Anxiety Therapy

It is difficult to live with anxiety, or to be around someone who has anxiety.

If you are seeking anxiety therapy, Elizabethtown KY is home to one of the foremost experts in clinical psychology, specializing in mental health disorders like such as anxiety and depression; Dr Rollin S Rhodes, PhD.

In this article, you will learn more about what an anxiety disorder is and how it can be treated with the right approach.

What is an Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and dangerous scenarios; it calls your body to attention to make split-second decisions, activating the adrenal system, and helping you ensure that your body is primed to take action. (1) Unfortunately, in many people, this reaction becomes abnormal and excessive. An anxiety disorder is characterized by chronic feelings of anxiety, especially during times of minor worry, or unprompted altogether.

Generally, a person with high-functioning anxiety may appear put together and well- accomplished on the outside, yet experience worry, stress or have obsessive thoughts on the inside.

Forbes

An anxiety disorder is most often characterized by fretfulness, fidgeting, or overall worry about minor details, even for issues that seem small on the outside. This anxious reaction is the result of the classic fight-or-flight response over-activating in the body, eliciting feelings of foreboding and concern.

This disorder can easily become debilitating in certain areas of life, and greatly affects the mental health of the individual. Anxiety can be a quiet worry, translating into obsession for control, self-doubt, and in some cases, the sudden onset of panic attacks.

How is Generalized Anxiety Disorder Caused?

Doctors are not certain what the exact causes behind anxiety disorder are. There does not seem to be a single factor behind the disorder beyond an inability to cope with stressors.

The current understanding is that there is a varied mixture of both genetic and environmental factors that result in generalized anxiety disorder. In other words, while it can run in families, it is not guaranteed to, and may instead be the result of traumatic experiences or prolonged stress in the environment.

How is Generalized Anxiety Disorder Diagnosed?

In many cases, generalized anxiety disorder is diagnosed by a doctor or mental health professional.

Since anxiety disorder is characterized by a chronic, long-term form of anxiety, the health professional must assess your daily habits and feelings. A verbal or written exam is effective in learning how often certain symptoms linked to anxiety appear in everyday life.

What Does Anxiety Treatment Look Like?

Anxiety treatment can take many different forms, as each individual will respond differently to new treatment options. Some individuals seek treatment with the help of a counselor or psychologist to better understand the disorder and develop the mental and emotional tools to dissuade the symptoms.

Others may seek medication to alleviate the symptoms and help provide them with a baseline level of calm, suppressing the chronic feeling of anxiety.

For many people, a mixture of different treatment options is the most effective solution, helping alleviate the symptoms while providing coping mechanisms and long-term mental resilience for sustainable treatment.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a popular type of psychotherapy that focuses on reversing negative thought patterns. These negative patterns are common in individuals with anxiety disorders, as they are unintentionally re-enforced when you give into your anxiety symptoms.

Once work is underway to reverse negative patterns and encourage beneficial habits, remaining triggers and negative thought patterns are challenged to begin working on altering the experience of these behaviors and train the brain to react in a different way. By utilizing this therapy, patients can begin changing their reaction to common anxiety triggers, removing anxiety and alleviating negative mood changes.

How Long Does it Take to Cure Anxiety with Therapy?

Anxiety is not a cookie-cutter disorder, and the road to recovery looks different to everyone. It may take several sessions to determine if a certain type of therapy is beneficial for your anxiety, or if it requires a mixture of two types of therapy.

In most cases, cognitive behavioral therapy is the common choice for combatting anxiety; however, the severity of anxiety symptoms can determine whether it is a long-term or short-term treatment option.

The effects of this type of therapy are long-lasting, but there is often a lot of work necessary to uncover the underlying causes of anxiety and identifying potential triggers.

How Do I get Help?

For many people, seeking help is the hardest step.

Your anxiety might not be what you consider debilitating enough to start seeking therapy with, or you may delay, finding other ways to treat the symptoms.

Even if there’s another excuse on the list, chances are, you are quick to celebrate someone else taking the steps necessary to get help for their mental health.

So, what about your health?

Taking care of your mental health is one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy for years to come. Mental health is just as important as physical health, and proactive action even if the symptoms are “not bad enough” can lead to a faster and easier recovery, and greater satisfaction in the future.

Consider seeking the compassionate and caring help from licensed clinical psychologist Rollin S Rhodes, PhD. Request an appointment or get in touch today to learn more and book a free consultation.

Anxiety Therapy Elizabethtown KY

Are you looking for anxiety therapy Elizabethtown KY?

With the expertise of Rollin S Rhodes, PhD., you can break the cycle of anxiety and take hold of your life once again.

You deserve to feel good about life without anxiety wearing you down and taking control of your experiences.

By seeking help with proven therapeutic methods, you begin the path to healing, taking your mental health and wellbeing into your own hands and deciding that you are worth the same quality of care you would want for someone else.

It’s time to put your mental health first.

References:

1. Forbes, High-Functioning Anxiety, What It Is, Symptoms and Treatment, https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-high-functioning-anxiety/