When you are experiencing a mental health disorder, it can feel as though no one understands what you are going through. But when it comes to anxiety, that is far from the truth.
In fact, anxiety disorders affect over 40 million adults in the United States—about one in every five people—making them the most common type of mental health disorder among Americans. Generalized anxiety disorder, the most common anxiety disorder in the United States, affects nearly seven million people. Unfortunately, 60 percent of individuals experiencing an anxiety disorder in the United States do not seek out treatment.
Are you one of those people? Are you experiencing persistent feelings of anxiety in your life that you would like to bring under control, but find yourself reluctant to get help? Maybe you are embarrassed to admit that you are struggling. Or maybe you have convinced yourself (or someone else has convinced you) that you should be able to overcome those anxious feelings all on your own. Maybe you have decided that all of your anxiety is justified, and therefore you must not have a mental health issue.
No matter the reason for your reluctance to seek treatment for ongoing anxiety, there are effective ways to manage an anxiety disorder so that it is less disruptive to your day-to-day life. Let’s take a look at ways anxiety disorders can be treated.
Treating Anxiety with Medication
Many people get relief from feelings of anxiety via medications. Some antidepressants—like several selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—can be effective as ongoing treatment for anxiety. There are also a number of anti-anxiety medications—many of them from the drug class known as benzodiazepines—that can be used to address panic attacks that are sometimes experienced by those with an anxiety disorder.
Finding the right medication for you might take a little time, but having honest conversations with your doctor about your symptoms is a great way to get started.
Treating Anxiety with Therapy
Various approaches to therapy can also be an effective approach to addressing anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—which focuses on the connections between our thoughts, feelings, and actions—is often a successful way to treat anxiety. CBT is structured, tends to be short term, and is built around the setting of achievable goals. It can be used to identify the underlying causes of a problem—like your ongoing feelings of anxiety—and help you find effective strategies for dealing with that problem.
Therapy can be a powerful tool, and finding a therapist who is a good fit for you is an important part of the process.
Treating Anxiety with Lifestyle Changes
It is possible to make significant progress toward reducing your overall levels of anxiety by making some lifestyle changes. Getting more exercise, practicing mindfulness, limiting your intake of caffeine, taking up yoga, prioritizing restful sleep, and more can be effective ways to address issues with anxiety.
Learning and employing easy techniques for addressing acute anxiety can also be a great way to help you manage anxious feelings when they feel overwhelming. Options include a countdown technique and a strategy known as box breathing.
Treating Anxiety with All Three Approaches
The good news about addressing anxiety is that you do not have to make a choice between medication, therapy, and lifestyle changes. Instead, you can pursue all three. By doing so, you acquire some control over your anxiety, which can feel absolutely amazing given the ways in which a mental health disorder can make you feel powerless.
That said, it might feel overwhelming to try to make three big changes in your life simultaneously. Making one clear commitment to dealing with an anxiety disorder is a good way to get started—and it might make it easier for you to add a second approach and then a third. Dealing with a mental health disorder centered on anxiety is a process, and each step you take gets you closer to living your life with less anxiety and more feelings of calm and confidence.
Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health can Help
Located in Johnstown, Colorado, Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health offers personalized care for individuals struggling with mental health disorders including anxiety as well as depression, trauma, and more. If you feel worried all of the time, find it difficult to concentrate, think of non-threatening situations and things as threatening, or experience physical symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea, or shakiness, you may well be dealing with an anxiety disorder.
Johnston Heights Behavioral Health is ready and able to help with evidence-based approaches to treatment supported by our expertise, experience, and empathy. If feelings of anxiety always seem to get the best of you, we can help you find a path forward so that you can live your best life with fewer moments of worry.
