Anxiety disorders affect millions of Americans every year. These individuals can take any number of pathways to start overcoming anxiety. This article will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment option.

The most common method treating anxiety is through medications prescribed by a mental health specialist. Generally the benzodiazepines are the most common prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, including klonopin and Valium. These drugs are effective at alleviating acute anxiety. However they are not nearly as effective in dealing with chronic anxiety. Among the drawbacks to this type of drug is that they are habit forming. So if you do start on a course of these medications you will have to continue to take them daily to have any effect and you will experience severe withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them. Naturally, this is not the best option.

Another common method of treating anxiety is by one on one counseling with a mental health therapist. There are several advantages and disadvantages of this method as well. The first thing about therapy is that it is generally not very effective on its own at alleviating anxiety symptoms. It can help with certain disturbed thinking and can be great for brainstorming but it is also expensive and time consuming. Therapy alone never really results in freedom from the symptoms of anxiety.

The dirty truth about therapists is most of them, themselves, do not suffer from anxiety conditions. Therefore they have no first hand information about which therapies are most effective for treating the symptoms. They are generally book trained and all subscribe to the same company line about the causes of anxiety. In general, the profession has a ways to go to improve itself in the treatment of anxiety.

The next treatment option is to check in to a psychiatric center for an extended stay. This type of inpatient treatment can be very helpful if your anxiety is crippling to the point that you are unable to function in life. It can be especially helpful if you are contemplating suicide or harming yourself.The first order of business at a hospital is to alleviate the risk of patient suicide. In this way the treatment options provided by an inpatient clinic are usually not very precise for dealing with more subtle forms of anxiety.

The main therapy employed by psychiatric hospitals is called DBT or dialectical behavioral therapy. DBT teaches simple distress management techniques and mindfulness therapy. For individuals who lack skills to succeed in life and are contemplating suicide, DBT can be extremely successful. On the other hand, less severe cases will benefit less from this type of therapy.

The last point is about the cost. A decent clinic runs at least $750 a day and if you do not have insurance the cost becomes prohibitive. Still if you are close to taking your life and need the immediate intervention then an inpatient psychiatric clinic may be your best bet.

Those are three of the main methods for treating anxiety disorders. If you want to start dealing with anxiety you may want to consider one of these options.

Tags: anti-anxiety drugs, anxiety disorders, dealing with anxiety, treating anxiety