The Most Effective Treatment For Anxiety Disorders Essays

The Most Effective Treatment For Anxiety Disorders Anxiety disorders are becoming a widespread epidemic in America. Each year we spend more than $46 billion dollars, nearly one third of our total mental health bill, treating the almost 20 million Americans affected by anxiety disorders. With these staggering numbers, it is no surprise that researchers and experts are examining many different forms of treatment in order to find more and better ways to diagnose and treat these debilitating disorders. The American Psychiatric Association states that no single situation or condition causes anxiety disorders. Rather, physical and environmental triggers may combine to create a particular anxiety illness. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that anxiety stems from unconscious conflicts that arose from discomfort during infancy or childhood. For example, a person may carry the unconscious conflict of sexual feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex. Or the person may have developed problems from experiencing an illness, fright or other emotionally laden event as a child. By this theory, anxiety can be resolved by identifying and resolving the unconscious conflict. The symptoms that symbolize the conflict would then disappear. Learning theory says that anxiety is a learned behavior that can be unlearned. People who feel uncomfortable in a given situation or near a certain object will begin to avoid it. However, such avoidance can limit a patient's ability to live a normal life. More recently, research has indicated that biochemical imbalances can be factors. Many scientists say all thoughts and feelings result from complex electrochemical interactions in the central nervous system. Moreover, some studies indicate that infusions of certain biochemicals can cause a panic attack in some people. According to this theory, treatment of anxiety should correct these biochemical imbalances. Although medications first come to mind with this theory, remember that studies have found biochemical changes can occur as a result of emotional, psychological or behavioral changes. No doubt each of these theories is true to some extent. A person may develop or inherit a biological susceptibility to anxiety disorders. Events in childhood may lead to certain fears that, over time, develop into a full-blown anxiety disorder. Dr. Rolland Bailey, D.O. states in a recent interview, "A variety of factors have been identified as possible causes of persistent anxiety. There is evidence it may be due to an imbalance of a chemical called serotonin n the brain. In people with anxiety disorders, it has been suggested that there is an excess of serotonin. Other chemicals may also be responsible for causing anxiety. Persistent anxiety has also been shown to run in families, indicating a possible hereditary influence. Stressful events may also be causes or triggers of anxiety. According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill several factors seem to contribute to the development of an anxiety disorder. Much new research suggests that these disorders both run in families and are the result of one's brain chemistry. Certain life experiences and one's general personality are also thought to influence the likelihood of having an anxiety disorder. As indicated by James Herbert, Ph.D. Program Director and Associate Professor of Psychology at Hahnemann University that while no one knows for certain what causes social phobia, the scientific research suggests that both biological and environmental factors are probably involved. People with social phobia have also been shown to have certain biases in their thinking. For example, they often exaggerate the risks and dangers of certain social situations. The treatment options are as varied as the number of professionals treating these disorders. The problem with treatment options for social anxiety disorders is that, unlike some other psychological problems, social anxiety is not well understood by the general public or by medical and mental health care professionals, such as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors. In fact, people with social anxiety are misdiagnosed almost 90% of the time. People with social phobia are often labeled as schizophrenic, manic-depressive, clinically depressed, panic disordered, and personality disordered, among other damaging misdiagnoses. Social anxiety disorders, like other mental illnesses, reflect dysfunction within the brain, according to Dr. Steven Hyman, "we are beginning to understand the specific circuits in the brain that underlie the different illnesses" (1). Most people experience feeling of anxiety before an important event, so what separates these