6 effective treatments for anxiety

How to put an end to anxiety? We explain how they are treated from clinical psychology.

Feeling anxiety is completely normal, and people can experience it in our daily lives in many situations. For example, just before an exam when our nerves are on edge or when we cannot sleep because we have to make an important decision.

Anxiety is a normal and adaptive reaction that appears in situations of stress or uncertainty.. However, when anxiety causes functional impairment, affects different areas of our life (interpersonal relationships, work, school ...) and causes great discomfort and suffering, then it is possible that it is an anxiety disorder. In this case it is necessary to go to psychological therapy.

Symptoms of anxiety disorders

Negative anxiety can manifest itself for different reasons, as there are different types of anxiety disorders. Some people have a great fear of public speaking (social phobia) and therefore** tend to avoid situations in which they are exposed to this discomfort**.

Others have irrational and catastrophic thoughts almost daily about events that have not happened and are very unlikely to happen (generalized anxiety disorder), and others feel great discomfort when reliving a traumatic event from the past (post-traumatic stress disorder). Regardless of the type of anxiety, some characteristic symptoms of this disorder are:

• Intense and irrational fear.
• Excessive worries.
• Dizziness, sweating, Muscle tension, shortness of breath, dry mouth or fatigue.
• Avoidance of feared situations.
• Repetitive thoughts and behaviors.
• Reliving traumatic events.
• Sleeping difficulties.

Treatments for anxiety

If you think you are one of those people suffering from an anxiety disorder, you should know that you are not alone, because this is a very common problem. Since there are different types of anxiety disorder, each one has a specific treatment.

However, psychologists can provide a series of techniques that help to improve the states of anxiety, but the problem does not go away if you do not have a specific treatment.But the problem does not go away if you do not do your part. It is your responsibility to implement certain habits and strategies in your life to make anxiety stop being a problem.

If you want to know what treatments are applied in the therapeutic sessions, below you can find a list with the most relevant and outstanding ones:

1. Relaxation techniques

Our body reacts to anxious thoughts with muscular tension and a series of physiological reactions. When an anxious person interprets a situation as threatening, the fight or flight response is activated, a series of hormones are released and the autonomic nervous system prepares the individual to respond to a dangerous situation.

Relaxation techniques aim to teach individuals to relax, to learn to breathe correctly and to decrease physiological activation. There are several types of relaxation techniques, for example, Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation technique or Schultz's autogenic training.

2. Expository techniques

Anxiety is not a pleasant feeling, so people suffering from this disorder try to avoid situations that produce discomfort. A very frequent way of doing this is to move away from the situation or the anxious stimulus.. If someone is afraid of public speaking, he may avoid attending his best friend's wedding to avoid giving a speech in front of all the attendees. If someone is afraid of flying, he may drive for days to avoid getting on a plane.

Exposure therapy, as the name implies, consists of exposing the patient to feared situations or objects.. The idea is that through repeated exposures, the patient will acquire a sense of control over the anxiety, and the situation will tend to disappear. Expository techniques are used in cases of phobias and other anxiety disorders (e.g. obsessive compulsive disorder), and are characterized by the patient having to confront the feared stimulus until the anxiety is reduced through habituation.

Thanks to this type of techniques it is possible to prevent escape or avoidance from becoming a safety response. To carry it out, a hierarchy of feared stimuli is usually established, so that the patient can gradually approach these stimuli until extinction is achieved. This type of techniques can be carried out both in vivo and in an imaginary way. Nowadays, thanks to the new technologies, it is possible to perform these techniques through Virtual Reality.. Exposure therapy can be used alone, or it can be performed as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

3. Systematic desensitization

Instead of confronting the feared situation or object immediately, treatment and exposure may be started with a situation that is only mildly threatening, and gradually worked up to a situation that is not threatening.and gradually work up to the target. This step-by-step approach is called systematic desensitization. Systematic desensitization allows to gradually challenge fears, build confidence and master panic control skills.

