One of the most powerful aspects of anxiety is its ability to convince you that you are alone in your suffering—that the fearful, shaky feeling is unique to you. But the truth is that everyone is affected by anxiety at some point, whether in response to a real threat or a perceived one. In fact, we’re hard-wired to want to flee when things get scary; it’s what keeps us alive and safe.
But when anxiety begins to arise regularly in the absence of an actual threat, it can have a negative effect on your physical health, your mood, emotional wellbeing, and even your relationships with others. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America estimates that 40 million people suffer from an anxiety disorder. When anxiety begins to impact daily life, many people benefit from seeking professional help, such as psychotherapy and/or medication. They may also work with an integrative provider to benefit from therapies such as botanical medicine or functional nutrition or massage.
Whether or not you are seeking medical treatment, there are many things you can do on your own to feel better. Anxiety doesn’t have an on/off switch; rather, the choices you make can add up to an increased sense of calm. Here are some things you can do:
Pay attention
At the center of any kind of emotional work is awareness: the ability to notice what emotion is arising and what the triggers were. Awareness is about paying attention—it doesn’t take a special effort, just a willingness to look at what’s happening with an attitude of nonjudgment and friendliness.
So when a feeling of anxiety arises, ask yourself: is there a real threat here? If there is, do what you can to remove yourself from it. If there isn’t, then give yourself a break from participating in the drama and instead watch the energy of the feeling rise and eventually pass away on its own. If the fear is not too intense, see what it feels like to sit with the feeling instead of trying to escape it. This might feel like hard work, but that’s okay—just keep renewing your commitment to pay attention, while being kind to yourself.
Psychotherapy Anxiety Treatment
In recent years, various pharmaceuticals such as antidepressants and tranquilizers have been utilized to treat a wide range of anxiety disorders. This trend, while often immediately beneficial to the patient, has publicly overshadowed the therapeutic treatments which are arguably the most effective in the long run.
Two common forms of psychotherapy utilized for treatment of anxiety disorders are behavioral and cognitive therapy: in cognitive therapy, the therapist helps the patient to adapt his or her problematic thought patterns into those which are healthier. For example, the therapist might help someone with panic disorder to prevent panic attacks—and make those that do occur less intense—by teaching him or her how to mentally re-approach anxiety-inducing situations. In behavioral therapy, the therapist will help the patient to combat undesirable behaviors which often come hand in hand with anxiety; for example, the patient will learn relaxation and deep breathing exercises to use when experiencing hyperventilation as a result of panic attacks.
Since these methods of treatment are such close cousins—both involving, in a sense, active re-education of the mind by the patient—therapists often use them together, in a broader classification of treatment called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is used to treat all six forms of anxiety disorders listed above.
Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)/Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
Psychologist Albert Ellis, in the 1950s, believed that then-trendy psychoanalysis was an inefficient form of treatment because the patient was not directed to change his or her way of thinking; he originated RET, which was later developed further by neo-Freudian psychotherapist Alfred Adler. RET has roots in Stoic philosophy, such as in the writing of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus; behaviorists Joseph Wolpe and Neil Miller seem also to have influenced Albert Ellis. Ellis continued working on his therapeutic approach, and in the 1990s—nearly forty years after first developing the treatment—he renamed it Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, in order to make the treatment’s moniker more accurate.
Rational Behavior Therapy
One of Ellis’s students, physician Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr., developed this slight variation about ten years after Ellis first developed his. Rational Behavior Therapy is distinctive in that the therapist assigns “therapeutic homework” to the client, and places “emphasis on client rational self-counseling skills”. Clients are urged to take added initiative in their own recoveries, even beyond that encouraged by many other forms of CBT.
Some other specialized forms of CBT are Schema Focused Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Rational Living Therapy. Finally, one form of behavioral psychotherapy which differs from CBT is Exposure with Response Prevention; usually used to treat specific phobias, Exposure with Response Prevention involves gradually making the patient familiar with the object or action causing anxiety—a sort of step-by-step “face your fears” treatment.
As with almost any illness, anxiety disorder patients must take some initiative in their treatment and recovery—whether it be by seeking help from a physician, taking medications properly and punctually, or attending and actively engaging in therapy sessions.
Psychotherapy is a form of treatment for those who wish to work towards recovery; the benefit of such therapies, which take them a step beyond pharmaceuticals, are thus: antidepressants and other drugs seem to act as analgesics or, at best, vitamins; however, given the potential side effects, most patients might not wish to take them for their entire lives. With the aid of therapies—especially therapies in which they can most actively work towards recovery—patients can make the changes which will allow them to live with less anxiety for years to come.
References
Narayana, K. C., Chakrabarti, S., & Grover, S. (2004). Insecticide Phobia Treated With Exposure and Response-Prevention: A Case Report. German Journal of Psychiatry, 7(2): 12-13.
About This Excerpt
The above excerpt is reprinted from Dr. Randi Fredricks’ book Complementary and Alternative Treatments for Anxiety. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Dr. Randi Fredricks as articles often present the published results of the research of other professionals. Copyright © 2020.