Anxiety Treatment Rochester NY

Anxiety can be difficult to manage on your own. Villa of Hope is here to help you manage your symptoms and create a better response to the strong feelings it can evoke. No matter what type of anxiety you are dealing with, our center offers treatment to Rochester and surrounding areas.

What Is Anxiety?

A lot of people understand the fleeting feeling of anxiety, but it can be difficult to fully understand what it means to have an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety can affect every part of your health, not just mental, but physical as well. (1)

“When you’re stressed, the brain responds by prompting the release of cortisol, nature’s built-in alarm system. It evolved to help animals facing physical threats […]” – NY Times

The feelings anxiety can evoke bring with it very real physical symptoms that can be detrimental to your health in the long term, making it even more important to seek treatment if you think you may have chronic anxiety in some form.

What Causes Anxiety?

Anxiety may be caused by any number of experiences and situations. One of the most common reasons people develop anxiety disorders is because of difficult experiences that cause a sense of ongoing anxiety or stress.

Traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, can have a big impact on how you behave, giving you the sense that you need to control aspects of any situation, even in unrelated environments.

Anxiety may also be caused by chemical imbalances or genetic makeup that can be diagnosed and, in many cases, treated.

In many cases, if an individual tries to self-manage their symptoms, this worsens the sense of anxiety as they begin seeking control over their situation, magnifying their sense of irritability and worry over everyday situations.

What Does Anxiety Look Like?

Anxiety doesn’t always have overt symptoms that are easy to spot in social situations. The anxious individual may appear fidgety or shakey, abnormally frenetic in their movements, or dissociative and ‘spacey.’ Depending on the individual, rapid breathing, sweating, increased heart rate, and flushed skin can also be outward signs of anxiety.

Inwardly, anxiety can take on a whole other level. A sense of impending doom, panic, backaches, headaches, feelings of lightheadedness, restlessness, a knotted feeling in your stomach or throat, or sharp chest pains are all internal feelings of anxiety that can come on suddenly and strongly; something known as an anxiety attack.

Typically, feelings of anxiety are fleeting and appropriate for a dangerous situation, as they evolved as a part of the fight or flight response. Anxiety disorders, on the other hand, are categorized when the feeling becomes so strong and frequent that it negatively impacts your daily life. These anxiety attacks may come on in response to certain triggers, or without cause.

Anxiety is not limited to just anxiety attacks either but may persist as a low-lying level of concern or worry throughout the day that the individual cannot often pinpoint, changing the target of their anxious energy frequently. Likewise, anxiety may manifest as typical overreactions to a situation that might warrant mild anxiety.

Types of Anxiety

Different types of anxiety can manifest in different ways based on your circumstances and individual symptoms. You may feel a general sense of anxiety throughout the day, or it may be triggered by certain situations or scenarios.

In any case, anxiety can be a debilitating experience that causes relationship and job struggles or causes difficulty when engaging in hobbies or other activities that you typically enjoy.

In severe and untreated cases, anxiety can lead to what is known as agoraphobia, where the individual is afraid to leave their home, resulting in social isolation and other mental health problems such as addiction or depression.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD, does not come with a name that inspires confidence in the diagnosis, but it’s a well-defined disorder that many people struggle with in the modern world. Despite the broad scope of diagnosis that the name covers, there is still an underlying treatable cause.

This disorder is often diagnosed by excessive worrying, fidgeting, overreaction, general irritability, and difficulty concentrating. Individuals struggling with GAD may find themselves worrying about the smallest things in life, causing difficulty sleeping, irritability, and frequent feelings of fear or loss of control.

This is the most common anxiety diagnosis and can also include other symptoms such as phobias, panic attacks, and avoidance behaviors.

Social Anxiety or Phobia

Social anxiety is a common type of anxiety where the individual may feel symptoms of anxiety, but rather than it occurring frequently for seemingly no reason, this anxiety is brought on by social situations. Whether it is speaking on the phone or making a public speech to a crowd, social anxiety can be difficult to manage alone.

