Therapy alone or in combination with medication is the most effective way to deal with anxiety disorders. Unlike medications, anxiety therapy equips you with the tools you need to manage your anxiety. There are several therapeutic techniques used to treat anxiety disorders at Novus Mindful Life Long Beach. Read on to find out more about anxiety therapy.
What Are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety is the brain’s way of reacting to stress. It serves as a signal that alerts you of potential danger ahead. This means that it’s totally normal to experience anxiety sometimes. For instance, if you are about to sit for an examination, you might worry a little. However, there are levels of anxiety that are beyond what everyone else experiences.
An anxiety disorder is a mental condition that causes constant and overwhelming fear. This type of anxiety can cause you to avoid social gatherings, school, or even work. Generally, you will tend to want to avoid any situation that can trigger or worsen your symptoms.
Fortunately, there are several ways of treating anxiety disorders. One of the most effective methods is anxiety therapy. This type of therapy is aimed at helping people with anxiety disorders better manage their feelings.
Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders
There are no laboratory tests that are meant specifically for the diagnosis of anxiety disorders. If you are experiencing symptoms, your doctor will look into your medical history and do a general medical exam.
They will also conduct several tests to try and rule out any other issues that might be causing your symptoms. If the doctor fails to find any other cause for your symptoms, they will then send you to centers like Novus Mindful Life, where you will see a psychiatrist or psychologist.
Therapists at Novus Mindful Life use several methods and tests to find out if you have an anxiety disorder. They will also ask you questions to determine when the symptoms started and how intense they are. It’s crucial to let your counselor know how your anxiety is affecting your everyday tasks at home, work, or school.
Forms of Anxiety Therapy
There are several therapeutic approaches that are used to treat anxiety. The common goal of all these types of anxiety therapy is to enable you to better understand why you feel the way you feel, what triggers your anxiety, and what you can do to change how you react to the triggers.
There are different types of anxiety disorders, so each type of therapy is tailored to address specific symptoms. Anxiety therapy can be conducted individually, as a couple, or in a family or group setting. The frequency of your meetings with the therapist will depend on the type of symptoms you experience and the diagnosis.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This is the most widely utilized form of therapy for anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be quite effective when it comes to the treatment of phobias, panic disorders, and generalized anxiety disorder.
During Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the therapist will attempt to address negative patterns in the way you look at the world and yourself. As the name of the therapy suggests, it involves two main components, which are cognitive therapy and behavior therapy. Cognitive therapy looks into how your negative thoughts contribute to the anxiety disorder, while behavioral therapy examines how you react to your triggers.
The idea behind CBT is that thoughts are responsible for the way people feel, not external events. Therefore, triggers are not the cause of the anxiety but how you perceive them.
For instance, if your anxiety is triggered by crowds and you are invited to a huge party, you will start feeling anxious because of what your thoughts tell you about the likelihood of there being a crowd and the party.
Exposure Therapy
Feeling anxious is not a good experience. As a result, you will tend to avoid all the situations that trigger your anxiety. For instance, if you are afraid of heights, you might end up driving longer routes just so you can avoid going over a tall bridge. The only problem with this is that avoiding your fears will make them stronger.
At Novus Mindful Life Long Beach, exposure therapy is used to help you deal with your fears by exposing you to triggers in a controlled environment. The idea is that if you are exposed to the things that you fear repeatedly, your anxiety will eventually go away.
There are two methods used by therapists at Novus Mindful Life to expose you to your fears. Either your therapist can make you imagine the situation, or they will find ways to make you confront it in real life. Some therapists can use exposure therapy only, while some will use it together with cognitive behavioral therapy.
Complementary Anxiety Therapies
There are several other therapies that are used to treat anxiety disorders. Some of these are designed to help you cope with stress, and some will enable you to achieve emotional balance. For instance, exercise can be used as an anxiety reliever.
Therapists recommend at least an hour of aerobic exercise whenever you can. There are other relaxation techniques that you can also look into. These include mindfulness meditation and progressive muscle relaxation. These techniques can boost feelings of emotional well-being.
What to Expect From Anxiety Therapy
Most people think that they will start feeling better once they start therapy. However, this is not true. While this can happen in some instances, in most cases, it will take some time before you start noticing an improvement. In fact, people usually start feeling a lot worse before they start feeling better. Surprisingly, this is a sign that the therapy is working. This is because therapy involves exploring the anxiety and its triggers deeper, which can cause the anxiety to worsen temporarily.
How to Get the Best Out of Anxiety Therapy
One of the things you must keep in mind when dealing with anxiety therapy is that there are no shortcuts to treating anxiety disorders. If you want to overcome anxiety, you need to be committed and patient.
This is because therapy involves confronting your fears, as opposed to avoiding them. While this might be uncomfortable, it’s crucial to stick to your therapist’s advice. If you start feeling a bit discouraged because your symptoms are worsening, just remember that anxiety therapy is quite effective in the long run.
Another way to support your anxiety therapy is to make positive choices. This means you must revisit everything you do, from your social life to your activity level. You must also make it a goal to start facing your fears and promoting a positive mental outlook in your daily life.
It’s important to set aside time to learn more about anxiety so you can get the most out of therapy.
Summing Up
Anxiety therapy is an effective means of dealing with anxiety disorders. However, you must also find ways to make sure that the therapy works for you. For instance, it’s important to create connections with other people, as isolating yourself will only set the stage for anxiety. You can even join a support group. You must also remember that physical activity relieves anxiety.
Therefore, you should create time for exercise on a daily basis. Lastly, avoid using alcohol and other drugs to try and cope with your symptoms; these will only make the disorder worse.