Anxiety & Panic

You will see a psychiatric medical provider on your first visit, who will assess and work with you to diagnose the problem. They will help you understand that anxiety is a feeling that can be regulated, and not a weakness or personality flaw. They will prescribe medication to reduce your symptoms, and will recommend a treatment plan personalized to suit your needs, including lifestyle modifications to improve your overall sense of wellbeing. We recommend weekly therapy as a supplement to our care, and will provide referrals to the best providers available. They will give you skills to manage your anxiety or fear and explore the psychological basis for your anxiety.

“Whenever I make arrangements to meet friends, I get there first. I hate getting there first, because I spend the next few minutes anxiously wondering if I’m in the right place or going to be stood up. But I never come late in case they don’t wait for me!”

Anxiety disorders come in a range of shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common: if you’re suffering from one, day-to-day life can be exhausting. While some anxiety is normal and necessary, your anxiety prevents you from achieving your goals, making friends, and trying to pursue hobbies or projects you’ve always dreamed of doing. Maybe you experience panic attacks as well, which can feel overwhelming and debilitating.

You may feel very alone, but the truth is that 18% of Americans live with an anxiety disorder. At Mindful Care, we help many people like you ease and manage their pain with professional, compassionate urgent care for anxiety.

There are different types of anxiety disorders. These include:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

The most common type, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive concerns and often irrational fears about attending to day-to-day activities and events. You may struggle to perform at school or work, and feel inadequate at fulfilling familial responsibilities. Trying new activities causes immense worry, and you tend to avoid them. Some people with GAD also feel constant anxiety that something bad has happened or will happen to their loved ones. GAD can also lead to agoraphobia, the severe anxiety manifesting in a fear of leaving your house.

Panic Disorder and Anxiety

In addition to feeling anxiety in general, people suffering from panic disorder experience panic attacks. Panic attacks are episodes of intense fear that is felt physically and mentally. You may experience heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, hyperventilating, and numbness, along with the terror that something awful is going to happen.

Social Anxiety Disorder

“When I’m with a group of people I don’t know, I always want to contribute to the conversation and not seem like this quiet person with nothing to say. But finding something to say suddenly seems impossible, and when I do speak I start blushing and sweating, which is humiliating, and I blush and sweat even more.”

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by a fear of rejection and humiliation in a social setting. Social settings cause you intense anxiety and you might avoid them entirely. Many individuals suffering from social anxiety disorder involuntarily blush and sweat in social situations and this compounds their anxiety even once they have worked up the courage to join a conversation.

Phobias

Phobias refer to excessive fear of certain objects or situations. Common phobias include fears of heights, spiders, and crowds. Being confronted by the object of your phobia may lead to a panic attack, and you may try to live your life in a way that allows you to avoid it at all costs.

A common belief among people suffering from anxiety or panic disorder is that they have a problem that can’t be treated. They see it as a personal failing or weakness, rather than a mental disorder. The good news is that people who get treatment are able over time to gradually overcome their anxiety. Within a relatively short time frame, they are doing things they never thought they could.

Anxiety is usually treated with a combination of medication and therapy. Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications can reduce the symptoms, making it easier to work through the anxiety that remains.

Therapies such as CBT will help you regulate your anxiety by doing the following: giving you the chance to share your anxious thoughts, which lessens the burden and makes them appear more manageable teaching you skills to test the thoughts against the reality, using rationality to eliminate some of the anxious feelings helping you regulate the anxiety that remains, allowing it to serve its purpose without holding you back

Anxiety disorders might seem overwhelming and irremediable, but with our appropriate urgent care for a panic attack or general anxiety, you can begin to live your life free of the constraints that have been keeping from achieving your dreams.

After two weeks, you will have a follow-up appointment with your clinician to assess how the treatment plan is progressing, followed by a further assessment a month later. By this point, you will likely have gained increased stability, allowing you to function at a more optimal level without the distress caused by the disorder. You will continue with monthly follow-up visits to evaluate your progress and adjust medication if necessary. Through all of your challenges, setbacks, achievements, and victories, the team at Mindful Care will be by your side.

If you think you might be suffering from anxiety, call Mindful Care or schedule an anxiety consultation online today.