Treatment For Anxiety Disorder

Tags: , , ,

Treatment for anxiety disorder begins with learning all about your anxiety. The different treatments differ in their approach to target anxiety generating causes and your subsequent behavioral action. Short-term and mild disorder can be treated through self help tips and simple herbal remedies. Long term or severe disorder may require a more targeted approach or even combination of several approaches.

Various treatment options to get relief from anxiety symptoms include:

Psychotherapy – Psychotherapy, as the name suggests, targets the thought process. Anxiety stems from negative thoughts. The body reacts to these stressful thoughts with self-damaging behavior. Managing and positively modifying the thought process is the goal of psychotherapy.

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy – In Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), a psychotherapist helps to identify the fears or source of negative thoughts. Counseling is provided to alleviate those fears and change the thinking process that leads to irrational behavior.

  • Relaxation Techniques – Certain relaxation techniques like controlled breathing, meditation, muscular workouts, visualization etc are used to relax body and mind. When practiced regularly, these techniques produce a feeling of calmness and develop self-consciousness and confidence in the patient.

    • Medication – For certain kinds of disorders that are situation-specific, medication may provide fast and effective recovery. This includes patients suffering from social anxiety disorder or phobia of traveling, crowded places, height or performing in public etc. Medication also provides relief from short-term but severe anxiety symptoms so that other forms of therapy can be pursued. Some types of anxiety disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder may require long-term medication.

    A variety of medications including antidepressants and anxiolytics are used to treat anxiety disorder. These drugs target brain chemicals and produce mood lift or a calming effect by activating neurotransmitters. By doing so, they provide only relief from symptoms, not the cure. Therefore for complete recovery, medication should be combined with other treatment options that target the root cause.

    Dietary Adjustments – Deficiency of certain nutrients may also lead to anxiety or other related symptoms. Minerals such as magnesium are needed for the proper relaxation of muscles. Deficiency of calcium and B vitamins may also produce anxiety symptoms. In such cases, modification of diet to include more of foods such as wholegrain cereals and pulses, green leafy vegetables and low fat dairy products may be beneficial.

    Anxiety disorder generally takes time to get cured. You should remember that it is completely curable. The most important thing is to remain patient, confident and stick to the treatment regime. In most cases, a single treatment for anxiety may not work but combination of two or more treatments might provide complete recovery.