Ontrak Health is a behavioral health engagement program providing affordable treatment for those struggling with mental health issues, ensuring long-term, scalable success. In the following article, Ontrak Health reviews the symptoms and treatments of anxiety disorders below.
Anxiety is, for lack of a better word, normal.
Most people experience some form of anxiety at some point in their lives. It’s an emotion that can be healthy and common. One can feel anxiety when experiencing stress or when your brain perceives danger.
Or, it can be felt before stressful situations like a first date, or during the home buying process.
Ontrak Health reviews that it’s anxiety disorders that are different. While anxiety can happen naturally and periodically when feelings of anxiousness and fear become frequent, overwhelming, and debilitating, what is once characterized as just anxiety is in reality, a disorder.
Anxiety Disorders Explained
Ontrak Health reviews that the most important thing to remember is that anxiety disorders come in many different forms. Some of the most common types include:
- Panic disorders. These are characterized by feelings of fear, terror, or anxiety that are intense and sudden and happen frequently. Panic attacks, sudden spikes in seemingly uncontrollable physical reactions to stress or fear, are often seen in panic disorders.
- An anxiety disorder caused by a problem with one’s physical health or a specific medical condition. This can include feelings of panic and anxiety that are frequently intense.
- Generalized anxiety disorders involve excessive worry and anxiety about even ordinary events and activities. This anxiety tends to impact people physically and is often seen with depression and other types of anxiety disorders. The expression of worry is often disproportionate to the circumstance that leads to it.
- Social anxiety disorder involves elevated levels of panic or anxiety tied to social situations or avoiding social situations to avoid such feelings.
Causes and Symptoms
Ontrak Health reviews that no one cause, or symptom covers the wide spectrum of anxiety disorders. What’s known is what they certainly don’t come from — personal flaws or weaknesses.
Researchers tend to agree that a combination of factors comes into play when an anxiety order is developed. Heredity is a common factor, as anxiety disorders frequently appear within families and can be inherited like other genetic traits.
Ontrak Health reviews that researchers believe the environment plays a role, too, since traumatic moments that may ignite a disorder can result from a specific environmental situation.
Chemical changes are also at play, as it’s known that the chemical balance that controls mood can change with sustained periods of stress that can lead to anxiety disorders.
While symptoms vary, there are general symptoms seen across the realm of anxiety disorders. These include physical symptoms such as dry mouth, nausea, sweaty hands, shortness of breath, and tense muscles. Some may experience heart palpitation or tingling in the feet or hands.
Ontrak Health reviews that there are mental symptoms as well, including feelings of uneasiness, panic, and fear, thoughts that are often obsessive and seemingly uncontrollable, recurring nightmares, and frequent thoughts of previous traumatic moments.
Changes in behavior may also indicate a potential anxiety disorder. This includes difficulty sleeping, the tendency towards repeated behavior like excessive handwashing, and trouble staying calm.
Therapeutic Approaches
Treatment approaches for anxiety disorders typically involve behavioral therapies, medication, or a combination of the two.
Ontrak Health reviews that the first treatment step is in the hands of those who are coping with an anxiety disorder. It’s paramount to see a doctor to discuss whether symptoms are being caused by physical issues.
If that’s not the case and there’s a diagnosis of a disorder, treatment approaches can then be discussed with a mental health professional.
Ontrak Health reviews that while every anxiety disorder is unique, they often respond well to either medication or psychotherapy. Therapy for an anxiety disorder is a journey. Sometimes therapies are tested individually or in tandem over time. The goal is to find the one that is most effective for the individual’s unique needs.
Perhaps the most common psychotherapy approach for anxiety is cognitive behavior therapy, which centers on developing a new way of thinking and processing experiences to help one feel less anxious.
Medications are common and helpful, but there is no cure. An array of anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants are usually only used for short periods of time when the symptoms are severe. Others have found success with beta-blockers if there are pronounced physical symptoms.
The Bottom Line
Another approach is self-care. Ontrak Health reviews that those suffering from anxiety disorders often integrate various self-care techniques into daily routines. Meditation and other forms of stress management, as well as virtual and in-person support groups, have often brought clarity and relief to situations that once seemed scary and unmanageable.
By having a good understanding of what anxiety disorders are and the available ways to ease the stress and associated symptoms, conditions can be safely managed, and living without symptoms can happen once again.
