“I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.”
— Steve Maraboli —
Anxiety Disorder is a mental disorder where patients continuously worry about every single thing/person in their lives.
Worry is an understatement. In Anxiety Disorder, patients experience intense panic attacks out of a perceived fear about something happening or not happening. For some patients, these anxiety attacks occur before they are expected to face the triggers.
Evolutionarily speaking, anxiety helps us remain alert and responsive. We are more equipped to face sudden challenges because anxiety can force us to prepare better and perform better. However, with anxiety disorders, anxiety takes over our lives until it stops us from thinking rationally. These panic attacks and anxiety lead them to believe that something genuinely devastating may happen to them or their loved ones, even if there is no evidence of the same.
5 Facts
1.
It is believed that 14% of Australians are diagnosed with anxiety
2.
It’s estimated that 6% of Australians will experience Generalised Anxiety Disorder once in their lifetime
3.
Social life was the domain in which most people experienced severe interference
4.
Anxiety disorders in Australia are highly prevalent in people who are widowed, divorced, or separated – amounting to 19% of the diagnosed population
5.
Agoraphobia results in the highest number of days-off-work, with patients taking almost seven days off work after an episode
Watch out for these symptoms of Anxiety Disorder
Persistent panic about every event or experience faced
Constantly overthinking about negative outcomes and worst-case scenarios
Perceiving all experiences to be life-threatening
Inability to make decisions (or stick to decisions once taken)
Fearful of uncertainties
Constantly stressed-out and unable to relax
Extreme irritability
Physical symptoms:
Racing heart and shaky breathing
Trembling/twitching when agitated
Dizziness
Muscle tension and associated pain
Profuse sweating
High startle response (in rare cases, Hyperekplexia)
Nausea
Diarrhoea
Insomnia
Inability to focus
Our holistic approach to treatment for Anxiety Disorder
At Mind Oasis, we follow a multi-disciplinary and collaborative way to address your Anxiety Disorder. Our psychiatrists, psychologists and allied health professionals will work with you to help you manage your Anxiety Disorder.
Psychiatric treatment for Anxiety Disorder
We start with a psychiatric assessment, where we understand more about your condition, your anxiety triggers, and what may help you regain peace-of-mind. Our psychiatrists will prescribe medications, if appropriate, to help you manage anxiety symptoms. If you have an onset of depression, we can prescribe medication for that too. Many patients with Anxiety Disorder turn to substance abuse to manage their symptoms. We can arrange appropriate treatment to help you beat this addiction. In severe cases our psychiatrists could arrange an admission to our affiliated St John of God Burwood Hospital.
Psychological intervention for Anxiety Disorder
Typically, we prescribe a range of individual or group programs for your treatment. These sessions are designed to help you equip yourself with the skills you need to manage the anxiety disorder.
One of the treatments we recommend is cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT is a technique that helps patients cope with their erratic and unhealthy thought patterns. Here, the focus is on helping you deconstruct your negative thoughts and re-construct them in a positive light. The goal of the treatment is to help you develop positive perceptions about your experiences so that your physical responses to them are positive too.
During the sessions, our psychologists will provide you with helpful tips on how to manage feelings of anxiety and how to avoid or cope with your triggers.