What is an Anxiety Disorder?

With step-by-step direction, Perspective Recovery helps you recognize what drives your stress and anxiety, the goal of our stress and anxiety treatment program is to provide you with techniques you can use to cope and move forward with your life.

As a structured mindset development course, each session allows you to get involved and review in private with a corresponding workbook. You will find that each session builds on the previous one and will help you address both the symptoms of stress and anxiety and the underlying causes that are specific to you. This unique program is unlike any other in the World and has worked for hundreds once hindered by stress and or anxiety. At Perspective Recovery, we offer private and discreet services that are tailored specific to your needs.

While it is normal for individuals to experience anxiety or nervousness, anxiety disorders may cause physical and or emotional distress that interfere with a person’s ability to lead a normal life, and are not by any means a personal weaknesses, character flaw or the result of poor upbringing, but real illnesses with real causes. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, over 18% of all Americans are affected by anxiety. A combination of factors such as changes in the brain, environmental stressors, and genetics can be the causes. Severe or long-lasting stress can change brain circuitry functionality that regulates mood. Trauma and significant events may also trigger anxiety in those who inherit the susceptibility to developing a disorder. An individual with symptoms of an anxiety disorder is evaluated by a doctor, which includes questions about medical history and a physical exam. There are no lab tests that diagnose anxiety disorders, but a doctor may use various tests to look for physical illnesses that may be causing the symptoms. If there is no physical illness, an individual may be referred to a mental health professional to treat the disorder.

What are the Symptoms?

Feelings of apprehension or dread
Feeling tense and jumpy
Restlessness or irritability
Expecting the worst and being watchful for signs of danger

Pounding or racing heart and shortness of breath
Upset stomach
Sweating, tremors, and twitches
Headaches, fatigue, and insomnia

How are Anxiety Disorders Treated?

Mental health professionals use specially designed interview and assessment tools to evaluate for anxiety disorders. Diagnosis is based on the individual’s report of intensity and duration of their symptoms and the doctor’s observation of the individual’s attitude and behavior.

Since each disorder has different symptoms, the exact treatment depends on the type of disorder, but the most successful treatment usually involves psychotherapy and education in mindfulness.

It is common for someone to have an accompanying diagnosis such as depression or addiction. Anxiety disorders are rarely the sole diagnosis in a person’s mental health history. That’s why it is important to seek help from a trained professional who can accurately diagnose all of the accompanying conditions and prescribe the right course of treatment for you.

Perspective Recovery, treats you with the most advanced and effective methods available, always making sure the client’s needs are the number one priority.

You or a loved one seeking recovery? Contact us!

Recovery starts with the first step

Anxiety and Substance Abuse

People with anxiety disorders often turn to drugs or alcohol for relief of the symptoms associated with anxiety. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, those with anxiety are two times as likely as the general population to also suffer from addiction. Alcohol and drug use typically only make the symptoms worse, leading to the desire to continue to self-medicate. It becomes a vicious cycle that’s hard to break and often leads suffers to seek the support of an anxiety treatment center.

Those with anxiety often experience more severe withdrawal symptoms than others when trying to quit using substances. Anxiety treatment programs have the resources to assist in managing these symptoms, making it easier to quit. There are several other reasons why a person with an anxiety disorder may turn to drugs or alcohol, including genetic predisposition, biochemical imbalances, or the strong effects of substance withdrawal. This is where anxiety treatment centers like Perspective Recovery can help the most.

“Everyone is going through something that we can’t see. The thing is, because we can’t see it, we don’t know who’s going through what and we don’t know when and we don’t always know why. Mental health is an invisible thing, but it touches all of us at some point or another. It’s part of life. “You never know what that person is going through.”

Kevin Love

Cleveland Cavaliers, speaking about his issues with anxiety and panic attacks

At Perspective Recovery, our philosophy is to evaluate anxiety problems carefully and appropriately. Our team of psychiatrists, program directors, and counselors understands anxiety and only recommends medications when needed. Many psychiatrists, as a first line of anxiety therapy, will prescribe benzodiazepines such as Valium, Xanax or Ambien. These drugs are highly addictive, have negative side effects, and actually worsen anxiety once they wear off. Recent research is suggesting that benzodiazepines also have negative long-term effects on memory and cognition and may be associated with dementia. People taking benzodiazepines also develop tolerance requiring continually increasing dosages. Withdrawal effects can range anywhere from uncomfortable to life-threatening. At Perspective Recovery, we believe in suggesting the minimal amount of medication and our policy is to help our patients taking benzodiazepines to wean off under medical direction. Many of our clients arrive at our anxiety treatment center taking antidepressants, Beta-blockers, low dose antipsychotic medications, and other anti-anxiety medications. It is our goal to determine what medications are actually needed, if any.

From chronic stress, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, severe anxiety and agoraphobia, and even depression – Attacking stress and anxiety can help you take control and enjoy life again by opening your eyes to your true potential, helping you to grow into the strong, confident, and resilient person you have the potential to become. Reach out to one of our friendly staff today and see how Perspective Recovery is able to help you refocus, realign, and reformulate your life.