An anxiety disorder is a very disturbing mental illness because it can impact a person's normal behavior and
coping ability in everyday situations. It has the potential of completely changing a person's life and strips
him of opportunities for career advancement and in developing healthy social relationships. It also severely
limits his perception of his surroundings and keeps him living in unhealthy fear and worry.
Recovery starts with diagnosis
A physician will obtain a complete medical history of the patient. Unlike most physiological or medical
conditions, anxiety disorder cannot be diagnosed using blood tests, blood pressure and other physical examinations.
It can be determined using a thorough interview where a doctor asks the patient questions pertaining about
his condition. Medical conditions or the possibility of substance abuse must be ruled out first before the
presence of an anxiety disorder is considered.
The purpose of a diagnosis is also to come up with a list of the specific criteria associated with different
types of anxiety disorders. This determines what type of medications and/or therapies can work best.
Failure to properly diagnose the specific anxiety disorder a person has can cause significant problems.
There is no such thing as a 'cure' for anxiety disorder because its cause is not physiological. However, there
are treatments that help in managing the illness and taking care of its symptoms. It is absolutely necessary
that treatment for anxiety disorder be administered as early as possible. If not, the illness can become chronic
and more difficult to treat. Some anxiety disorders in advanced stages can be resistant to treatment.
The methods used in the treatment of anxiety disorder can be grouped into two major categories: therapy and medications.
Therapeutic treatment
Depending on the specific type of anxiety disorder a person suffers from, different therapies may be used.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as CBT, is one of the most common treatment methods used.
The basis of CBT is in the connection of behavior symptomatic to the disorder that is associated with and
caused by a pattern of thoughts and beliefs.
For example, a person with agoraphobia might think, "The train's doors are closed and locked. I can't breathe.
I'm going to die in this train." Such negative thoughts, which usually have no actual basis, can in turn
trigger negative thoughts that produce negative behavior. By teaching a patient to handle his apparent fear
through training, reality testing, cognitive challenging and restructuring, he can eventually manage his
fear and later on, totally eliminate it even when faced with a similar situation.
Behavior therapy, on the other hand, uses exposure to promote desensitization of an individual.
By training an individual to control his thoughts and redefine what he believes are dangerous and scary,
he is able to control or manage his fears. He might also combine behavior therapy with relaxation techniques
including controlled breathing to help him manage his anxiety.
Treatment through medication
There is no absolute cure for anxiety disorder and even when medications are prescribed, they don't address
the mental illness itself. Instead, they will help an individual cope with the physical symptoms that anxiety
disorder causes. Common medications include anti-depressants (like imipramine and benzodiazepine) and
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs (like fluoxetine, paroxetine and sertraline).
Prozac and Zoloft are some of the brand names of these drugs.
Since these are drugs, expect both benefits and risks. A doctor will be able to explain what the advantages
are and the side effects of different drug treatments if there are any. It is important to understand that
medications should be treated as short-term courses of treatment only and should not be considered as the
only solution to the disorder.
Medication vs. Therapy
Anxiety disorder is a psychiatric illness and involves the mental functioning of an individual. To treat the
behavior that results from this disorder, psychotherapy is the most natural choice.
Medications are only used to treat physical manifestations of the illness. For example, drugs may be taken to
help relax the muscles and prevent feelings of tension or to bring down the heart beat to a normal rate.
Drugs are prescribed to address physical problems for the short term. They are never used alone and are
instead prescribed in combination with therapy to produce an effective long-term treatment.
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