Managing Crippling Anxiety: Can Therapy Help?
If you’re experiencing an overwhelming anxiety disorder, you’re not alone, as generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental illnesses in the U.S. Anxiety can have different severity levels based on genetic and environmental factors. For some, it can become a serious block in daily life.
With crippling anxiety, intense behavioral symptoms — or even physical symptoms like panic attacks — may occur. For this reason, understanding why you feel anxious and working toward managing it and its symptoms can be important for those who experience this severe form of anxiety.
What causes anxiety disorder?
There is no one specific cause linked to the development of an anxiety disorder. Instead, there are a variety of factors connected to this common mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Environment, genetics, experiences like a traumatic event, and brain chemistry can trigger anxiety disorders. This means that therapy for anxiety or other treatments, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), will depend on your unique situation.
Stress. Stress can come from a variety of sources. Financial insecurity, loss of employment, academic worries, relationship troubles, and more can cause or generate stress. Long-term stress can lead to developing more serious crippling anxiety symptoms.
Hereditary factors. Traumatic experiences from the past can significantly contribute to the development of anxiety disorders.
Additional mental health conditions. Anxiety often co-occurs with other mental health conditions or may even develop as a part of another diagnosis. Anxiety symptoms can also be the result of medical conditions, substance use, or medication use.
If you are struggling with substance use, contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at (800) 662-4357 to receive support and resources. Support is available 24/7.
Managing stress, panic, worry, fear, and other anxiety symptoms
Crippling anxiety involves an intense feeling of panic, worry, or fear about everyday tasks. Understanding the causes can be critical to reducing anxiety symptoms in the long run. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Learning steps to manage stress and control symptoms, especially of crippling anxiety disorders, can be especially helpful on days of heightened anxiety. Understanding the types of disorders and the often severe symptoms of crippling anxiety can be important in finding the right treatment to help you reduce symptoms.
Breathe deeply to reduce panic, fear, stress, or worry
Breathing deeply during episodes of excessive worry may be one of the most effective relaxation techniques to treat anxiety in everyday life. This management method can not only ground the person experiencing anxious feelings, but it can generate calmness and the ability to disengage temporarily.
Deep breathing and controlling your breath can reverse-engineer the body's fight or flight response, which can be triggered during times of high stress. Even when you are not experiencing episodes of anxiety, deep breathing exercises can serve as a healthy form of meditation to reduce stress and prevent panic. Breathing deeply can also be great for unwinding and decompressing after a long day.Get to the root of your crippling anxiety
Learning what triggers your anxiety, or even where you may have first developed it, can be beneficial. Understanding how past circumstances, experiences, and events may have shaped your development of anxiety can help you reexamine certain aspects of it in a new way. For example, knowing that social situations trigger anxiety attacks may help you determine that you have a social anxiety disorder.
Getting professional help from a licensed therapist can help you explore the roots of your anxiety, which can lead to learning coping skills for any intense feelings of stress.
Redirect your focus
Redirecting your focus can be a helpful temporary tool to supplement traditional therapy treatment. Focusing on recurrent thoughts of anxiety or physical symptoms may intensify them. While avoiding emotions isn't a great long-term solution to anxiety, spending time engaging and nourishing activities can help your mind focus on a new area and alleviate some of the immediate symptoms of anxiety.
Redirecting your focus could mean listening to music, going for a walk, drawing, painting, doing physical movement, etc. Reading an interesting book or watching a movie are also great ways of redirecting your focus toward something that can be more fulfilling for you. You can also invest time in positive social situations, appreciate major life events you experience, or work on cooking a more balanced diet. All these efforts can help you change your behavioral patterns in ways that can be useful and can greatly reduce anxiety.Surround yourself with loved ones
One of the best ways to manage anxiety may be to surround yourself with a great group of people who care about you. Having a strong support system can make a difference, and when people understand you and your situation, they can offer help and perhaps put you at ease.
Crippling anxiety can be challenging to address, but with a caring support system, including a mental health professional who specializes in anxiety disorders, you may find that you don't have to deal with anxiety on your own.
Exploring therapy and medication for debilitating anxiety and depression
Therapy and medication are treatments for alleviating the symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression, which commonly co-occurs with anxiety. These treatments may enable people with anxiety disorders to manage their symptoms and help them to function in their everyday lives.
Support for anxiety disorders, depression, and other mental health challenges
Crippling anxiety can elevate the likelihood of developing other mental health disorders, such as depression. We recognize the challenges that any type of anxiety can present. If you feel anxious, working with a licensed online therapist through a platform like BetterHelp can be a great way to explore the roots of anxiety, gain feedback, and learn skills for managing stress that are specifically tailored to you. It can be very helpful to have a safe place to explore and discuss what you're experiencing, and therapists provide just that. Whether you have a social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, or are seeking treatment for crippling anxiety, a therapist can offer you compassionate care and support.
