Different Approaches on Anxiety Disorder Treatment

An effective anxiety disorder treatment should be able to not only treat the symptoms of excessive anxiety, but also eliminate the cause. There are different approaches on how to treat anxiety disorders. It could be in the form of therapy and/or medications. Therapy helps the individual to reduce anxiety to a more manageable level while medications aid the person by alleviating its symptoms.

The cognitive-behavioral therapy has been the widely acclaimed most effective anxiety disorder treatment to remove the root cause of excessive anxiety. This is because anxiety disorders are psychological in origin. The Cognitive part of the therapy deals with the thinking and belief process of the individual. Here, the person is encouraged to share his innermost thoughts and beliefs. By doing so, the psychiatrist can then assist the patient realize the negative things in his way of thinking that may be the contributing factors to triggering anxiety. Once this is accomplished, he or she is then encouraged to modify his or her thought process and find ways to gain control. Some of the techniques that have proved to be quite helpful in this specific approach of anxiety disorder treatment are the slow talk/walk or slowing down, the acceptance paradox, rational self-help statements that are reinforced to the patient to make the 'new' thoughts become permanent, the determination factor, identifying the object of focus, and the patient's perception of the things commonly encountered in life.

The behavioral portion, on the other hand, aims to help the individual decide what to do after the cognitive part of the therapy has been accomplished. This is now geared towards the future and how the person can overcome feelings of nervousness, worry, depression and fear that are some of the typical manifestations of anxiety disorders. Here, the patient is presented with real-life situations and everyday encounters. After, he or she gradually learns how to adapt, thus eventually gaining control over situations that may trigger anxiety.

Aside from the cognitive and behavioral portions of the therapy, the emotional health of the patient is also looked into. It is geared towards the promotion of peace and relaxation in the individual. De-stressing strategies are taught to the patient to help them absorb the things they've realized and learnt so far in the previous portions of the therapy. The fact that this form of anxiety disorder treatment touches on all the aspects of the human mind that the disorder affects, has made it one of the best treatment there is.

Since the emotional aspect is taken cared of by the cognitive-behavioral therapy, medications can then help ease the turmoil that anxiety brings. Anxiety medications, have in fact, been used as the supportive therapy during the course of the anxiety disorder treatment as a whole. There are different drugs in the market that have specific target sites in the body. Headaches, nausea, depression and other physical manifestations can be lessened with the use of drugs. However, it is vital for the individual to be aware of the possible side effects of these medications so that they can be avoided.