Treatments for Anxiety Disorder

During our lifetime, we may face plenty of physical and mental health problems. Anxiety disorder is a group of mental illnesses that is characterized by exaggerated, excessive anxiety about everyday life events. People suffering from anxiety disorder are likely to always expect any kind of disaster and can’t prevent worrying about money, health, work or family. There are various types of anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Causes of Anxiety Disorder

Several factors are responsible for development of anxiety disorder. Some possible causes for anxiety disorder are biological factors such as imbalance in brain chemicals, life issues including insomnia, stress, major accident, nightmares and distressing thoughts, medical conditions like hypoglycemia, environmental factors such as stressful events and heredity.

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder

Symptoms of anxiety disorder are associated with emotional as well as physical symptoms. Emotional symptoms may include fear, panic, apprehension, nightmares, intrusive memories of traumatic experiences, frequent repetition of ritualized behavior such as hand washing and uncontrolled obsessive thoughts. Patient with anxiety disorder may experience sleep disturbances, racing heartbeat, dry mouth, cold or clammy hands, shortness of breath and gastrointestinal upset. Symptoms are always present for no reason.

Treatments for Anxiety Disorder

Several effective treatments are available for anxiety disorder and they involve combination of medications and psychotherapy. Before any treatment option is prescribed, proper diagnosis of disease is a must. Psychiatrist conducts thorough diagnostic evaluation including patient’s symptoms and medical history. Some tests are performed to find out medical conditions responsible for anxiety disorder. After accurate diagnosis, suitable treatment plan is decided.

Since anxiety disorder can give rise to several complications and hence, you are advised to take it seriously and find out proper treatments for anxiety disorder. Combination of various therapies is used to treat anxiety disorder in most cases.

• Behavior Therapy: This therapy focuses on modifying and gaining control over unwanted behavior. Patient learns to cope with unexpected, difficult situation. Individual is taught to change responses through relaxation techniques including breathing from diaphragm, as well as through eventual exposure to frightening situation.
• Cognitive Therapy: It focuses on changing intrusive or unproductive thought patterns. Patient can learn to identify and change thought patterns and behaviors that can give rise to troublesome feelings.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Many therapist apply a combination of cognitive and behavior therapies. Through this therapy, patient can learn recovery skills, which are useful for lifetime.
• Relaxation technique: It can enhances ability of patient to effectively cope with physical symptoms and stress that is responsible for anxiety. This technique includes exercise and breathing retraining. Along with these useful therapies, some medications are also prescribed in order to improve effectiveness.
• Medications: Mild tranquilizers, antidepressants and other anti-anxiety drugs are recommended to treat anxiety disorder. The most commonly prescribed anti-anxiety medications are alprazolam, diazepam, clonazepam etc. Antidepressants like fluoxetine, imipramine, paroxetine and escitalopram are found to be very effective in improving symptoms of anxiety disorder. Benzodiazepines or tranquilizers are the most commonly used medications in the treatments for anxiety disorder. These medications can make the patient relaxed and calm. Since medications may take longer time to achieve their effects, doctor needs to monitor patient’s progress to decide any change in dosage or try another drug.

Get appropriate treatments for anxiety disorder, which can help to relieve from this serious problem and lead a healthy and happy life.