Anxiety

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, anxiety disorders represent the most common mental health problem in the U. S. However, only about one-third of people affected by one of these disorders receive treatment for their anxiety.

Psychotherapists recognize that anxiety disorders consist of both emotional and physical symptoms. Physical symptoms of anxiety include bodily responses usually associated with nervousness such as digestive upsets, moist palms, rapid heartbeat, and dizziness, while emotional symptoms may include feelings such as apprehension, a sense of dread, or a feeling of being overwhelmed. This combination of reactions is your body's way of warning you of a potential threat. For example, if you notice a suspicious person following you on a dark street, your anxiety symptoms are protective and healthy. Yet if the same symptoms occur over a period of time when everything is going well, you may suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Forms of Anxiety
Psychotherapists identify several conditions as being anxiety disorders.
• Panic disorder includes repeated, frequent episodes of intense fear that often occur without warning or cause and that are accompanied by physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
• PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may occur after a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event—combat, rape, child abuse, a car accident, disasters, for example. PTSD includes symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, emotional numbing, depression or anger, and an inability to concentrate.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves recurrent, persistent thoughts, impulses, or images (obsessions) that may or may not trigger actions intended to neutralize or suppress them (compulsions). People with OCD say their obsessions occur frequently and cause great distress even though they recognize them as being a product of their own mind.
• Phobias are irrational fears of something generally considered to be of little or no harm. Social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, occurs when a person has an overwhelming fear of behaving in a humiliating or embarrassing manner in social or performance situations, especially those involving unfamiliar people. Specific phobia is an excessive, persistent, and unreasonable fear of something that poses little or no actual danger (spiders, flying in airplanes, elevators, for example). These fears result in an avoidance of the feared object or situation.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the form of anxiety that most people associate with the word anxiety. To diagnose generalized anxiety, counseling professionals assess clients for emotional symptoms such as excessive worrying, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, "going blank," and irritability, and physical symptoms such as fatigue, muscle tension, difficulty sleeping, urinary frequency, nausea, trembling, and digestive problems. Many people diagnosed with generalized anxiety also suffer from another mental health disorder, often depression.

Treatment for Anxiety
Most therapists agree that the two most effective treatments for anxiety disorders are psychotherapy and medication. Whether you will need both forms of treatment depends on the severity of your symptoms, the type of anxiety you're experiencing, and how much your daily functioning is affected by the anxiety.

Your counselor will most likely begin your treatment for anxiety by educating you about the form of anxiety you have and helping you make a connection between your physical and emotional complaints. In addition, psychotherapy for anxiety disorders usually involves helping people learn to recognize and challenge negative thinking patterns. As you begin to understand the interrelationship of your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, it will become easier to realize that much of your worrying is actually self-generated. In other words, you'll see that although your everyday stress is external, your internal dialogue about these stressful situations creates and maintains the symptoms of anxiety. Depending on the specific form of anxiety you have, your therapist may also suggest EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). In addition, exercise, yoga, acupuncture, meditation, and massage therapy have proven to be helpful for most forms of anxiety. Treatment for anxiety also often includes helping clients find a way to achieve balance in their lives.