Anxiety Treatment Centers in California
Anxiety Treatment Centers in California Can Help
Anxiety affects millions of people in varying degrees by crippling the ability to live a peaceful, satisfying life free of fear. According to the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, criteria involved in a professional clinician making a qualified diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder include:
• Patient experiences at least six months of excessive worry and anxiety concerning a variety of situations and events, with a marked inability to control the worry.
• Feeling overwhelming tiredness, restlessness and irritability
• Experiencing cognitive problems with memory and concentration
• Sleep issues involving hypersomnia or insomnia
• Disruption of daily activities by anxiety that is severe enough to inhibit the ability to perform them
• Anxiety that is not the result of a medical or substance abuse issue
While anxiety disorders can be superficially treated with antidepressants, this treatment program represents a temporary fix for symptoms rather than a permanent remedy eliminating the underlying cause of the anxiety. Attending an anxiety treatment center in California does more than just medicate an individual suffering from debilitating anxiety symptoms. Instead, these specialized treatment facilities provide clients with caring and supportive staff members who are also professional counselors experienced with helping people suffering from uncontrollable anxiety disorders. Counselors working at California anxiety treatment centers possess clinical degrees as well as years of experience in assisting people suffering from the spectrum of anxiety disorders.
While staying at a California treatment center for anxiety, clients receive:
• Comprehensive assessment and evaluation to determine the severity and type of anxiety disorder affecting them
• Exposure therapy for those suffering from panic disorder
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Techniques regarding relaxation and stress management
• Coping skills training
• Family, individual and group therapy
• Follow-up care and relapse prevention treatment
By combining these treatments with healthy outdoor activities, holistic treatments and a variety of other beneficial programs conducive to relief from anxiety disorders, clients leave California anxiety treatment centers no longer experiencing:
• Rapid and uncontrollable heartbeats or heart palpitations
• Paralyzing fear for no reason
• Extreme nervousness that prevents you from leaving your home
• Feelings of breathlessness or suffocation
• Dizziness and nausea from being so anxious
• Thoughts of having a heart attack and dying
Whether diagnosed with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or social anxiety disorder, clients attending a California anxiety clinic will have their lives transformed after learning from caring and professional counselors why they fear certain things or situations and how to cope successfully with these destructive types of fears. Holistic methods such as eating healthy foods, enjoying daily physical activities in the warm and sunny California climate and making lifestyle changes promoting a positive outlook towards life are just some of the powerful approaches clients will acquire and incorporate into their lives.
In addition, anxiety sufferers will learn about the causes of anxiety. Genetics, abnormalities in brain chemistry (specifically the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine) and environmental factors are the primary reasons for feeling chronically anxious. It is normal for someone to experience anxiety following a traumatic event, such as a death in the family, a bad car accident, divorce of loss of employment. However, when anxiety worsens or does not go away after a certain length of time appropriate for the event, an anxiety disorder may develop that slowly begins eroding the quality of life for the individual.
While staying at a California treatment center for anxiety, clients learn how to cope constructively with fears and anxieties by understanding the overpowering influence thoughts can wield over perceptions. Negative thinking coupled with low self-esteem is often the culprit behind feeling anxious in certain situations. For example, are you afraid to leave your home because you are terrified something bad will happen once you abandon the safety of your home? This is typical agoraphobic thinking that actually has no basis in reality. However, after harboring these thoughts for a long time, someone with agoraphobia cannot be convinced otherwise, which results in the affected individual becoming a prisoner in their own home.
By integrating exposure therapy, relaxation techniques, CBT and many other powerfully effective therapies into the client’s lifestyle, California anxiety treatment center counselors can successfully teach individuals suffering from anxiety how to manage their fears and stop being afraid of living the life to which they are entitled.
