Anxiety

Occasional anxiety is a normal part of everyday life, but if you experience it frequently and for prolonged periods, you may have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders affect nearly 30% of adults at some point in their lives. At Foveo Healthcare A Professional Medical Corporation in Burbank, California, the team of mental health specialists works with patients to treat anxiety that is triggering other symptoms and affecting the quality of their lives. To learn more, call the office, or use the online scheduling tool to make an appointment today.

What is anxiety disorder?

Patients with anxiety disorder experience excessive anxiety and stress about everything from work, to personal relationships, and personal health. There are different kinds of anxiety disorders like generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and separation anxiety disorder, all of which can be treated with psychotherapy.

What are the symptoms of anxiety disorder?

Patients with anxiety disorder have constant feelings of dread along with the following symptoms:

• Feeling restless
• Easily tired
• Difficulty concentrating
• Irritability
• Muscle tension
• Insomnia or sleep disturbances

Patients with advanced cases of anxiety disorder that isn’t addressed may also develop panic attacks in which they feel sudden bouts of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms like:

• Heart palpitations
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Tingling or numb extremities
• Difficulty breathing
• Feeling out of control

Panic attacks usually last for a few minutes before the symptoms subside on their own, but they’re exhausting and disruptive to your everyday life. Your provider can help you manage these attacks along with the other symptoms of your anxiety disorder.

Symptoms vary among patients, but if you’re having one or a combination of these symptoms along with feelings of worry, seek help from a mental health professional.

What treatments do you offer for anxiety disorder?

The practice treats anxiety disorder with psychotherapy that is tailored to each patient’s individual symptoms and medical history. Talk therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy directed at specific anxieties to help patients overcome them.

Using CBT, your provider teaches you to identify negative thought patterns and change them into positive ones. It also helps patients understand their thought patterns when they react to anxiety triggers, which helps alter their thinking, so these factors don’t affect them negatively. CBT also teaches patients social skills to treat social anxiety disorder. 

Cognitive therapy is used in combination with exposure therapy, which focuses on confronting the fears that are also causing your anxiety. Together, these methods help address and change the thought patterns that are negatively affecting you. Your provider may also suggest some homework exercises, like journaling and exercise. 

To learn more about CBT and how it can help your anxiety disorder, call the office, or use the online scheduling tool to make an appointment.