Treatment of anxiety syndrome is a topical issue for modern medicine. Panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, anxiety, which cannot be overcome on one's own are phenomena that are characteristic of a significant percentage of our compatriots. Anxiety neurosis, manifesting itself in such signs, is treatable, so there is no need to endure discomfort. Several effective approaches have been developed: exposure, medication, cognitive-behavioral. As part of the course, the doctor will teach the patient to keep the mental status under control, overcome fears and disturbing thoughts.
Starting from the beginning: what is it about?
Before considering the basic postulates of the treatment of anxiety in adults, children, you should be familiar with the terminology. What is the state of anxiety? Modern medicine under this term understands several subspecies. Treatment is chosen based on the nuances of the case. Often, anxiety is disturbing against the background of OCD, when neurosis is associated with obsessive thoughts and conditions. This isrequires a specific approach. A peculiar course is prescribed if the main manifestation is panic attacks. The duration of treatment depends on the severity of the condition. However, the predominant percentage of types of treatment is aimed at a rather short-term cooperation between the patient and the doctor. It is known from statistics that improvement is observed on average by the tenth session.
Treatment of anxiety in children is often necessary in the context of drug therapy or medical illness. Fears can provoke a deterioration in the mental state - for example, those associated with studies, parents, and the future. Doctors say that anxiety is based on a feeling of distrust of the surrounding space. Many expect a catch, troubles literally at every turn. Adults transmit this pattern of thinking to children, memorization occurs automatically. Also, doctors have found that anxiety can be transmitted between generations and through the generation.
Therapy: The Key Idea
Treatment of anxiety, depression, OCD, anxiety and other mental disorders, disorders involves choosing the optimal program, approach that is useful for a particular person. Currently, the most successful methods for anxiety are cognitive behavioral (CBT) and exposure. It is not necessary to plan a course using the approaches of only one therapy option: you can combine different methods and means, as well as supplement the main option in other, less common ways. For some patients, an individual course of therapy is optimal, for others it is moresuitable group treatment, which involves bringing together people with similar problems.
CBT for Anxiety
This therapeutic technique has proven to be effective, gentle and safe. Currently, it is widely used in the treatment of increased anxiety, and the accumulated official information confirms the reasonableness and effectiveness of this approach. Based on research, it can be concluded that CBT helps with panic disorders and general anxiety. This approach can be used when dealing with phobias. It is recommended as an essential for people suffering from social anxiety.
The idea behind the impact of cognitive therapy on the symptoms of anxiety in the treatment of this condition is to study and evaluate the impact on a person of negative thoughts, in medicine called cognitions. The doctor helps the patient to understand to what extent the general state of concern depends on this phenomenon. The behavioral aspect of the therapeutic course is devoted to the nuances of human behavior, helps to control the patient's reaction when exposed to anxiety and factors that activate it.
The main idea of CBT is to understand that feelings are determined by thoughts, not external factors. With symptoms of increased anxiety, treatment involves, first of all, awareness of the dominance of feelings and ideas about the current situation over herself.
On examples
Suppose a person is invited to some event. The first thought that comes to thisoccasion, usually positive - people remember how they like to attend such events, what fun awaits on the spot. The emotional state is elevated, the person is animated. With anxiety, thinking can change color: a person may think that parties are not suitable for him, and it would be much more comfortable to spend the evening alone. This sets the state to neutral. A different way of thinking is possible when, immediately after receiving an invitation, the object begins to think about the difficulties in communication, represents negative situations that can occur at a meeting. This creates concern.
The described scheme gives a clear idea of how strongly the emotional state affects the perception of some event. Treatment of anxiety is aimed primarily at combating negative thinking that provokes anxiety and fear. CBT aims to correct this method of belief, thinking, in order to influence how a person feels.
CBT: A Therapeutic Approach
CBT treatment for anxiety in adults begins with an assessment of a person's inherent mindset. The first step is to question the correctness of the object's inherent thoughts. This is called restructuring, which is the process by which negative patterns are changed to realistic ones. The process is step-by-step, consists of three stages. Let's look at them one by one.
Step One
Treatment of high anxiety in adults through the ideas of CBT begins with the identification and identification of negativethoughts. Mental deviations force a person to evaluate any situation much more dangerous than they are in reality. A classic example is the fear of microflora. People with this form of anxiety disorder cannot even shake hands with another person.
Identification of fears on your own, without qualified help, is extremely difficult. Some realize the irrationality of the disturbing factor, yet the situation does not get any easier. The main task of the first stage of CBT is to give a correct answer to the question of what thoughts were in the head when the alarm came.
Step two
The next step in treating anxiety is to question the negative thoughts that are in your head. The task of a person is to correctly evaluate all those reflections against which anxiety arose. Negative beliefs should be analyzed in detail, considered for the presence of indisputable evidence of the truth of the factor that inspires fear. It should be analyzed how likely it is that a fearful situation will actually happen.
Step three
At this stage of anxiety treatment, you should work on negative thoughts, replacing them with reflective reality. By identifying and accurately articulating disturbing irrational assumptions, and by recognizing negative thinking disorders, steps can be taken to correct them in the direction of more true ones. As part of the course, the doctor will help formulate calm statements that reflect reality. Expecting a disturbing situation, a person will have to concentrate on suchthoughts, pronounce them to yourself.
Replacing thoughts with realistic ones is quite a challenge. Negative thinking in most cases is a formed pattern. It takes time, patience and a lot of practice to change it. The task of a person is to consciously break the habit that provokes anxiety. For this reason, CBT is not only about working with a doctor, but also about actively adjusting your own assessment of reality.
