what is better for anxiety disorder,medication or theraphy?

Answer 1

Every case is different. I started taking antidepressants and my anxiety disappeared, but I know that medication doesn't help everybody. Generally, doctors suggest a combination of both medication and therapy as a treatment for anxiety.

Answer 2

Social anxiety can cause these feelings, which can also lead to severe depression,
http://www.socialanxietyinstitute.org/ds...

if not you could be suffering from Generalized Anxiety
Disorder..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/general_anx...

There is hope; I've been there, and still am there, it is a long, hard struggle. I recommend
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cognitive_b... worked best for me, with mild anti-anxiety meds. I suffered from social anxiety for over 15 years. I've tried individual therapy, and group therapy and studied psychology for 10 years, as a profession, but also with the hope to cure myself.

Depending on your comfort level, you could go to a psychologist that practices CBT and specializes in anxiety disorders, seek a group therapy, or create one. Usually those that do attend the group therapy are a bit more high functioning because as you know, it can be difficult to speak in a group.

Another idea is to see if there are any local research studies being conducted that you could participate in.

The program that finally worked the best for me is this one: http://www.socialanxiety.us/findinghelp.... and I was lucky enough to have a structured behavioral group to go along with it. Sometimes the people that actually attend this program come back home and form groups.

I recommend a mild anti-anxiety med in addition to CBT therapy.

Any questions, let me know ... I can't tell you how much this has improved my life!

Answer 3

It really depends to some extent on the type of anxiety disorder, but most anxiety disorders can be effectively treated with affective education, exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioral techniques and relaxation training (or some combination thereof). You would need a therapist that knows what those mean and how to do them, but they can work very well.

Some of the time with some very severe anxiety, an antidepressant can help. Benzodiazepines also help anxious symptoms but they form a dependence and are typically used when anxiety is so severe that people won't even leave their house to go (for example) to outpatient therapy.

Answer 4

I do not know approximately Anti-Anxiety, Maybe St. Johns Wort- that probably extra of a temper enhancer regardless that. But I as soon as heard that to give up smoking you will have to drink Grapefruit Juice each and every morning. Apparently that's intended to make the Cigarettes style sour. Don't understand if it really works or no longer regardless that.

Answer 5

Medications mask symptoms, they do not cure anxiety. Most therapies for anxiety are ineffective over the long run, because they teach coping skills and do not cure anxiety.
The cure of anxiety is possible, however you must identify the cause of the anxiety, remove it, and replace it with new, positive thought. Most anxiety is learned behaviour. The story goes like this...
I am put in a stressful situation. I become anxious. Somehow, the stressful situation goes away, but I attribute my survival through the stressful situation to my anxiety. Subconscously, I have learned that as long as I am anxious, I will survive. Survival becomes a strong motivator to maintain my anxiety.
Very few therapists today will bother to help you discover the subconscious basis of your anxiety, let alone know enough to remove the subconscious counterproductive thought and replace it with positive ideas. There is a small group of analysts practicing in the US today trained in a skill called medical hypnoanalysis who can help. Finding them is difficult, as they do not advertise. Most insurance does not cover this type of treatment. Anxiety can be cured permenantly with as little as two hours of appropriate intervention.

Answer 6

for me, therapy did the trick because i found the Root of the problem and worked out the symptoms.

Answer 7

The best method is to do both at the same time.

Answer 8

sleep, go out, do something fun, don't need to spend money on all them expensive things. its always better to do it naturally and on your own.

Answer 9

is a blanket term covering several different forms of abnormal, pathological anxiety, fears, phobias and nervous conditions that may come on suddenly or gradually over a period of several years, and may impair or prevent the pursuing of normal daily routines.

