Taking a Fresh Approach to Treating Anxiety
Posted By admin
Date: June 29th, 2009
Category: Diseases, Conditions and Treatments
Anxiety disorders affect millions of Americans every year. These individuals can take any number of pathways to start overcoming anxiety. This article will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option.
The most common method treating anxiety is through medications prescribed by a mental health specialist. Generally the benzodiazepines are the most common prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, including klonopin and Valium. These medications work best on episodic anxiety attacks. However they are not nearly as effective in dealing with chronic anxiety. The main disadvantage of benzodiazepines is that they are terribly addicting and have a horrible withdrawal syndrome associated with them. So if you do start on a course of these medications you will have to continue to take them daily to have any effect and you will experience severe withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them. Consider these drawbacks carefully before beginning.
The next option is to begin therapy with a trained psychotherapist. There are several advantages and disadvantages of this method as well. One unfortunate truth about therapy is that it, on its own, is probably not going to grant you a lot of relief from your symptoms. It can help with certain disturbed thinking and can be great for brainstorming but it is also expensive and time consuming. People in therapy usually don’t cure their anxiety.
The dirty truth about therapists is most of them, themselves, do not suffer from anxiety conditions. So while they can be great at talking theories they don’t really have first hand knowledge about what it takes to break free from an anxiety disorder. They do however undergo a lot of training in order to obtain their license. There are several ways in which therapists could begin to better understand the plight of their patients.
The next treatment option is to check in to a psychiatric center for an extended stay. This type of inpatient treatment can be very helpful if your anxiety is crippling to the point that you are unable to function in life. It can be especially helpful if you are contemplating suicide or harming yourself.The first order of business at a hospital is to alleviate the risk of patient suicide. Because of this inpatient treatment centers are especially useful in suicidal cases, though less so in cases requiring more introspection.
Most hospitals use the dialectical behavioral model to direct treatment. DBT teaches simple distress management techniques and mindfulness therapy. For individuals who lack skills to succeed in life and are contemplating suicide, DBT can be extremely successful. On the other hand, less severe cases will benefit less from this type of therapy.
The last point is about the cost. A decent clinic runs at least $750 a day and if you do not have insurance the cost becomes prohibitive. Still if you are close to taking your life and need the immediate intervention then an inpatient psychiatric clinic may be your best bet.
Those are three of the main methods for treating anxiety disorders. If you want to start overcoming anxiety you may want to consider one of these options.