3 Types Of Anxiety Therapy That Can Help You Recover

27 May 2021
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Anxiety can be caused by many triggers, such as stress from work, school, global occurrences, and trauma due to domestic violence, accident, natural disaster, or illnesses. Also, it can occur as a side effect of medicines and drug usage. Anxiety is generally categorized into obsessive-compulsive panic, phobia, and post-traumatic stress disorders. Fortunately, these disorders can be controlled by therapy. This guide discusses three types of anxiety therapy you should consider.

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is an effective therapy used for nearly all anxiety disorders. With the guidance of your therapist, this treatment helps you identify specific negative thoughts affecting how you perceive your environments. Then, they will analyze how such perceptions control your behavior. Therefore, CBT establishes a connection between your cognition, emotions, and behaviors. 

This anxiety treatment can teach you how to replace negative thought patterns with positive ones. The therapist will also teach you the best ways to accept difficult emotions. CBT involves homework after sessions. For instance, you may need to journal all the negative thoughts you get and replace them with positive ones before your next session.

2. Psychodynamic Therapy

In psychodynamic anxiety therapy, you will discover how your childhood or past experiences affect your present behavior, emotions, and thoughts. This is because past events, particularly unpleasant ones, can remain in your unconscious mind. Therefore, the professional will examine your relationships and recurring habits.

Psychodynamic therapy is a long-term treatment that may take months, if not years. Besides, it is effective on almost all anxiety disorders.

3. Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy involves exposing individuals to their particular anxiety source until they overcome it. Hence, it is mainly used for phobias and PTSD. However, before the exposure stage, you will learn relaxation strategies. The therapist will teach you how to relax muscles, breathe intentionally, and meditate.

Exposure therapy can be done in three ways. First, the therapist can take you through imaginal exposure, which involves imagining the anxiety source. The therapist may also ask you to face your anxiety trigger in real life, which is in vivo exposure. For instance, if you have social phobia, you can attend a party and socialize or give a toast. Virtual reality exposure therapy is the third one, and it merges imaginal and in vivo exposures using modern technology. 

The above anxiety therapy treatments can help improve your mental health and overcome anxiety. Ensure you work with an experienced and reputable therapist to get satisfactory results.    

Talk to a doctor, such as Dr. Lynn Fraley LCPC, to schedule an appointment.