Although common, anxiety can lead to serious impairment in your everyday life. Anxiety can be as mild as a flutter in your stomach or as severe as an anxiety attack, but it is always an uncomfortable experience. Keep reading to learn more about what causes anxiety and what you can do to resolve anxiety symptoms.

Key Takeaways

  1. Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Anxiety disorders encompass a range of conditions, each with distinct triggers and symptoms. These disorders include generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder, specific phobias, and separation anxiety, impacting a significant portion of the population.
  2. Symptoms and Impact: Anxiety manifests through both physical and psychological symptoms such as excessive worry, racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, and physical signs like sweating and trembling. Persistent symptoms can severely disrupt daily activities and overall quality of life.
  3. Comprehensive Treatment Approaches: Effective treatment options include a combination of psychotherapy, medication management, and innovative treatments like ketamine-assisted therapy and deep transcranial magnetic stimulation. Each method targets anxiety in different ways, catering to individual needs and enhancing recovery prospects.

Different Types of Anxiety

Understanding the different types of anxiety is a critical first step toward resolving your symptoms. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental disorders, with several mental health disorders all falling under the same umbrella. Each type of anxiety may have different causes and symptoms. 

Mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, are prevalent, affecting a significant portion of the U.S. population. They are a subset of mental health conditions that also include other disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which share features with anxiety disorders.

Separation anxiety disorder, characterized by excessive fear and anxiety when separated from loved ones, is another example of an anxiety disorder. This condition can persist from childhood into adulthood, manifesting as physical symptoms of distress, nightmares, and difficulties in functioning.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized anxiety disorder describes a condition where people can feel intense and overwhelming anxiety for nearly any reason. Unlike other anxiety disorders, there is no singular source of anxiety, but rather a tendency toward anxiety in nearly any situation.

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

People living with social anxiety disorder often have a difficult time in public or social situations. You might feel nauseated or paralyzed by the thought of speaking in public, fear judgment from others at a party, or be overly self-conscious. As a result, many people with SAD avoid many common social situations or activities.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is a type of anxiety characterized by frequent and debilitating panic attacks. During these attacks, people can feel out of breath, have elevated heart rates, and may even think they are having a heart attack. Panic attacks are an intense fear response, often when there is no danger or clear cause.

Specific Phobias

A phobia is an irrational and uncontrollable fear about a specific situation, object, or activity. For example, some people are intensely afraid of flying, spiders, or enclosed spaces.

As you might expect, the cause of anxiety can vary dramatically between different types of anxiety disorders. Additionally, specific anxiety treatments may be better suited to treat certain types of anxiety.

Anxiety Symptoms

While each type of anxiety disorder has a slightly different set of symptoms, some commonalities can help you determine whether you’re experiencing an anxiety disorder. Anxiety has both physical and psychological symptoms, and you may experience one more intensely than the other.

Some of the most common anxiety symptoms include:

  • Excessive worry or fear
  • Feeling like your thoughts are racing out of control
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • A feeling of impending doom
  • Profuse sweating
  • Trembling
  • Hyperventilation
  • Feeling like your heart is beating out of your chest
  • Sleep problems

Experiencing these symptoms regularly may indicate an underlying anxiety disorder, particularly if they happen often, regularly, and disrupt your everyday life. The prevalence and impact of anxiety, alongside depressive disorders, societal pressure, income inequality, and the cost-of-living crisis, significantly contribute to the broader spectrum of mental illness, affecting overall mental health.

Common Anxiety-Provoking Situations

By understanding the different kinds of anxiety and the common symptoms, you can begin to look at specific causes of anxiety. These differ dramatically between individuals, but certain situations are more likely to provoke anxiety than others.

By far, the most common anxiety-provoking situations are when you are under direct scrutiny from others. This is particularly true for people with social anxiety disorder, but it’s a common cause of anxiety for people with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder as well. This could include situations such as:

  • Job interviews
  • Public speaking
  • Meetings at work
  • Performance reviews
  • Dating
  • Performing for others

Other situations can lead to anxiety as well, particularly for people with generalized anxiety disorder. Health concerns, stressful life events, and major life changes are all common sources of anxiety.

