One of the best ways to deal with anxiety is to learn about your own anxiety: your symptoms, what triggers it, and what coping mechanisms have been effective in the past. When you learn what your anxiety is tied to, it can help you be mindful of what's really happening as well as prevent and mitigate symptoms by processing and working through the issue in therapy. Other strategies that have been shown to help manage anxiety are meditation, challenging anxious thoughts, exercising, and journaling.
The Greek storyteller Aesop once stated, “A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.” Would you rather be a millionaire who worries constantly about having their money stolen, or a less wealthy person who doesn’t stress about their income status? Would you rather stay at home all day with the curtains drawn so you don’t have to worry about sun exposure and pollutants, or risk allergies on a beautiful sunny day? These are choices we humans have to make constantly. How much threat are we comfortable with? How much emotional safety will we exchange for risk? It’s normal to toe the line between peace and danger. But what happens when the feeling of threat never dissipates, even when there’s no rational evidence of threat? That’s called anxiety.
Anxiety therapy at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL can help people whose daily functioning is impaired by extreme fears and worries that don’t necessarily reflect reality. Anxiety disorders can feel like an endless loop that the mind and body get stuck in. But anxiety can be treated. The fully licensed mental health providers at Thriveworks excel at showing clients how to neutralize threats by modifying their maladaptive thought patterns and beliefs. They do this with evidence-based therapy approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness.
How Does Therapy Help with Anxiety?
Therapy helps with anxiety by targeting the specific thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that keep people feeling anxious. Mental health professionals at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL can diagnose and treat anxiety with a wide variety of therapies including the following:
- CBT
- Exposure therapy, especially for specific phobias of objects or situations (also called systematic desensitization)
- Strength-based therapy
- Person-centered therapy
- Emotion-focused therapy
- Mindfulness training
- Trauma informed therapy
- Anxiety medications like antidepressants, prescribed by a licensed Thriveworks psychiatrist
- Meditation
- Relaxation techniques like progressive muscle relaxation or deep breathing
- Supportive-expressive therapy
- Biofeedback
- Support groups
- Substance abuse counseling
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR)
- Nutrition and exercise recommendations
- Family therapy or couples counseling
Different types of therapy might be better at targeting different types of anxiety disorders. For example, someone experiencing a panic attack might benefit from the 3-3-3 rule. In this technique, the person panicking tries to focus on three things they can see, three things they can hear, and three things they can smell. The engagement of the physical senses can sometimes break up panicked thought patterns.
Can My Primary Care Doctor Prescribe Anxiety Medication?
Primary care doctors often find themselves in the position of misdiagnosing anxiety as another medical condition. This is because anxiety can manifest in physical symptoms like the following:
- Restlessness
- Muscle tension
- Agitation
- Racing thoughts
- Disturbed sleep
- Quality of being easily tired
- Attention or concentration difficulties
- Irritability
Diagnosing anxiety accurately requires a provider specially trained in mental health and mental health conditions. A licensed mental health provider at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL will be able to recognize the symptoms of anxiety for what they are and intervene with therapies clinically proven to reduce anxiety.
Can an Anxiety Disorder Be Completely Cured?
Anxiety may be a long-term condition that someone needs to manage throughout their life, but it’s completely treatable. What does a “cure” for anxiety look like? It means being able to retrain your brain not to be on high alert, and to retrain your body not to be in fight or flight mode all the time. The anxiety therapists at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL are experts in specialized treatments that can help manage and overcome anxiety disorders like the following:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which causes significant distress and interferes with daily functioning
- Panic disorder, which involves brief, intense episodes called panic attacks
- Social anxiety disorder (social phobia), where you experience considerable distress in social situations
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is characterized by mental fixations and repetitive behaviors
- Separation anxiety, which is the acute fear of being separated from one’s attachment figures
- Specific phobias, which includes arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, and claustrophobia, the fear of enclosed spaces
- Agoraphobia, which is characterized by a fear that you can’t escape your surroundings
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is a response to a traumatic event
- Selective mutism, when a person becomes so anxious that they become incapable of speech
Get Help for Anxiety from a Licensed Therapist at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL
The exceptional anxiety therapists at Thriveworks in Montgomery, AL are fully licensed, compassionate, insightful, recruited from the top 4% of applicants, and passionate about helping people. When you make an appointment with a mental health provider at Thriveworks, you can often have an in-person or online counseling sessions within 24-48 hours. You can also access your therapist by phone or email between sessions.
Don’t hesitate any longer to seek anxiety treatment and accelerate your journey to mental wellbeing. We look forward to your call!
