About 40 million adults in the U.S. suffer with anxiety, whether it’s an officially diagnosed anxiety disorder or not. Yet 40 percent of these Americans do not seek treatment for their medical condition, maybe because they don’t know if anxiety can be treated, how it’s treated, if it is curable, or how to live with it. The fact is that anxiety disorder is highly treatable and treatment can help those experiencing anxiety to return to a fully functional life.
How Anxiety Disorder Is Treated
Anxiety disorder treatment usually consists of a combination of counseling or psychotherapy and medications. Finding the right combination may involve using varying techniques and approaches, as there is no universal treatment for anxiety that works best for everyone. Treatment professionals work to tailor an anxiety treatment plan for the individual’s specific needs.
Anxiety Disorder Treatments
Counseling
While you can’t talk yourself out of an anxiety disorder, you may very likely benefit from psychiatric counseling to help manage daily symptoms and learn coping mechanisms that can minimize symptom occurrence, intensity and frequency.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety disorders. With the help of a therapist, CBT helps teach the individual skills to improve anxiety symptoms, learn how to avoid triggers that initiate or escalate anxiety, and how to manage anxiety-provoking situations.
Exposure Therapy
As the name implies, exposure therapy involves confrontation of fears through repeated attempts. In treating anxiety disorder, exposure therapy seeks to help the individual better cope with situations that previously were too stressful and anxiety-provoking.
Medical Integration
In the diagnosis and preparation of a treatment plan for anxiety disorder, a full medical work-up and consideration is necessary. This is known as medical integration or integrated medical care. Its purpose is to ensure that the symptoms are not being caused by other undiagnosed ailments. A full medical work-up involves a psychological evaluation, a physical exam and various tests, which may include blood tests.
Medication Options
When anxiety jeopardizes everyday living and makes functioning difficult, medication may be prescribed to help with particular symptoms. These may include medications to help ease muscle tension, cope with irritability, restlessness, insomnia and other symptoms of anxiety.
Medication may be prescribed in conjunction with counseling so that the individual feels less anxious and better able to focus on getting at the underlying causes for the anxiety, as well as being an active participant in other therapeutic approaches. When doctors do prescribe medication for anxiety, it is only at the doses recommended for initiation of the medicine and gradually increased, as needed. Low doses of anxiety medication, as well as using certain medications only on a short-term basis, helps prevent overuse, dependence and potential addiction.