Anxiety and fear are ubiquitous emotions. The terms anxiety and fear have specific scientific meanings, but common usage has made them interchangeable. For example, a phobia is a kind of anxiety that is also defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV-TR) as a "persistent or irrational fear." Fear is defined as an emotional and physiological response to a recognized external threat (eg, a runaway car or an impending crash in an airplane). Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state, the sources of which are less readily identified. It is frequently accompanied by physiological symptoms that may lead to fatigue or even exhaustion. Because fear of recognized threats causes similar unpleasant mental and physical changes, patients use the terms fear and anxiety interchangeably. Thus, there is little need to strive to differentiate anxiety from fear. However, distinguishing among different anxiety disorders is important, since accurate diagnosis is more likely to result in effective treatment and a better prognosis.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Diagnosis
* 2 Types
o 2.1 Generalized anxiety disorder
o 2.2 Panic disorder
o 2.3 Agoraphobia
o 2.4 Phobias
o 2.5 Social anxiety disorder
o 2.6 Obsessive-compulsive disorder
o 2.7 Post-traumatic stress disorder
* 3 Treatment
* 4 The cost of anxiety disorders
* 5 Sources
o 5.1 Footnotes
o 5.2 References
* 6 See also
* 7 External links

[edit] Diagnosis

A good assessment is essential for the initial diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, preferably using a standardized interview or questionnaire procedure alongside expert evaluation and the views of the persons themselves. There should be a medical examination in order to identify possible medical conditions that can cause the symptoms of anxiety. A family history of anxiety disorders is suggestive of the possibility of an anxiety disorder. Although rare, it is important to exclude a pheochromocytoma. This normally presents with paroxysms of headache, sweating and palpitations, accompanied by hypertension. In the absence of these four symptoms, it may be excluded.Emedicine article

It is important to note that Clinical Depression generally presents alongside Anxiety Disorders, and vise-versa. Rarely does a patient present symptoms of only one or the other.

[edit] Types

[edit] Generalized anxiety disorder

Main article: General anxiety disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is a common chronic disorder that affects twice as many women as men and can lead to considerable impairment (Brawman-Mintzer & Lydiard, 1996, 1997). As the name implies, generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by long-lasting anxiety that is not focused on any particular object or situation. In other words it is unspecific or free-floating. People with this disorder feel afraid of something but are unable to articulate the specific fear. They fret constantly and have a hard time controlling their worries. Because of persistent muscle tension and autonomic fear reactions, they may develop headaches, heart palpitations, dizziness, and insomnia. These physical complaints, combined with the intense, long-term anxiety, make it difficult to cope with normal daily activities.

[edit] Panic disorder

Main article: Panic disorder

In panic disorder, a person suffers brief attacks of intense terror and apprehension that cause trembling and shaking, dizziness, and difficulty breathing. One who is often plagued by sudden bouts of intense anxiety might be said to be afflicted by this disorder. The American Psychiatric Association (2000) defines a panic attack as fear or discomfort that arises abruptly and peaks in 10 minutes or less.

Although panic attacks sometimes seem to occur out of nowhere, they generally happen after frightening experiences, prolonged stress, or even exercise. Many people who have panic attacks (especially their first one) think they are having a heart attack and often end up at the doctor or emergency department (or emergency room). Even if the tests all come back normal the person will still worry, with the physical manifestations of anxiety only reinforcing their fear that something is wrong with their body. Hightened awareness (hypervigilance) of any change in the normal function of the human body, will be noticed and interpreted as a possible life threatening illness by an individual suffering from panic attacks.

Normal changes in heartbeat, such as when climbing a flight of stairs will be noticed by a panic sufferer and lead them to think something is wrong with their heart or they are about to have another panic attack. Some begin to worry excessively and even quit jobs or refuse to leave home to avoid future attacks. Panic disorder can be diagnosed when several apparently spontaneous attacks lead to a persistent concern about future attacks.

[edit] Agoraphobia

Main article: Agoraphobia

A common complication of panic disorder is agoraphobia -- anxiety about being in a place or situation where escape is difficult or embarrassing (Craske, 2000; Gorman, 2000).

[edit] Phobias

Main article: Phobia

This category involves a strong, irrational fear and avoidance of an object or situation. The person knows the fear is irrational, yet the anxiety remains. Phobic disorders differ from generalized anxiety disorders and panic disorders because there is a specific stimulus or situation that elicits a strong fear response. A person suffering from a phobia of spiders might feel so frightened by a spider that he or she would try to jump out of a speeding car to get away from one.

