Most Popular Methods for Overcoming Anxiety
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Nearly 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with some form of an anxiety disorder. These individuals can take any number of pathways to start coping with anxiety. This article will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option.
One method of addressing an anxiety conditions is to begin taking prescription drugs as directed by a psychiatrist. 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. Among the drawbacks to this type of drug is that they are habit forming. 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. Naturally, this is not the best option.
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 are generally book trained and all subscribe to the same company line about the causes of anxiety. In general, the profession has a ways to go to improve itself in the treatment of anxiety.
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. At the other end of the spectrum, high functioning individuals will anxiety conditions will benefit less from this kind of therapy.
Finally, in patient treatment can be very expensive. 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.
These options are the most common anxiety disorder interventions. If you want to start coping with anxiety you may want to consider one of these options.
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