Anxiety Treatment & Therapy
Treatment for Anxiety Disorders
There are several ways to treat Anxiety depending on the particular condition and symptoms. Often times a combination of several treatments is most effective. Some common ways to treat anxiety include:
Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, exercise, deep breathing can naturally calm and help control symptoms
Therapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps identify symptoms, triggers, and ways to reframe thoughts. This reframing of thoughts helps to change one’s behaviors, thereby training the body and the mind to not react in the same way
Medication such as anti-anxiety or depression medications can be used to help control symptoms
You are not alone. Carencia providers can work with you to figure out what treatment is best for you. We will work collaboratively with you on a treatment plan and help you meet your goals to feeling better again.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is considered a feeling of worry, hypervigilance, or dread. As humans, our brains have been hard-wired to feel anxiety when faced with potential threats. These feelings of anxiety in the brain and the body typically come before a full-fledged fear response.
Anxiety has served us well for hundreds of years, particularly in times of hunting and gathering and nomadic living, when this protective mechanism helped us to avoid risk or situations that could negatively affect our safety or survival.
Anxiety from time-to-time is still a very normal human response that everyone experiences on occasion, whether it be concern about finances, grades in school, a big presentation, performance at work, a family member’s upcoming doctor appointment or Thanksgiving with the in-laws. Symptoms of occasional anxiety may include increased heart rate, feeling as if you can’t catch your breath, feelings of worry or dread, irritability, or desire to avoid the source of worry.
We all have feelings like this in certain situations or during particularly stressful times. But, in today’s day and age – while anxiety may still help protect us in certain situations – what was primarily something that served to keep us alive, is now something that can have more negative effects than positive if the anxiety is overactive.
When Does Anxiety Become an Issue?
Anxiety may require treatment when feelings of fear or dread (or other associated symptoms) begin to regularly interfere in your day-to-day life and your ability to function optimally. Some examples of this might be:
- Regular feelings of worry or dread related to work or school, calling in or missing regularly
- Ongoing thoughts of worry that lead to sleepless nights or preoccupation during the day
- Regular avoidance of certain situations (social, occupational, public spaces, etc.)
- Inability to think or act rationally as a result of regular thoughts or fears
- Regular physical symptoms that manifest as a result of anxiety (headaches, stomach aches, fatigue, etc.)
- Irritability that feels uncomfortable or leads to conflict in relationships
When Anxiety becomes a regular hindrance to day-to-day life, this may be an Anxiety Disorder. It’s not always known why a person may develop an anxiety disorder. However, common contributing factors can include genetics, environment (event, situation, ongoing condition), or a combination of both. Some examples of these risk factors include:
- Severe or ongoing exposure to stressful or traumatic situations or event
- Family member(s) with an Anxiety disorder
- Intake of caffeine, illicit drugs, or certain medications
- Certain health conditions or other mental health conditions such as Depression
Women are also more prone to meet criteria for an Anxiety Disorder than men. 1 in 3 women will report symptoms that meet an Anxiety Disorder within their lifetime, while 1 in 5 men will report the same.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
There are several types of Anxiety conditions that vary in symptoms.
Some of the symptoms and conditions include:
This is ongoing worry or dread that is persistent for weeks, months, or even years. These symptoms include:
- Feeling on edge
- Inability to stop thoughts of worry
- Irritability
- Stomach aches
- Headaches
- Difficulty sleeping
- Difficulty concentrating
This is a feeling of extreme fear and/or the body’s fear response, even when there is no clear or present danger. These symptoms include:
- Rapid breathing or feeling as if you cannot catch your breath
- Chest pain
- Rapid heartbeat
- Trembling
- Feelings of lack of control or inability to calm down
This is the worry or dread of how others may evaluate you or how you present to those around you. It is recurrent fear that interferes in social situations such as school, work, gatherings, or other social situations. These symptoms include:
- Rapid heartbeat
- Feelings of extreme self-consciousness or even fear around others
- Blushing or reddening of face, trembling, or sweating
- Inability to concentrate or “think straight”
- Stomachaches
This is the fear of being separated from a person you are attached to or an extreme fear or worry that harm will occur with the person you are attached to.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
This is a pattern of unwanted thoughts or fears that lead to repetitive behaviors. Some symptoms include:
- Ruminating on certain thoughts of images
- Counting or repeating words while simultaneously checking or manipulating an object
- Extreme need for orderliness or objects to be a certain way
- Fear of contamination or dirt
Examples of OCD are:
- Washing one’s hands until they are raw or bleeding
- Checking doors or locks repeatedly
- Silently repeating a word, phrase, or prayer
- Counting in certain patterns
- Arranging books or canned goods with labels aligned, facing a certain way, in certain categories
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
This is anxiety or fear related to one experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event (terrorist act, rape, natural disaster, war, accident, death, etc.). PTSD can occur, in some cases, in which one came close to experiencing a traumatic event (escaped a rape or murder) or witnessed an event via television (news coverage of 9-11 or a mass shooting). Symptoms of PTSD include:
- Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks
- Avoidance of person, place, or situation in which the event occurred
- Inability to remember certain details of the event
- Arousal or reactivity (angry outbursts, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, hypervigilance, mistrust)
This is a debilitating fear of something(s) in particular (flying in an airplane, heights, spiders, animals, public restrooms, being outside of the home alone, crowds, etc)
Feeling Nervous or On Edge?
You Are Not Alone
If you have an anxiety disorder, or a potential anxiety disorder, you are not alone! Almost 30% of Americans have an anxiety disorder. That’s 3 in 10 people.
Additionally, the World Health Organization disclosed that anxiety and depression increased across the globe by 25% the first year of COVID.
At the peak, almost 42% of Americans were reporting Anxiety symptoms. That’s 4 in 10 people!
While the COVID situation has improved somewhat since 2020, there is still an increased need for treatment of Anxiety. This may be due to continuous ramifications from the pandemic, as well as more recognition of the need- and less stigma related to treatment- as a result of the pandemic.
Mental Healthcare Support
The licensed behavioral therapists at Carencia dedicate themselves to developing a deeper understanding of our patient’s mental health and wellbeing. We focus on the person’s whole mental health and not just certain aspects of it. Using their own beliefs, behavior, and biology we help craft a therapy plan to help the whole person and enhance their quality of life.
At Carencia we have dedicated ourselves to giving out patients the best mental health support possible. We accomplish this two ways, with traditional in-office therapy and with online telehealth counseling.
Traditional Therapy
At our location in Arlington, TX we help people who are more comfortable in a traditional therapy setting. We offer a range of outpatient mental health services, from mood disorders to stress management to addiction counseling and treatment.
Online Mental Health Counseling
We understand the potential discomfort, disruption, and anxiety that traditional therapy sessions can have on patients. It’s not always possible to find transportation or even get out of work to come down to our offices. It is also stressful and can carry a stigma among some people. It’s for this reason that we also offer most of our mental health services online. You can attend your sessions from the comfort of your own home.
We utilize the latest technology to help a spectrum of mental illnesses. Increase comfort, decrease anxiety and stigma with our, completely online, therapy services. Our online therapy sessions are conducted through a secure portal and are completely safe. With the freedom of online therapy, we can turn any space into a safe space. We are currently licensed to operate in Texas and South Dakota, and aim to increase our telehealth counseling to more states.