Therapy for Anxiety

There is no standard frame of time to treat any mental health condition, and this includes anxiety. It depends on the depth of anxiety, intensity of anxiety-symptoms, frequency of anxiety symptoms or panic attacks if any and how long has anxiety been a part of the system. It also depends on the client’s readiness to address difficult and deeper issues as well as the skill of the therapist. 

Our nervous system learns to become anxious over a period of time. Hence, it is helpful not to set a deadline for anxiety therapy but come to therapy with the mindset of exploration. If there is dedication and diligence from the client along with the guidance of a good therapist anxiety can certainly be overcome. You may start to see improvements and reduction in symptoms in a few weeks too. However, it is important to maintain regularity and continue with the therapy so that the symptoms of anxiety and the underlying causes for the same are worked through. 

A psychologist is trained in helping you explore the underlying causes for the anxiety. A good psychologist is also able to address the nervous system overwhelm that is a core manifestation of anxiety in the body. With your help, the therapist can help you identify triggers, identify unhealthy coping patterns and suggest helpful ones. They can also help you address the emotions of sadness, grief or fear that may be underlying the anxiety. Most importantly they can hold space for you and make your nervous system feel safe which helps it to heal. It is therefore imperative that you take therapy only from a properly qualified psychologist who has training in psychotherapy.

We have found that online therapy for anxiety is most helpful when you take regular appointments as recommended by your therapist and follow through any tasks that have been suggested by your therapist. Your therapist may suggest certain ways of thinking,  journaling or certain mindfulness practices to follow in between sessions.

The most important thing about dealing with panic attacks is to stop fearing them. When we fear getting a panic attack, we further create anxiety in our minds and bodies. Panic attacks are brought on by this anxiety.  When the system cannot deal with the anxiety, it starts to manifest in the body in the form of a racing heart, sweating, chest pain or other symptoms that are very unpleasant. The chain of panic attacks continues- the more your fear them the more anxiety is created, the more you are likely to have them. Hence to avoid panic attacks it is very important to avoid that overwhelm in the system. In order to do this avoid worrying about the panic attack and additionally make light exercise and practices like yoga, mindfulness and meditation a part of your life. There is clear scientific evidence that these practices lead to regulating the vagal tone and increasing parasympthetic activity of the nervous system, both of which create conditions in the mind and body that reduce the chances of having anxiety and/or panic attacks. In fact, at Inner Space, we find that the practices of mindfulness and meditation are helpful for most mental health conditions and need to be integrated into our lives in order to lead a physically and mentally healthy life.

The treatment of anxiety often needs to consist of several elements:

1. If the anxiety is severe, medication may be considered. In milder situations it may not be needed. Your therapist can assess you and suggest if this course is needed or may even suggest therapy for a few weeks before any decision about medication is taken. 

2. Therapy for anxiety is usually required whether or not medication is needed. Therapy helps deal with the root of the anxiety. It helps explore the causes, deal with the emotions that are underlying the anxiety and finally adopt healthy coping mechanisms to deal with the anxiety. 

3. Healthy lifestyle choices need to be developed that include the practices of mindfulness, meditation, yoga, light exercise, healthy eating, avoiding too much news and social media and other sources that agitate the mind. The mind-body system is one whole and every choice we make can either add to anxiety if it is an unhealthy one or reduce anxiety if it is a healthy one.