For people with specific phobias, the source of anxiety is typically highly localized. A person with arachnophobia, for instance, may rarely experience anxiety in their everyday life but become crippled by fear when a spider is seen in the house.

The Neural Basis of Anxiety

Another way of identifying the cause of anxiety is by looking within the brain itself. Anxiety is, fundamentally, an exaggerated fear response and has roots within the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

The amygdala is associated with the fight-or-flight response and plays a key role in activating the sympathetic nervous system. This can cause a spike in adrenaline, hyperventilation, and a shift in blood pressure toward the heart and lungs.

People with anxiety disorders have elevated activity within the amygdala, which causes an overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system. This causes a cascade of physiological changes that parallel the symptoms of anxiety.

How to Deal With Anxiety

Certain people can learn to cope with their anxiety through lifestyle changes, such as starting exercise routines, mindfulness meditation, or avoiding specific situations that cause them anxiety. But for most people with anxiety disorders, lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough to put an end to anxiety symptoms.

Thankfully, researchers and clinicians have studied the treatment of anxiety for decades, and several evidence-based treatment methods can help people achieve recovery.

Starting treatment at a specialized mental health provider can not only help you cope with anxiety in the moment but also resolve the underlying causes of anxiety, allowing you to live a healthier and happier life in mental health recovery.

Traditional Anxiety Treatment Options

Conventional methods for anxiety treatment revolve around two main treatment methodologies – anxiety therapy, as outlined by the American Psychiatric Association in sections of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM) focusing on Anxiety Disorders, and anxiety medications, specifically anti-anxiety medications. 

Anxiety medications are commonly used to provide significant relief from symptoms of anxiety disorders and are one of the main treatments alongside psychotherapy or talk therapy. However, it’s crucial to understand that these treatments aim to manage symptoms and improve quality of life rather than cure anxiety disorders outright. 

Seeking guidance from a mental health professional is essential in choosing the right treatment method. A licensed mental health professional can offer a comprehensive approach through psychotherapy, medications, and other coping strategies to effectively manage anxiety disorders.

Anxiety Therapy

Talk therapy has long been an effective method of helping people resolve their anxiety symptoms and work toward achieving recovery. Several different therapeutic styles have proven themselves to be beneficial in the treatment of anxiety disorders, including:

  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

While each therapeutic style may differ, they all help people change the way they think about anxiety-provoking situations and teach actionable strategies that can help in the event of an anxiety attack or stressful situation.

Anxiety Medications

Certain medications can treat anxiety disorders as well. While several medication options are available for the treatment of anxiety, they generally fall into three main categories:

  • Benzodiazepines: Medications such as Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin all belong to the category of benzodiazepines. Some are fast-acting anxiety relievers, while others provide long-term relief. While these medications are highly effective when prescribed by a mental health professional, they can carry some risk of misuse or addiction and treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
  • Antidepressants: Many antidepressant medications are used to treat anxiety as well. Unlike benzodiazepines, these medications can create lasting changes that prevent anxiety from occurring in the first place. Antidepressants are typically taken daily and are generally less prone to misuse.
  • Beta-blockers: These are often used off-label to treat the physical symptoms of anxiety. They can help calm the sympathetic nervous system, preventing the symptoms of sweating, racing heartbeats, or tremors.

Starting anxiety medication typically involves meeting with a psychiatrist to begin medication management. Your psychiatrist will work with you to determine which medications can best treat your symptoms and help you adjust the dosage and timing for maximum results.

Alternative Anxiety Treatment Options

While anxiety therapy and medications can help a great number of people achieve recovery, they don’t always work for everyone. Thankfully, there have been great advancements in innovative treatment methods for treating anxiety disorders, and these novel treatment methods are available for anxiety treatment at Plus by APN.

