Feeling scared and worried at times is normal, but if you feel extreme or continual anxiety that gets in the way of your ability to function, you may have an anxiety disorder. Zoe Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine board-certified psychiatrist Oluwole Popoola, MD, FASAM, and his team in Allen, Texas, excel in treating anxiety. They use proven approaches, including medication, counseling and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Call Zoe Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine today or book an in-person or telehealth consultation online for expert anxiety disorder treatment.
What is anxiety?
Feeling anxious is a normal response to stress, fear, and worry. Any significant event can cause anxiety, from interviews and work presentations to getting married and having a baby. However, it’s not normal to feel extremely anxious about minimally threatening events or anxiety all the time. If anxiety dictates your behaviors and prevents you from leading a fulfilling life, it has become an anxiety disorder. The most common is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), where several things in your life cause stress, fear, and indecision. Some people have anxiety about a specific situation or object that bears no relation to its potential threat. These could relate to anything, but some of the most common ones are fear of heights, confined spaces, spiders, and snakes. Social anxiety disorder is a type of anxiety that makes you avoid or endure social situations due to fear that you will make a mistake or be judged.
What symptoms can anxiety disorders cause?
Anxiety disorder symptoms include nervousness, muscle tension, restlessness, difficulty focusing, chronic fatigue, disrupted sleep, increased heart rate, fast, shallow breathing, excessive sweating, trembling, and panic attacks. Panic attacks are terrifying experiences where anxiety becomes so severe you can’t function normally. In addition to the symptoms above, you might have chest pain, shortness of breath, be frozen to the spot or collapse, and lose the ability to hear or speak. Experiencing a panic attack is so distressing that people often isolate themselves, staying at home to reduce the risk of another.
How are anxiety disorders treated?
After a comprehensive assessment, the Zoe Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine team prepares a personalized treatment plan to match your unique needs. Treatment might include:
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy involves interaction between you and a trained therapist/counsellor that aims to help you identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. It may involve exploring your past experiences and how they have contributed to current thinking patterns, emotions, and behaviors, or it could involve teaching you techniques to help you regulate your emotions and behavior.
Medication
Some patients recover from anxiety using psychotherapy alone, but anti-anxiety medication is often vital for moderate to severe cases. It helps reduce symptom severity so you can benefit fully from talk therapy.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Anxiety has been shown to be associated with overactivity in an area of the brain called the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. TMS uses slow pulses of magnetic currents administered while you are alert and conscious to reduce this overactivity, which improves your anxiety.
Call Zoe Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine today or book an appointment online to benefit from expert anxiety treatment.
