Anxiety: Symptoms, Treatment, and Alternative Therapy

Most everyone feels anxious from time to time as a normal reaction to certain life situations, but people who feel excessively anxious or have frequent anxiety may have a condition called generalized anxiety disorder, or a more specialized disorder that is often similar to panic disorder, or social anxiety disorder.

Anxiety may be caused from a medical condition, medications, genetics, early life experiences, or simply a reaction to certain life situations, such as fear. Regardless of the cause, there are treatments available in Rochester Hills to calm you, including alternative therapies. The key is finding the right treatment, or combination of treatments, that work for you.

Symptoms

Common symptoms of anxiety include fast heartbeat, palpitations, dizziness, impaired concentration, sleeping difficulty, irritability, trembling, abnormal breathing, sweating, and fatigue.

Treatment

When anxiety has a specific physical cause and the underlying cause is cured, the anxiety typically goes away. However, when there is no physical cause, counseling to determine the emotional or mental cause can help to find an effective treatment strategy. For instance, deep breathing exercises, anti-aging coping strategies, and relaxation techniques can alleviate anxious feelings in some patients. In some cases, your Rochester Hills physician may prescribe anti-anxiety medications to help you deal with a temporary stressful life situation that may be making you anxious.

Alternative Therapy

Nutrition, herbs, massage therapy, acupuncture, and mind-body techniques are successful in some people in reducing or eliminating anxiety without taking medications. For example, yoga, meditation, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, and deep breathing exercise can help people relax, making them better able to cope with stress. Sometimes, just removing caffeine, chocolate, sugar, and alcohol is all that is needed to drive away anxious symptoms. Other people find relief in herbs like St. John’s Wort and Kava Kava, while essential oils and aromatherapy is the answer for some sufferers. Still others find relief from anxiety in massage therapy or acupuncture.