Ketamine-Assisted Therapy (KAT)

Ketamine-assisted therapy is an innovative approach to accelerating the therapy process. In traditional therapy, there are several barriers to people achieving recovery from anxiety disorders. Most commonly, people are anxious to speak with a therapist, which can paradoxically interfere with anxiety treatment.

Traditional talk therapy takes time to build trust, gain insight, and reach the point where recovery can happen. By administering a small dose of ketamine, a dissociative psychedelic, people can rapidly break through these barriers and accelerate the healing process.

KAT follows three simple stages. First, you meet with your treatment team, who can walk you through the treatment process and tell you what to expect.

Then comes the ketamine session, where ketamine is administered, and a therapist guides you through the experience. The ketamine session typically lasts about two hours.

Finally, our team follows up with you to see how your symptoms have improved after treatment and provide continued support. Most people experience a dramatic improvement after a single session, but repeated sessions can further solidify your treatment progress.

Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS)

Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation is an anxiety treatment approach that directly targets regions of the brain associated with anxiety. dTMS begins with a meticulous brain scan, locating underactive regions of the brain typically associated with anxiety disorders.

Using powerful magnets attached to a cap, dTMS can stimulate underactive brain regions with brief electromagnetic impulses to help aid the brain’s recovery process. Over time, dTMS can forge new neuronal pathways that can reduce the symptoms of anxiety. 

dTMS is not the same as electroshock therapy; while the stimulation reaches deep into the brain, dTMS is non-invasive, and most people can resume their daily activities after a brief 20-minute treatment session.

Neurofeedback

Neurofeedback is a treatment approach that provides real-time brain information to help you regulate your brain activity.

Similar to dTMS, neurofeedback uses a specialized cap that tracks brain wave activity. This information is displayed on a screen and prompts you to complete different tasks to retrain your brain and promote healthier brain activity.

Neurofeedback is an excellent alternative anxiety treatment for individuals who have struggled to make progress with traditional treatment methods. Over time, neurofeedback clients learn to develop strategies that help them achieve a more relaxed and calming state, even when overstimulated. Neurofeedback training can provide substantial benefits for people living with an anxiety disorder.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps the brain and body accelerate natural healing processes. During HBOT sessions, clients enter a highly oxygenated chamber, which can drastically increase the available oxygen within their bloodstream.

Oxygen is one of the primary building blocks for cell growth and repair, helping your brain create new neural pathways during anxiety treatment. HBOT can be used as a direct treatment for anxiety for people who have experienced some type of brain damage or used in conjunction with other treatments to accelerate the healing process.

Stellate Ganglion Blocks (SGB)

The stellate ganglion is a bundle of nerves in the neck that plays a key role in the sympathetic nervous system. A stellate ganglion block provides a local anesthetic to this bundle of nerves, which can result in substantial improvements in several of the physical symptoms of anxiety.

Essentially, a stellate ganglion block impedes the signals from your brain from reaching the rest of your body. While this doesn’t improve the psychological symptoms of anxiety directly, a reduction in physical symptoms can keep your psychological symptoms from getting worse. By reducing the physical effects of anxiety, SGBs can offer relief for individuals struggling with chronic anxiety symptoms.

Conclusion

Understanding and managing anxiety requires a nuanced approach that recognizes the unique manifestations and impacts of different anxiety disorders. At Plus by APN, we are committed to providing compassionate, evidence-based care that addresses both the symptoms and root causes of anxiety. 

Whether through traditional therapies or cutting-edge treatments, our goal is to empower you to regain control and achieve a more peaceful, fulfilling life. Your journey to recovery is important to us, and we are here to support you every step of the way.

References: 

  • “Anxiety Disorders.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders. Accessed 23 Dec. 2023.
  • Lynch, James H et al. “Stellate Ganglion Block Reduces Anxiety Symptoms by Half: A Case Series of 285 Patients.” Journal of personalized medicine vol. 13,6 958. 6 Jun. 2023, doi:10.3390/jpm13060958