When Does Anxiety Warrant Professional Help?

Anxiety is a natural human experience: the anxiety response is part of our fight-or-flight instinct designed to help us evade potentially dangerous threats.

Anxiety disorders are different. If you have an anxiety disorder, you experience anxious feelings regularly, far out of proportion to any threat or even in the absence of a threat. Those feelings may be so prevalent and strong that they take a toll on your quality of life and often, your physical health, as well.

At Mindful Mental Health, a psychiatric clinic in Springdale, Arkansas, our team has helped countless patients with anxiety disorders reclaim their lives. Led by board-certified psychiatric nurse Tammie Smith, ACNS-BC, our experts guide patients to identify, understand, and manage anxiety symptoms. 

Whether anxiety has been a lifelong challenge or only recently become a burden, you’ve got plenty of company.  Anxiety affects about 1 in 5 American adults. But just because it’s common doesn’t mean you have to live with it.

Here’s what the team at Mindful Mental Health wants you to know about this condition, and how we can help you break free.

Anxiety 101

While many of us think about anxiety as a single medical condition, there are many types of anxiety disorders. 

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a broad form of anxiety that involves habitual fear and worry about daily life activities and events. Other anxiety disorders — like separation anxiety, social anxiety, or phobias — are associated with more specific triggers.

Most people with anxiety disorders have at least some of these symptoms:

• Intrusive anxious thoughts or worries
• Difficulty with concentration
• Irritability and low mood
• Feelings of impending danger or fear
• Fatigue
• Increased sweating, rapid breathing, or rapid heartbeat

The severity and number of symptoms vary from one person to another, and can even change over time.

When to seek treatment

Even mild anxiety symptoms can take a toll on your health and your quality of life. Your may find it hard to focus at work or at school, and that your constant worry interferes with relationships, or prevents you from getting enough sleep. 

If your anxiety symptoms are interfering with any aspect of your life, it’s time to seek professional treatment. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered the gold standard therapy for managing anxiety disorders. 

During therapy, we help you replace negative thought patterns with positive reactions and rational thinking. Exploring your past experiences and relationships helps us better understand your current difficulties. We also focus on developing improved coping skills to help defuse anxiety. Ongoing reflection on the therapy and progress toward individualized goals are evaluated so that together, we can understand how the growth in therapy is reflected in other areas of your life.

When medication is helpful

Only a qualified healthcare professional, such as those at Mindful Mental Health, can determine whether anxiety medications might help you. But if you’re experiencing any of the following, it’s an indication that medication may be of benefit:

• Uncontrollable worrying
• Irregular heartbeat
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling like you’re losing control

Some panic attacks can be so intense they feel like you’re having a heart attack.

Don’t let anxiety control you

Anxiety disorders are medical conditions that benefit from prompt medical treatment. To learn how we can help you manage your anxiety and improve your quality of life, contact Mindful Mental Health in Springdale, Arkansas, today.