People with phobias have especially powerful imaginations, so they vividly anticipate terrifying consequences from encountering such feared objects as knives, bridges, blood, enclosed places, certain animals or situations. These individuals generally recognize that their fears are excessive and unreasonable but are generally unable to control their anxiety.

[edit] Social anxiety disorder

Main article: Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder is also known as social phobia. Individuals with this disorder experience intense fear of being negatively evaluated by others or of being publicly embarrassed because of impulsive acts. Almost everyone experiences "stage fright" when speaking or performing in front of a group. But people with social phobias become so anxious that performance is out of the question. In fact, their fear of public scrutiny and potential humiliaton becomes so pervasive that normal life can become impossible (den Boer 2000; Margolis & Swartz, 2001). Another social phobia is love-shyness, which most adversely affects certain men. Those afflicted find themselves unable to initiate intimate adult relationships (Gilmartin 1987).

[edit] Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Main article: Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a type of anxiety disorder primarily characterized by obsessions and/or compulsions. Obsessions are distressing, repetitive, intrusive thoughts or images that the individual often realizes are senseless. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that the person feels forced or compelled into doing, in order to relieve anxiety. The OCD thought pattern may be likened to superstitions: if X is done, Y won't happen--in spite of how unlikely it may be that doing X will actually prevent Y, if Y is even a real threat to begin with. A common example of this behavior would be obsessing that one's door is unlocked, which may lead to compulsive constant checking and rechecking of doors. Often the process seems much less logical. For example, the compulsion of walking in a certain pattern may be employed to alleviate the obsession that something bad is about to happen. Also with lights and certain other objects around the house hold that are easily able to obsess over.

[edit] Post-traumatic stress disorder

Main article: Post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder which results from a traumatic experience, such as being involved in battle, rape, being taken hostage, or being involved in a serious accident. The sufferer may experience flashbacks, avoidant behavior, and other symptoms.

[edit] Treatment

Anxiety disorders are often debilitating chronic conditions, which can be present from an early age or begin suddenly after a triggering event. They are prone to flare up at times of high stress.

Many of these disorders can also be treated (with or without adjuctive pharmaceutical therapy) with the aid of a good counselor and behavioral therapies such as cognitive therapy.

Mainstream treatment for anxiety consists of the prescription of anxiolytic agents and/or referral to a cognitive-behavioral therapist. There are indications that a combination of the two can be more effective than either one alone.

A number of drugs are used to treat these disorders. These include benzodiazepines and antidepressants of most of the main classes (SSRI, TCAs, MAOIs), and possibly Quetiapine.

[edit] The cost of anxiety disorders

The cost of anxiety disorders in the U.S. have been estimated to be between US$42 and US$47 billion per year. This number is about as high as the estimates of the cost of depression (from US$44 to US$53 billion). It includes direct psychiatric treatment as well as unnecessary treatment cost, work performance costs in terms of sickness leave and workcutback days, mortality costs (calculated as lost earnings potential). The true societal costs are much larger: long-term opportunity costs (like unemployment and underemployment)) and costs associated with comorbidity are not included in the above estimate. The opportunity costs alone are likely to exceed US$ 2,000 per year per patient. This would be US$ 100 billion per year for the total U.S. population.[1]

[edit] Sources

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Kessler, Ronald C. and Greenberg, Paul E.The economic burden of anxiety and stress disorders in Neuropsychopharmacology: The Fifth Generation of Progress pp 981-992

[edit] References

The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders In America, 2006 (rev), National Institute of Mental Health, NIH Publication No. 06-4584 [1]

[edit] See also

* Dot-probe paradigm
* Emotion
* Emotional memory

[edit] External links
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* Anxiety Disorder at NIMH
* About Panic/Anxiety Disorders
* Anxiety Disorders (for professionals) Anxiety Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, and Adjustment Disorders for professionals
* Anxiety Disorders Association of America Improving lives and providing hope through education, research, and treatment
* Anxiety and Compulsive Disorders - A study by Jerrickson Daniel
* Anxiety Detective Resources for anxiety sufferers

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