Anxiety Treatment Options: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Other Alternatives

Alternatives for Anxiety Disorders, Panic attacks, OCD, Phobias, PTSD

Anxiety Treatment With Therapy

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But, you are not alone-- and, with some effort, you will not be the first one to come out of this situation – if you make right effort.

Therapy is found to be effective for all kinds of anxiety disorders. For anxiety treatment therapy is more effective than medication, since it helps one understand the belief system that gives rise to anxious thoughts and related bodily responses.

Therapy is effective because it helps one to reformulate fearful thoughts, learn relaxation techniques, learn to see the situations in a realistic manner. Generally, it helps one learn essential skills that are essential to live a low stress life, whether one is suffering from anxiety disorder or not.

There are several kinds of therapies, but Cognitive Therapy and Exposure Therapy are found to be more effective for anxiety treatment. Any one method or a combination of two or more may be used.

The anxiety treatment may take 10 to 20 weeks, and you may notice significant improvement in around 10 weeks – though the actual length of treatment varies from person to person, depending upon the severity of anxiety.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT can be in the form of individual or group sessions. Persons suffering from social anxieties may prefer individual sessions. Several studies have demonstrated that telephone based therapy is also effective for Generalized anxiety, OCD and panic disorders.

Cognitive Therapy works on the premise that these are thoughts that give rise to anxiety and fear, and one can learn to recognize and change the thoughts. By changing the thoughts one can learn to manage anxiety reactions. Sometimes, ideal anxiety treatment may be a combination of therapy and medication.

CBT works at two levels –

1. Cognition – Thought, understanding, knowledge.
2. Behavior – Manage and change the reactions and responses.

Thoughts --> Emotions --> Reactions

Negative perceptions make a situation fearsome; you feel anxiety and react out of fear; learning to view the situations in a balanced way, understanding our fault lines, and learning to react in a more rational way: CBT seeks to achieve all this through the interaction of the therapist and the patient.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy consists of following stages –

1. Recognize Patterns: Become aware of thoughts and assumptions that give rise to anxiety. For example, the person suffering from anxiety may be encouraged to be aware of the assumptions that make uncertainty intolerable and perceive danger where there is none.
2. Examine Beliefs: Therapist may then ask the sufferer to challenge the beliefs and assumptions underlying anxious thoughts. He may, with the help of therapist, examine the threat and try to see the situation in a balanced way. He may be given some assignments by the therapist and asked to confront his fears in mild situations, and to observe if the fears really come true.
3. Change Thoughts:By continuously repeating the experiments and examining the thoughts repeatedly with the therapist, one may become courageous enough to try and change the thought patterns entrenched in one's own mind. The person may learn some relaxation techniques which will help him in staying calm in previously anxious situations. Medication may also be taken to help one in bringing about the change.

In stages patient learns to deal with feared situations and learns to live life normally, again.

Alternative Therapies

Systematic Desensitization

This is the techniques by which the anxiety reaction is slowly delinked from the anxiety producing situation. This treatment is found to be effective for OCD, phobias, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Agoraphobia and social anxiety.It gradually exposes the patient to the feared situation – starting from the least stressful to the most stressful. The help of relaxation techniques is taken to weed out the anxiety or panic reactions.

It consists of the following two stages –

• Learning relaxation techniques to help one get relaxed when under stress.
• Confronting the fears in a graduated manner armed with the relaxation techniques learned beforehand.

Anxiety Treatment With Exposure Therapy

This is quite different from systematic desensitization, as here the person is exposed to the most feared object or situation in the beginning itself. The exposure may be in imagination or in reality.

The treatment can be delivered along with the Cognitive Therapy. The gradual exposure to the feared situations, time and again, gives the person a sense of control and increases his self confidence to face the situations and deal with the fears. This therapy has been found to be effective in treating many anxiety disorders and has also been successfully used in treating PTSD.

Modeling Treatment

Modeling treatment is often used to treat specific phobias. The treatment consists of using an actor who approaches the feared situation or anxiety producing object. The patient observes the actor on videotape or in live conditions. By observing the actor he learns to deal with the situations and objects and gradually makes efforts to repeat the activities himself.

Other therapies for Anxiety Treatment

Emotion based therapies deal with childhood memories to help the patient understand his anxiety disorders. They are based on interpersonal interaction between patient and therapist. Psychoanalysis, interpersonal therapy, supportive therapy, attention intervention, all these are types of emotion-based therapies. People tend to stay longer in Emotion based therapies, though it is observed that Cognitive Behavioral Therapies are more effective in treating anxiety disorders.

Important For Managing Anxiety Disorders

Besides all the anxiety treatment options discussed above, following are some of the things that are extremely helpful for managing your own anxieties –

• Relaxation: It is important to practice relaxation in whatever form it suits you. Progressive Muscle Relaxation is easy to learn and practice.
• Correct Breathing :During stressful conditions your breathing becomes shallow, which further contributes in increasing the stress response of the body. You may become habitual of this kind of shallow breathing, even if you are not tense or worried. Pay attention to your breathing, and learn the technique of correct breathing.
• Biofeedback: With the help of special biofeedback sensors you can observe the effect of your own efforts on and learn to bring down the stress levels on your own.
• Meditation: Research has proved the beneficial effects of Meditation on bringing down stress and anxiety levels. Transcendental Meditation has been extensively studied for this purpose. However, other meditation practices may be equally beneficial.



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Further Reading

Panic Attack Treatment: Getting The Right Kind Of Help

Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Is It Normal?

Causes Of Panic Attacks: Which Personality Type Is More Susceptible?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Cope With Stress and Anxiety: Four Steps to Reduced Stress

Practice Self Hypnosis for Stress and Anxiety Relief

Meditation: Stress Relief Through Awareness

Effective Relaxation Techniques

Guided Imagery: Write Your Own Script!

Relaxation CD and Downloads: Experience Deep Calm & Relaxation

When Cause Of Stress Is Low Self Esteem

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