Exposure therapy
Anxiety is a rather uncomfortable and unpleasant condition that a person subconsciously tries to avoid. For example, fearing heights, he would rather make a big circle, but avoid having to cross a high bridge. Fearing public activity, such a person will find an excuse not to attend the event. At the same time, the treatment of anxiety in conditions of complete exclusion from one's reality of situations that provoke anxiety is impossible. By avoiding such cases, a person loses the chance to be stronger than his own phobias. What's more, trying to hide from a scary event makes it even scarier.
Exposure therapy was developed to combat this vicious cycle. Such a course of treatment involves maximum immersion in frightening circumstances. Repeated repetition helps to recognize fear and take control of what is happening, thereby reducing the manifestation of symptoms of increased anxiety. Treatment in adults, children occurs according to one of two scenarios. The doctor can help imagine frightening circumstances or assist in coping with them.in the reality. This approach can be combined with the CBT described above, or used on its own to correct a person's condition.
Therapy: how it works
The exposure course is based on the idea of systematic habituation. With symptoms of increased anxiety, the treatment of adults and children never begins with an encounter with a situation that causes severe fear - such an approach can cause psychological trauma. The best start is simple situations. Gradually increase the level of anxiety. Gradual addiction is called a systematic decrease in the susceptibility of a frightening phenomenon. The patient becomes more self-confident, gets at his disposal different ways to control the panic state.
The first step of treatment is the development of methods and methods of relaxation. The doctor teaches relaxation through breathing, relaxation of muscle tissue. Once you have learned to resist your fears, you can use relaxation to reduce your physical response to anxiety. This helps to eliminate trembling, too fast and shallow breathing, and similar external symptoms of another attack.
Continuation of the program
The next step in reducing the susceptibility of the scare factor is the development of the list. It is necessary to imagine and fix on paper 1-2 dozen circumstances that give rise to anxiety, sort the list according to the level of fear. To combat fear, they create a sequence of actions from simple to complex, realizing the purpose of each stage. For example, if a person is afraid of flying, they first begin to considerphotos of aircraft, gradually progress comes to flying in reality.
All formulated tasks must be carefully worked out. The easiest way to overcome the steps of the list is with the help of a doctor, but if it is impossible to contact him, you can try self-treatment of anxiety using the same program. One should be aware of the goal of therapy - to stay in frightening circumstances until one manages to conquer fears. Sooner or later, a person realizes that there is nothing terrible, and the previous ideas about the situation did not reflect the real state of affairs. The formation of an alarming situation should be accompanied by the use of relaxation techniques. The success of its implementation helps to return to the frightening factor again. Gradually, step by step, such therapy gives a pronounced result.
Additional techniques
Special methods and means of lowering stress levels have been developed. By resorting to them, it is easier to achieve peace of mind. The simplest and most basic option is physical activity. Exercise is a good counterbalance to stress, any inner excitement. As it was proved, 3-5 times a week doing some kind of sport for half an hour, thereby a person significantly increases the emotional status, stabilizes the psyche. The best results come from those who devote an hour each day to enjoyable sports. For example, you can introduce aerobics or swimming into your daily routine.
An equally useful technique is relaxation. By using it regularly, you can achieve good results. Recommended to learn meditationor visualization. A doctor can teach you ways to control your breathing. A fairly popular method is progressive muscle relaxation.
What else to try?
Feedback is a way to deal with anxiety using special sensors. These are a variety of heart rate monitors, drugs to control the frequency of breathing and muscle activity. Analysis of instrument readings helps to assess the body's response to a disturbing factor. Therefore, it is easier to figure out which relaxation technique will be most beneficial.
In some cases, patients are advised to resort to hypnosis. While in this combination, the psychotherapist will apply specific approaches aimed at conveying the essence of fears. As part of the treatment course, the client is trained to re-evaluate fear factors.
Medication assistance
Medications are relatively rare for treating anxiety. The choice of specific names depends on the specifics of the case, the presence of somatic disorders. Often, anxiety is explained by a drug program that a person is undergoing or drugs that he takes. To facilitate the exit from this state, substances are canceled gradually. Sometimes withdrawal therapy is required. With primary anxiety disorder and with prolonged persistence of symptoms after the withdrawal of the compounds that caused it, a combination of psychotherapeutic treatment and medication is indicated.
There are quite a few drugs that are effective for anxiety. Basically theyare well tolerated and show a pronounced effect. The most commonly used are benzodiazepines. The preparations of this group are indicated for a short course - up to two months. The drugs are effective against anxiety and sleep disorders, with problems with adaptation and acute stress. Two-month use of benzodiazepines helps to cope with yourself and your emotions, learn to cope with everyday tasks. In addition, against the background of drug therapy, the patient works more effectively with the doctor as part of the psychotherapeutic course.
Nuances and cases
PTSD (a disorder that appeared on the background of an experienced psychological trauma) requires treatment not only with medication, the course should be chosen by assessing the patient's condition, and the therapy regimen should be drawn up taking into account an integrated approach. As a rule, anxiety is accompanied by depressive or panic disorders, dysthymia. Often PTSD is observed in combination with an addiction to alcohol or drugs.
Antidepressants are indicated for panic deviations. The most common practice is the appointment of SSRIs, tricyclic drugs. You can combine these groups with benzodiazepines. The choice is based on individual tolerance, negative consequences, previous experience of use. SSRIs are the most common options in general practice at present. These drugs give effect in a few weeks after the start of the course, sometimes in a month or even longer, so the program is usually long: from six months or more. Mostpopular remedies are Fluoxetine, Paroxetine, Sertraline.