Specific phobias are easy to diagnose and treat because, most of the time, the patient is aware that they have a strong fear or aversion to something and is seeking treatment for it. It is normal to have phobias, much like it is normal for these phobias to produce feelings of anxiety. While everyone has their fears, it becomes a severe problem that you should seek treatment for when it begins to interfere with your daily life or habits.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks may be a type of anxiety alone, or they can come in combination with another form of anxiety. These ‘panic attacks’ are strong feelings of anxiety or panic that arise suddenly. Individuals who struggle with panic attacks may find that they come on seemingly random, or they may be tied to certain situations and triggers.

Symptoms include heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, numbness, and tingling, nausea, chest pains, excessive sweating, trembling, and lightheadedness. When experiencing these symptoms, it comes on strong and may last for several minutes; it is common for the individual to believe they are having a heart attack in these situations.

Is Anxiety a Mental Illness?

The emotion of anxiety is not a mental illness; in fact, anxiety is a perfectly natural and normal part of our lives. This emotion or feeling is necessary when dealing with dangerous situations that could require fast action.

When anxiety becomes chronic and debilitating at every step of our lives, it becomes an anxiety disorder. This is when anxiety is considered a mental illness, as it can prevent or hinder your ability to lead a normal and productive lifestyle that you enjoy.

Fortunately, anxiety is extremely treatable, and many effective treatments are available based on your needs. If you believe you need anxiety treatment Rochester based clinic Villa of Hope is here to help you.

The sooner you seek help, the easier it is to learn how to manage your symptoms and bring your anxiety under control again. It doesn’t have to be extreme to affect your everyday life.

How to Help a Loved One with Anxiety

It can be difficult to see a loved one struggling with anxiety. This disorder can take away their confidence and cause them to withdraw from the world. It’s never too late to seek help. Villa of Hope is here to help you navigate the process.

Get in touch with us today to learn more about the enrollment process and how anxiety treatment can help them overcome anxiety and learn how to cope with their symptoms in the future.

Types of Treatment Available

There are many forms anxiety can take, but just as many options to ensure you get the most effective treatment possible. Villa of Hope in Rochester, NY can help you manage your anxiety symptoms and work with you to uncover the root cause, providing you with a safe space where you can learn how to manage and treat your anxiety properly.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

This type of therapy is most common in treating anxiety disorders. Because anxiety is often triggered by mental associations and habits in thought, it is an effective method of therapy that can be done relatively easily with a professional’s help.

Because thought governs your emotions, you may seek CBT and other thought or behavior therapies to manage your anxiety. How you perceive the world can be changed with subtle shifts in your habits and patterns around unpleasant situations or emotions. CBT may also be done in combination with other forms of treatment depending on your circumstances or anxiety triggers.

Management Education

Beyond therapy, anxiety disorders must be managed appropriately. If you don’t have healthy coping mechanisms to manage your symptoms when they do appear, it can be easy to undo a lot of the progress you make with your anxiety disorder.

At Villa of Hope, we provide you with management education, so you are equipped with the right tools to manage your anxiety safely and effectively. Not only does this empower you to prevent anxiety in the first place, but it helps you stay in control if you do feel symptoms of anxiety again.

Medicated Management

Medicated management may be the right choice if your anxiety symptoms stem from genetic, neurological, or chemical causes. Some individuals may also use anti-anxiety medications as a way to manage their daily symptoms while they are going through therapy to allow them to focus on treatment and gain a better understanding of the baseline ‘normal’ feelings they are looking for.

This method of treatment is not typically the first line of treatment for anxiety disorders for mild anxiety but may be included as a part of a larger treatment plan for more severe symptoms or in certain circumstances.

There Is Hope

Don’t feel like you have to manage your symptoms alone. Anxiety can be anything from a built-up response to a chemical or neurological imbalance, each requiring different treatment and management styles.

The care team at Villa of Hope is here in Rochester, NY to help you manage your anxiety symptoms and treat the root cause based on your circumstances. No more days wasted treating the wrong symptoms or figuring out what works on your own; it’s time to ensure you have the proper care for your mental health.

View our mental health outpatient clinic page or give us a call today to learn more about our anxiety treatment and how to get started.

References:

1. NY Times, The Devastating Ways Depression and Anxiety Impact the Body,  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/well/mind/depression-anxiety-physical-health.html