Everyone feels anxiety or stress from time-to-time. Every-day occurrences, such as speaking in public, meeting tight deadlines, first dates, and even being stuck in rush hour traffic can cause us stress and anxiety.
But mild stress or anxiety isn’t bad. In fact, they can even be helpful and evolutionary advantageous as these types of anxiety and stress can make us more focused and alert when faced with challenging or threatening situations.
However, unlike the brief anxiety and stress people experience due to common life circumstances, those who suffer from severe and recurring stress or anxiety disorders experience distress over long periods of time that disrupt their lives and their abilities to function.
Fortunately, with proper and effective treatment, people suffering from severe stress or anxiety disorders can learn to cope, recover, and once again lead normal, healthy, and fulfilling lives.
Can stress and anxiety disorders be treated effectively without medication?
Absolutely! Psychotherapy — also known as talk therapy and psychological counseling — can be a very effective treatment for anxiety and stress, especially if you’re unwilling to commit yourself to popping pills for the rest of your life to overcome the symptoms you’re experiencing.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, research has demonstrated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to be particularly effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on helping you learn the skills necessary to identify, understand, and change negative thoughts and behavior patterns and replace them with positive ones.
This allows you to reduce anxiety and stress and exercise more control throughout the course of your life by changing the way you respond to the situations you face, regardless of the situations themselves.
And, because cognitive-behavioral therapy is usually a short-term therapy, it is not uncommon for individuals to begin experiencing results within 12 to 16 weeks of starting treatment.
While cognitive-behavioral therapy has proven to be a particularly effective form of anxiety counseling, several other therapies have also been shown to help:
Exposure Therapy — A form of CBT, exposure therapy gradually exposes you to an object or situation you fear, allowing you to become less sensitive over the course of time. Exposure therapy can be particularly effective in helping you overcome an obsessive-compulsive disorder or a phobia.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) — Integrating cognitive-behavioral techniques with concepts from Eastern meditation, dialectical behavioral therapy combines acceptance and change. DBT commonly involves individual and group therapy to help you learn mindfulness practices and skills for interpersonal effectiveness, tolerating distress, and regulating emotions.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) — Under certain conditions eye movements appear to reduce the intensity of disturbing thoughts. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information, helping people see disturbing material in a less distressing way. While research has established EMDR as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, numerous therapists have reported success using it to treat panic attacks and phobias.
Additionally, family counseling and group therapy are also helpful for those dealing with panic attacks, phobias, or excessive amounts of anxiety and stress.
Despite the effectiveness of psychotherapy in helping people cope with and overcome a multitude of anxiety disorders, if you or your therapist think medications would benefit you, your therapist should be able to refer you to a licensed psychiatrist for a consultation.
While anti-anxiety medications may have a role in your treatment, it is important for you to remember that there are side effects to any drugs, which must be monitored closely by the prescribing physician.
Should you seek anxiety counseling or therapy?
If left unaddressed, recurring or extreme anxiety and stress can have severe and debilitating consequences. As an example, people who experience recurring panic attacks usually avoid putting themselves in any situation which may bring about another attack. Such avoidance often ends up conflicting with professional obligations, family relationships, and other day-to-day responsibilities.
Not only can severe anxiety and recurring stress be debilitating in their own right but, if left untreated, they can easily lead to other emotional and behavioral problems such as depression, alcoholism, or substance abuse.
It is important to understand that no one stress or anxiety therapy or treatment works for everyone and none of them work instantly. Anxiety counseling and therapy need to be tailored to each individual and you should understand, and be comfortable with, the therapist and treatment being proposed from the outset. That having been said, there is little question that various forms of psychotherapy can help you cope with, and recover from, severe stress and anxiety disorders.
If you’re experiencing anxiety or stress regularly, suffer from panic attacks, have unresolved phobias or other anxiety disorders that are impairing your professional and personal relationships and responsibilities, you owe it to yourself to find the best treatment options available. Anxiety therapy, whether or not it is used in conjunction with medications, can help you restore balance, regain control, and move forward in life with optimism and confidence.
Mary Deger Seevers is a couples therapist in Burlingame, where she specializes in providing parent counseling.