Anxiety Cures

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Have you ever felt that you are losing control of your body in a common situation like speaking in public? Or have you felt your legs give away just before you were to address a very crucial business meeting? This condition may be termed as anxiety if you continue to experience it even after a long time. Repeated symptoms of stress, losing control and occurrence of “what if” thoughts in similar situations can mean that you are suffering from the problem of anxiety. The problem of anxiety is not fatal; no one has ever died due to anxiety. Still, it can be a big obstacle in the normal course of your living.

Other than trauma caused by such a major incident, there can be smaller incidents too which may make you feel panicky. Like an incident of a small boy who started to sweat and feel dizzy that was seen along with his shortened breaths when he entered the cellar of his house and saw scores of insects. The boy had a fear of insects, called arachnophobia, which triggered off the symptoms of an anxiety attack in him. There are more symptoms of anxiety and anxiety attacks like dizziness, need to urinate urgently, shaking, skin losing colour, chest pain or discomfort along with disturbing thoughts and worry about unimportant things.

The question now arises that when should one consult a doctor? Anxiety is caused by common happenings and they are a part of one’s life. However, when you feel that the worries and unwanted stress has been troubling you since very long, then you should consult the doctor immediately. Treatment at an early stage helps in better and effective recovery.

A wide range of mental health professionals can treat the condition of anxiety. Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychiatrist nurses etc can provide a solution to the problems caused by anxiety. However, while choosing a psychiatrist for treatment, only the credentials are not enough. To get an effective treatment, the patient has to be completely comfortable with the therapist and be able to talk to him freely. The role of a psychiatrist is not to tell the patient what he “should” do but rather “how” he should alter his thoughts and control his behaviour.

There are some questions that the patient should ask the therapist. Failure to provide answers to any of these should make you change the therapist:

• What experience does he hold in treatment of anxiety patients?
• What is the approach to treatment?
• How long is the course of treatment and how is the treatment charged?
• How long do the treatment sessions last?
• Will he prescribe medication or refer to someone who will?
• Are the family members involved in the treatment sessions?

In the treatment of anxiety, the role of the therapist is very important. He is the one who trains the patient as to how he can control his emotions in a troublesome situation and manipulate his thoughts to a positive outlook. For this, the therapist may use one or a combination of therapies which may prove to be useful in curing the problem of anxiety.

The Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy or CBT is one of the clinically proven ways to treat anxiety. It is a combination of the Behaviour and the Cognitive therapy which work on separate parts of the behaviour of the patient and combined give a relief from the anxiety that a person is suffering from.

Through the Behaviour part of the therapy, the psychiatrist works on the patient to stop any kind of negative behaviour which arises without intent. For example, in the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, the patient has the urge to do something repeatedly, like clean the house or wash hands, etc. The therapist trains the patient as to how he can control his behaviour and stop giving in to those urges that arise in him. A control in the individual is developed about his own actions and his life.

The Cognitive part of the therapy works for modifying the thought pattern of the patient. The psychiatrist trains the patients as to how they can keep a check on any obstructive thoughts that keep coming to his mind. The patient is taught by the therapist to differentiate between the realistic and the unrealistic thoughts that come to his mind. This ultimately leads to curbing of the unproductive and misleading thoughts which keep occurring in the mind of the patient.

With the combination of these two parts, the Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy or the CBT becomes a way to ensure that the patient will be able to tackle stress and anxiety at any point in their life. Since the psychiatrist cannot remain with the patient at all times, they are trained in such a manner that they learn to evaluate their own thoughts and behaviour and can work towards controlling and improving it as well.

Also, the psychiatrists can help the patients learn relaxation techniques. These are a great help to the patient when the symptoms of anxiety start to occur. With proper breath retraining and other exercises, the patient can learn to come to normal behaviour after the anxiety attacks grip him.

Therapy forms the greater part of the treatment as it is the thought process of the patient that has to be altered. Medication will only make chemical changes in the body. However, sometimes medication is used in conjunction with the therapy so that the symptoms of anxiety can be alleviated and the treatment can be made more effective. Herbal remedies like valerian root and kava have also been used since long but the effectiveness is not established.

With the intervention of the right psychiatrist at the earliest possible time, the patient can recover easily from the problem of anxiety. Also, in addition to the participation of the psychiatrist and the training imparted by him, the patient himself also needs to practice the self-control on himself so that he can tackle any undesirable situation on his own in the future.

Tags: anxiety disorder treatment, Psychiatrist role



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