Each year more than 20 million Americans, more than 5% of the population, seek treatment for an anxiety condition. There are generally a number of treatments that are available to these individuals for helping them begin coping with anxiety. This article will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option.
The most common method treating anxiety is through medications prescribed by a mental health specialist. Generally the benzodiazepines are the most common prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, including klonopin and Valium. These drugs are effective at alleviating acute anxiety. Unfortunately, they are less effective in treating incessant anxiety conditions. Among the drawbacks to this type of drug is that they are habit forming. Once you begin to use a benzodiazepine to treat your anxiety you will have to take it everyday and failure to do so with elicit extreme withdrawal symptoms. Consider these drawbacks carefully before beginning.
The next option is to begin therapy with a trained psychotherapist. There are several advantages and disadvantages of this method as well. The first thing about therapy is that it is generally not very effective on its own at alleviating anxiety symptoms. It can help with certain disturbed thinking and can be great for brainstorming but it is also expensive and time consuming. Therapy also is not likely to result in an anxiety cure.
The greatest disadvantage to therapy is that most therapists do not suffer from severe anxiety disorders. 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 do however undergo a lot of training in order to obtain their license. In general, the profession has a ways to go to improve itself in the treatment of anxiety.
Another method to get treatment for your anxiety disorder is to check into an inpatient hospital. 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. In this way the treatment options provided by an inpatient clinic are usually not very precise for dealing with more subtle forms of anxiety.
Most hospitals use the dialectical behavioral model to direct treatment. DBT teaches simple distress management techniques and mindfulness therapy. If you are a severely low functioning human being with a history of suicide attempts or self harm then DBT may be for you. 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. However, if you are close to suicide, this may be a small price to pay.
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.