How to Deal With Anxiety

Worry, fear, panic, dread. Worry, fear, panic, dread. Worry, fear, panic, dread. These are strong emotions we all feel at some point in our lives. What if you had to live with worry, fear, panic, and dread on a daily basis? For people living with an anxiety disorder, these emotions are a daily occurrence. If you’ve been diagnosed with anxiety, you know how these feelings can take a toll. Some people liken it to being stuck on an unpleasant amusement park ride from which there is no escape. At Highland Springs, we’re here to teach you how to deal with anxiety so you can enjoy your life once again. As specialists in anxiety disorder treatment, we have the tools necessary for you to gain control and find happiness again.

Common Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18% of adults–40 million people–in the United States suffer from an anxiety disorder. 25% of adolescents ages 13 to 18 have anxiety, and 5% have severe anxiety. Anxiety disorders present themselves in many different ways that may not be immediately recognized as anxiety. Common symptoms of an anxiety disorder include:

• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Rapid pulse
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Dry mouth

While there are physical symptoms, the psychological symptoms are most commonly associated with anxiety disorders. Most people who suffer from anxiety often feel like their mind and body are out of control. Surprisingly, 80% of adolescents and 33% of adults aren’t even aware they have an anxiety problem, or simply don’t seek any anxiety disorder treatment. You may be asking yourself, “How is it possible for someone to have this problem and not know it?”

An alarming population of people either aren’t seeking anxiety treatment or don’t even know they need help for an anxiety disorder. For those who aren’t aware there is a problem, it’s usually due to the fact that they think the common symptoms of anxiety disorder are just a normal part of being human. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America and Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reported in 1999 that people with an anxiety disorder are three to five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those who do not suffer from anxiety disorders. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that about 8% of all ER visits are because of mental health problems, and about 60% of those are because of anxiety and depression. For example, some people will go to the ER complaining of chest pain, and it is later diagnosed as anxiety. When you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to mix up an anxiety disorder with another medical diagnosis.

Understanding Anxiety

It’s important to understand that anxiety disorders are extreme forms of normal brain-body-behavior when faced with threatening situations. Your brain constantly scans your environment for threats and quickly acts if a threat is perceived. If you feel fear, your senses heighten and make you want to fight or flee to escape the danger. There is no logical thought with this part of the brain, only emotions. To think through your feelings, the front part of your brain kicks in. It will either confirm the emotions as real, and help you fight or escape, or decide the threat is not real and start calming you down.

However, like any complicated system, things can go wrong. This is where anxiety disorders come into play. Remember, anxiety disorders are extreme versions of normal anxiety responses. For example, when you go to bed at night, checking to make sure the door is locked is a good thing. This is to prevent someone from breaking in and invading your home. Double-checking the lock helps you to logically deal with the fear, calm you down, and go to sleep. Now imagine if you couldn’t make that fear of home invasion go away. No matter how many times you checked the lock, it didn’t help. This is similar to living with an anxiety disorder. While anxiety disorder treatment can help those suffering learn how to deal with anxiety, there is always that inner fear of leaving the door unlocked, so to speak. This is why it’s critical to seek treatment, and learn how to overcome feelings of anxiety in order to live your life to the fullest.

Seeking Anxiety Disorder Treatment

With all the treatment options readily available today, it’s unnecessary to suffer from an anxiety disorder. Learning how to deal with anxiety is possible and attainable for anyone. At Highland Springs, we have conveniently located anxiety treatment centers in Utah that are filled with therapists and medical prescribers who are waiting to help. Maybe you are thinking about your own anxiety feelings for the first time, and that’s okay. The most important thing is seeking help as soon as you have recognized a problem. If you or a loved one is suffering from an untreated anxiety disorder, Highland Springs can help. Our anxiety disorder treatments include a combination of medication, psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy which consists of:

• Meditation
• Relaxation therapy
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy

Through a combination of mind/body/spirit perspective in treating anxiety, Highland Springs is highly effective. By incorporating these different processes into one therapy regimen, we are able to treat a wide spectrum of anxiety variables. Through practices such as EMDR therapy, our therapists can pinpoint where to start your healing regimen. With treatments like this, you no longer have to let anxiety rule your life. Eliminate the cycle of worry, fear, panic, dread, and begin living your life to the fullest. There is hope.

If you or a loved one is seeking treatment for an anxiety disorder, call us today to schedule a confidential counseling appointment.

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Dr. Todd Thatcher

Dr. Thatcher, DO, CMRO, works with the Valley Behavioral Health’s Director of Nursing providing supervision and oversight of medical operations for over 70 medical staff members and medical issues in over 70 clinics and facilities in Utah, Boise Idaho, and Phoenix Arizona.

His major medical initiatives include telehealth, integrated care, medication-assisted treatment, and substance abuse services, forensics services, and seamless integration of jail/prison/mental health court & drug court/probation/parole services with behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, ValleyLab blood and urine drug testing, data analytics to drive better outcomes & computerized automation of standardized measurement tools, and Brainsway Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation clinic.