently developed a substance abuse disorder, we can help with that too. Our dual diagnosis treatment works with patients to not only manage their anxiety disorder symptoms but also to overcome their dependence on drugs and alcohol.
Stop letting anxiety keep you from living the life you desire or watching your loved one struggle with one of these disorders. The time is now to get help. Contact us today to learn more about our facility and programs. Call us today (877) 360-1639