BetterHelp's counselors are licensed and have years of experience in therapy and research-backed methods of helping with problems like crippling anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most common treatment method for treating anxiety in talk therapy. Clinical studies prove that online CBT is just as effective as in-person therapy — and sometimes even more so. This greater level of effectiveness can stem from a few things. For example, people with anxiety disorders are often more comfortable opening up over online mediums than in face-to-face settings.
Takeaway
Anxiety is a complex mental health issue that can stem from a wide range of factors and can present differently for everyone. Learning more about where it originated and how to cope with the symptoms in a healthy and productive way can help you live a more comfortable life.
Is my anxiety crippling?
Feeling nervous or anxious from time to time is a normal emotion and a common part of the human experience. However, it may qualify as a disorder when it escalates and begins to affect other areas of life. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America outlines the differences between the two in-depth on their website.
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illnesses, and they can be debilitating when they cause significant, persistent distress; interfere with daily functioning; interfere with work, school, family life, or relationships; or cause symptoms such as difficulty breathing, sleep disturbances, severe muscle tension, or chest pain.
If you experience crippling anxiety, it’s generally recommended that you meet with a mental health professional for evaluation and treatment advice.
What triggers crippling anxiety?
The exact causes of anxiety disorders aren’t well understood, but researchers suspect they may be due to some combination of personality traits, genetics, and environmental factors. Debilitating anxiety symptoms like extreme fear may be caused or exacerbated by any of these or by stressful life events.
Can therapy and medication deal with crippling anxiety?
The first-line treatment for debilitating symptoms of an anxiety disorder is typically some form of therapy, sometimes in combination with medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), in particular, may be recommended in order to help an individual learn to recognize and shift distorted thought patterns that lead to distressing feelings and behaviors.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), acceptance and commitment therapy, and exposure therapy are other types that may also be used for treating anxiety disorders. In addition, a therapist can help a client learn healthy coping strategies for their symptoms, such as journaling, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation exercises.
Is crippling anxiety a disability?
Individuals with debilitating levels of clinical anxiety could qualify for governmental disability benefits in the U.S. in some cases if they can prove that their symptoms make it impossible for them to work.
What is extremely severe anxiety?
Severe or crippling anxiety can take different forms depending on the individual and their circumstances. However, in general, severe anxiety is characterized by intense fear and impacts daily functioning to an extreme degree. This typically means that the individual can’t work, interact socially, or take care of themselves adequately some or most of the time as a result of their symptoms.
Symptoms that could cause this level of impairment could include a persistent, overwhelming sense of fear, worry, or impending doom; frequent panic attacks; and frequent, intense physical symptoms that may include a racing heartbeat, severe headaches, or trouble breathing. Seeking the support of a healthcare professional is recommended in this case.
Does anxiety disorder have physical symptoms?
Yes, an anxiety disorder can cause a physical fear response in the affected individual. These symptoms may include panic attacks, shortness of breath, headaches, back or neck pain, and trouble sleeping. Seeking the support of a healthcare professional who can rule out other underlying health conditions is recommended in this case.
What does debilitating anxiety feel like?
What qualifies as unbearable and debilitating anxiety can vary from person to person, but in general, it refers to a level of anxiety that causes serious impairment in daily functioning. In cases like these, symptoms can be so strong that the individual may not believe that they can go to work, maintain relationships, or care for themselves adequately. Seeking the support of a mental health professional is recommended.
What is high-functioning anxiety?
High-functioning anxiety is a term used to describe a condition in which a person experiences symptoms of an anxiety disorder but is able to function well in day-to-day life. This type of anxiety frequently goes undiagnosed as a result, even though the individual may still be living with significant symptoms.
What is a nervous breakdown, and can depression and stress cause it?
A “nervous breakdown” — an outdated term that has been replaced by “mental health crisis” — refers to a period of feeling overwhelmed or overcome by mental or emotional strain, symptoms, or challenges. It can occur as a result of high, ongoing stress levels or mental health conditions like depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What is the most severe level of anxiety?
Anxiety symptoms can reach a level at which they’re debilitating, which means they render a person unable to engage in daily functioning, including everyday tasks like getting the mail. In some cases, a person may even need to be temporarily hospitalized for severe anxiety.
What are the 4 levels of anxiety?
One way to categorize types of anxiety is by severity level: mild, moderate, severe, and panic. Panic is perhaps the most severe form of anxiety.
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