As an adult with an increasingly hectic life, it is natural to experience occasional worry as you tackle the obstacles life throws your way. However, when this healthy worry begins to feel out of control, it could be time to consider anxiety treatment.
Being able to spot symptoms of severe anxiety can help you act when there is a genuine clinical concern. Research suggests that recurring, intense feelings of worry over six months could indicate a need for clinical intervention.[1][2] If this sounds familiar, there is help available.
If you are unsure whether it is time to seek professional support, this article can help you. It will cover:
- Why we experience anxiety and why avoidance makes it worse.
- The physical symptoms of anxiety.
- How grounding techniques can help.
- Diagnosed anxiety disorders and their symptoms.
- When to seek help for anxiety.
- Anxiety therapy and anxiety counseling options.
Why We Experience Anxiety and Why Avoidance Makes It Worse
Some evolutionary psychologists theorize that anxiety symptoms result from our brains being hard-wired to avoid potential dangers such as predators.[3] While this may have been beneficial for our ancestors, it can be detrimental today as our brains perceive a genuine threat that isn’t really there. The more our brains perceive danger, the more anxiety symptoms develop.
You may experience a “stress thought” about a situation (such as “I could embarrass myself”), which brings you a sense of dread. An anxiety loop occurs when the “fight or flight” response is repeatedly engaged as the body prepares for danger. This sense of danger can be anything from a car door banging shut to being socially excluded from a friendship group. When you experience anxiety every time you’re in a similar situation, it is natural to want to avoid those situations at any cost.
Avoiding the situation can provide an initial sense of relief. However, in the long term, it can potentially reinforce a dangerous pattern:
- Your brain judged a situation to be dangerous.
- It warned you with anxiety symptoms.
- You avoided the situation.
- The danger never came, the anxiety passed, and your brain noted this outcome.
This can result in you becoming stuck in a constant loop of severe anxiety as the brain continues to initiate anxiety symptoms to try and keep you safe.[4] This can prolong the distress, and mental health treatment can become necessary to break ingrained anxiety loops.
Managing the Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
When you’re experiencing significant anxiety and worry, you may present with a long list of physical symptoms. These anxiety symptoms manifest in the body and can start to take a significant toll on health.[5]
With severe anxiety, the brain perceives stress as an immediate physical emergency and triggers overwhelming anxiety symptoms.[6][7][5] These can include:
- Increased heart rate.
- Shortness of breath or faster breathing.
- Sleep disturbances.
- Excessive sweating.
- Stomach concerns, including nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and indigestion.
- Muscle tension.
- General restlessness as the brain constantly scans for potential threat.
- Physical and mental burnout.
These symptoms are common in people living with generalized anxiety disorder, with disturbance to sleep and muscle tension among the most frequently reported.[8] If you have identified some of your own physical responses here, these grounding techniques can help return you to a calm state.[9]
The “5,4,3,2,1” Method
A popular grounding technique many clinicians recommend is the “5,4,3,2,1” technique. This method can bring your focus back to the present moment, stopping your thoughts from running away.[9] It works like this:
- Find 5 things you can see (for example, a car, a door, another person).
- Name 4 things you can touch (a piece of clothing, the floor).
- Describe 3 things you can hear (a bird, the hum of a computer).
- Describe 2 things you can smell ( a car exhaust, freshly cut grass).
- Name 1 thing you can taste (chewing gum, a sip of water).
Knee Push
A grounding technique that focuses on relaxing the physical body by engaging your arms and core:[10]
- Sit in a strong chair with both feet flat on the ground.
- Place both hands on your upper thighs.
- Breathe in through your nose.
- Breathe out of your mouth fully whilst pushing down on your legs and engaging your core.
- Relax (and repeat if necessary).
Arm Shake
Similar to the Knee Push, this method can help use up any pent-up energy:[10]
- Stand with your back straight and your arms by your side.
- Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Whilst doing so, shake your arms consistently for 30 seconds.
- You may even want to shake other parts of your body at the same time.
- After 30 seconds, place your arms back by your sides.
- Repeat if necessary.
If you’ve tried multiple grounding techniques and they’re not having the desired impact, it may be time to consider professional anxiety treatment.
Identifying Anxiety Disorders That May Require Treatment
Anxiety is often used as an umbrella term for a spectrum of different conditions, some of which are recognized disorders in the DSM-V.[1] Symptoms vary but often overlap, and different forms of treatment may be appropriate depending on your diagnosis.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder (or GAD for short) is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable worry about almost everything on a daily basis.[1] People with GAD often find it difficult to relax, even when nothing specific is wrong.
