Anxiety

What are the most common forms of anxiety?

Anxiety comes in many forms, and the following are the most common.

Generalized anxiety disorder

This type of anxiety is the most common, affecting nearly seven million adults in the US, with women outpacing men by twice as much. With generalized anxiety, persistent and excessive anxiety plague you.

Panic disorder

The hallmark of panic disorder is acute panic attacks that overwhelm you, physically and mentally. In fact, panic attacks are a common reason for visits to the emergency room.

Separation anxiety disorder

This usually develops in childhood and occurs when a child is separated from their parents.

Phobias

Everyone has fears in life, which can be toward anything from spiders to heights. A phobia, however, elicits extreme anxiety and irrational fear when certain situations or things confront you.

Social anxiety disorder

If you avoid social situations because of intense anxiety, this may indicate a social anxiety disorder.

There are other forms of anxiety, but these represent the most common. Hope Mental Health provides treatment for all types of anxiety as well as depression, which commonly coincide with one another.

What are the signs of problematic anxiety?

In general, anxiety presents itself with the following symptoms.

• Excessive worry, nervousness, or fear
• A sense of impending doom
• Avoidance
• Isolation
• Sleep issues
• Increased heart rate
• Sweating
• Shaking or trembling

These last symptoms underscore why anxiety is so serious. Humans have a fight-or-flight instinct, and excessive anxiety means that your body is in an extreme state of arousal of this instinct, which can affect your physical and mental health.

How is anxiety treated?

When you first visit Hope Mental Health, Ms. Woodland sits down with you to review your symptoms and your current and past medical history. During this evaluation, your provider ascertains the extent of the effect of your anxiety and designs a treatment plan that best suits your situation and goals.

If your anxiety is severe, the team at Hope Mental Health may recommend prescription medications/supplementation to address your discomfort, but the long-term solution typically doesn’t come in the form of a pill.

Through cognitive behavioral therapy, trauma-informed therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and exposure and response prevention therapy, the team works with you until you get a handle on your anxiety, allowing you to live in peace again. Mindfulness techniques and meditation may also be a part of the treatment plan. 

Attention! Please be aware that this clinic rarely prescribes benzodiazepines (Xanax, Lorezepam, Clonazepam, etc)  long term. These sedating medications are highly addictive and make anxiety and sleep worse in the long run. They are also known to cause focus, concentration and memory issues and over the years and may cause early onset dementia. If you come in on these meds on low doses, we will help taper you off. If you are on high doses, we ask that you go back to your primary care provider to taper you down to a manageable level and then we can take over the taper from there. Of course we will find the safest medications to replace these addictive meds. 

To put an end to your anxiety, call Hope Mental Health, or request an appointment using the online scheduling tool.