Systematic desensitization is similar to expository techniques (and for some authors it is included in these). However, there are some differences between the two treatments. While expository techniques use habituation to overcome anxiety, systematic desensitization uses counterconditioning, i.e., the substitution of an anxiety-producing response for another that is incompatible with it. In systematic desensitization the approach to the stimulus occurs gradually, but in the exposure technique the rate of approach depends on the time available, the patient's disposition and the rate of habituation.

Systematic desensitization includes three parts:

• Learning relaxation skills.Once the patient faces his or her fears, use these relaxation techniques to reduce his or her anxiety response and stimulate relaxation.
• Develop a step-by-step checklist. Select 10 to 20 fear situations to progress to the final goal. For example, if you want to overcome your fear of flying, the first step might be to look at pictures of airplanes.
• Work through the steps under the guidance of the therapist.. The patient is exposed to the feared situation and replaces the anxiety with the learned techniques.

4. Cognitive restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is based on the idea that the way we feel, behave and respond to situations is based on the way we feel, behave and respond to situations based on the way we feel, behave and respond to situations based on the way we feel and behave. to situations based on our way of thinking, so this technique attempts to modify dysfunctional thought patterns and beliefs.

Cognitive restructuring is derived from cognitive therapy (but is also used in cognitive behavioral therapy) that can help people identify and challenge thought patterns and beliefs that provoke anxiety. The aim of this technique is the modification of the patient's thinking schemes thanks to different methods.

5. Pharmacological techniques

In some cases it is advisable to complement the psychological treatment with a pharmacological treatment, especially in those situations in which the patient is anxious.especially in situations where it is necessary to reduce the symptoms quickly, for example, to treat a panic attack.

However, medication should be combined with different cognitive and behavioral techniques and should be gradually replaced by them. Drugs can create addiction and intolerance, so it is necessary to be cautious in their use and self-medication should be avoided. Two types of drugs are commonly used in the treatment of anxiety: anxiolytics and antidepressants.

6. Mindfulness

Mindfulness belongs to the third generation psychological therapies. One of the most commonly used programs for the treatment of anxiety disorders is MBCT (Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy). The program combines meditation with the acquisition of practical skills that characterize cognitive therapy, such as the disruption of cognitive patterns, and the acquisition of the skills that characterize cognitive therapy.The program combines meditation with the acquisition of practical skills that characterize cognitive therapy, such as interrupting thought patterns that lead to anxious symptoms.

Mindfulness, more than a set of techniques, is a philosophy that focuses on self-acceptance, compassion, focusing attention on the here and now, and adopting a non-judgmental mindset. It is based on the idea that it is not the events that provoke anxiety, but how we interpret them and how we deal with them. It is not a matter of eliminating anxiety but of accepting it, because by not putting up resistance, the anxious symptomatology is reduced.

Psychotherapy, the best option for overcoming anxiety

As for the treatment of anxiety disorders, science shows that psychotherapy is generally the most effective option. Therapy helps the patient to discover the underlying causes of their worries and fears; it allows them to learn to relax and look at situations in a new light, and gives them the chance to develop better coping and problem-solving skills. Therapy provides the tools to overcome anxiety and teaches you how to use them.

The length of treatment will depend on the type and severity of the anxiety disorder. However, many anxiety therapies are relatively short, because the vast majority of people improve within 8-10 therapy sessions.

Referencias bibliográficas:

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• Huhn, M.; Tardy, M.; Spineli, L.M. (2014). Efficacy of Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy for Adult Psychiatric Disorders A Systematic Overview of Meta-analyses. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(6): pp. 706 - 715.
• Wampold, B.E., Flückiger, C., Del Re, A.C., Yulish, N.E., Frost, N.D., Pace, B.T., et al. (2017). In pursuit of truth: A critical examination of meta-analyses of cognitive behavior therapy. Psychotherapy Research. 27 (1): pp. 14 - 32.