Panic Disorder
Panic disorder comes with its own specific anxiety symptoms, including an uncontrollable wave of acute and sudden physical fear.[1] These episodes can feel like heart attacks and often come without warning.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is a common condition in which the person becomes intensely afraid at the thought of being judged by those around them.[1]
Identifying your place on the anxiety spectrum can put you on the right path towards anxiety treatment and recovery.
When to Start Considering Professional Anxiety Treatment
Knowing when to seek help for anxiety can be complex. If you’re unsure, look at whether your stress and anxiety are impairing your relationships, work, and daily functioning. These questions can help:
- Are you able to focus at work or school?
- Has your performance been affected due to stress?
- Have you noticed yourself becoming distant from loved ones?
- Has your family said that you seem distracted?
- Do you still find the same joy in your hobbies as before?
- Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on experiences due to your stress?
If the answers to any of these questions have concerned you, this could indicate that clinical anxiety disorder treatment is necessary.[1] Acting early can prevent anxiety from compounding into something harder to treat.
Your Options for Anxiety Therapy and Counseling
Engaging in mental health treatment is an empowering journey. The perception of seeking anxiety therapy and anxiety counseling has become more positive, with many people finding success in structured clinical intervention to decrease psychological stress.[11][12] Professionals can help to identify gaps in your understanding, empowering you to notice and name negative thought traps and spirals.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to strengthen your awareness of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connect. CBT can be useful for building positive daily habits and reshaping your relationship with stress. Through CBT, you can build a new approach to facing difficulties in life, eventually reminding your brain that a “healthy” amount of stress is normal.[11]
Depending on the type of anxiety you present with, you could benefit from group therapy. By sharing your experiences with others, you can both learn new skills and potentially inspire someone else. Group anxiety treatment has been found to have several further benefits, decreasing social isolation and encouraging people to see their experience as normal.
These are not the only options. Mission Connection has both the capacity and expertise to create your own bespoke plan to ensure your treatment plan works for you.
Find Support for Anxiety Symptoms With Mission Connection
Mission Connection provides innovative solutions for those seeking outpatient mental health treatment. Through assessments and custom, evidence-based programs, our team is able to create the right treatment plan for you.
We offer a wide variety of anxiety treatment approaches, including (but not limited to):
- Individualized anxiety therapy.
- Specialized anxiety counseling.
- Group therapy.
- Exposure therapy.
- CBT.
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
- And much more.
We work to ensure flexibility for our clients. With the option of in-person treatment at our locations in California, Virginia, and Washington, virtual telehealth, and a hybrid program that combines in-person and virtual care, you can focus on your career, education, and your mental health.
Mission Connection is Joint Commission-accredited. We also accept almost all insurance providers, so that your recovery is not hindered due to financial issues.
If you feel ready to take the next step, reach out to us online or call us at 866-833-1822 to find out how we can support your long-term recovery. If you’re unsure whether you need help, we can talk that through with you too. Your call is confidential and there is no obligation or cost to speak with a caring member of our team.
References
- American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
- Bandelow, B. et al. (2017). Treatment of anxiety disorders. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 19(2), 93–107. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.2/bbandelow
- Bateson, M. et al. (2011). Anxiety: an evolutionary approach. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(12), 707–715. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371105601202
- Britton, J. C. et al. (2011). Development of anxiety: the role of threat appraisal and fear learning. Depression and Anxiety, 28(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20733
- Penninx, B. W. J. H. et al. (2021). Anxiety disorders. The Lancet, 397(10277), 914–927. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00359-7
- Khammissa, R. A. G. et al. (2022). Burnout phenomenon: neurophysiological factors, clinical features, and aspects of management. Journal of International Medical Research, 50(9), 03000605221106428. https://doi.org/10.1177/03000605221106428
- Koutsimani, P. et al. (2019). The relationship between burnout, depression, and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 284. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00284
- Hoge, E. A. et al. (2012). Generalized anxiety disorder: diagnosis and treatment. BMJ, 345, e7500. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e7500
- Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors: overcoming internal self-alienation. Routledge.
- Shared Health. (2023). Wellbeing strategies: grounding and breathing exercises. Manitoba Health Services. https://sharedhealthmb.ca/wp-content/uploads/wellbeing-strategies-grounding-and-breathing-exercises.pdf
- Cuijpers, P. et al. (2023). Transdiagnostic treatment of depression and anxiety: a meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 53(14), 6535–6546. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722003841
- Mojtabai, R. (2007). Americans' attitudes toward mental health treatment seeking: 1990–2003. Psychiatric Services, 58(5), 642–651. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2007.58.5.642