Anxiety can interfere with scheduling, school, work, relationships, and responsibilities. Sometimes, someone experiencing anxiety symptoms can benefit from an anxiety treatment program Although everyone experiences anxiety at some point, excessive stress, worry, or fear can significantly interfere with daily life. Did you know that anxiety disorders are some of the most common mental health conditions in the U.S.? Anxiety disorders affect 40 million American adults.
Living with an anxiety disorder means the typical, everyday anxiety does not go away and can worsen over time. Understanding life with anxiety, including identifying triggers and developing coping strategies, can be critical to some people.
What Are the Signs of Living With Anxiety?
Everyone deals with anxiety differently. Many clients of healthcare providers are diagnosed with different types of anxiety disorders. Some people may have high-functioning anxiety that allows them to go through daily living with little difficulty, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t seek professional help to reduce their symptoms. Anxiety symptoms can be physical and psychological.
Physical Anxiety Symptoms
These can include the following:
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Insomnia
- Nausea
- Rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Teeth grinding
Psychological Anxiety Symptoms
These can include the following:
- Agitation
- Excessive mental repetition of thoughts or problems
- High levels of distress
- Impaired concentration
- Inability to relax
- Persistent worry
These symptoms can be debilitating, especially when they trigger panic attacks. Some people with anxiety could live in fear of daily activities and feel their symptoms dominate their lives.
What Are the Types of Anxiety Disorders?
If you think you or a loved one has high-functioning anxiety, you should seek the professional opinion of a mental healthcare provider. After a comprehensive evaluation, they may give you a diagnosis and recommend an anxiety treatment program. You may find out that you or a loved one has one of these major types of anxiety disorders:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): This is characterized by chronic anxiety and exaggerated worry and tension, even when there is little or nothing to provoke it.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): This is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts or obsessions and repetitive behaviors or compulsions. Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing or counting are often performed with the hope of preventing or reducing obsessive thoughts. Performing these rituals, however, provides only temporary relief. Not performing them also markedly increases anxiety.
- Panic disorder: This is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include abdominal distress, chest pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): This can develop after exposure to a traumatic event. It’s often connected to military or combat experience, but other types of trauma can also lead to PTSD.
- Social anxiety disorder: Also called social phobia, this is characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. Social phobia can be limited to only certain situations — such as a fear of speaking in public — or, in its most severe form, may be so broad that symptoms arise almost anytime a person is around others.
When Should You Consider an Anxiety Treatment Program?
If you’ve been living with anxiety, you may have considered an anxiety treatment program before — perhaps during a flare-up of symptoms that may have affected your daily living. Many people who feel anxious all the time may struggle with the thought of seeking professional help. They may think they have typical anxiety symptoms and don’t have a mental health condition. But this belief can’t stand alone as a reason not to seek help. If this sounds familiar, at least consider getting assessed and possibly diagnosed.
Many different types of anxiety treatment options are available to help you cope with any diagnosis and can help you manage and move beyond your anxiety. If you’re already having difficulty maintaining your scheduling, school, work, relationships, and responsibilities, you can always undergo mental health treatment.
Overcoming Anxiety at Clear Behavioral Health
If you’ve been living with anxiety and experiencing its negative effects on your quality of life, Clear Behavioral Health is here to help. Our passionate team of clinicians is always available to walk you through your treatment options. We offer a full continuum of care for anxiety including mental health residential treatment for severe anxiety, outpatient mental health programs, and virtual IOP serving all of California. All of our programs include individual therapy, group therapy, case management, medication management if necessary to help you manage anxiety symptoms, learn effective coping mechanisms, and overcome your anxiety one day at a time. Don’t wait to get started, contact us today to begin healing.
