What are the Symptoms of Anxiety?
Anxiety is the body’s response to stress. Anxiety can be felt during events such as the first day of school, a job interview, or speaking in public. However, if thoughts of anxiety are extreme, last longer than six months, or are interfering with daily activities, you could have an anxiety disorder. Since anxiety is a normal reaction, it’s normal to feel anxious about certain things and sometimes this can motivate you to do a better job. Anxiety should come and go and shouldn’t interfere with your life.
With an anxiety disorder, the feeling of anxiety is always with you and can be debilitating. It can cause you to stop doing things you enjoy and may even prevent you from wanting to leave the house. Without treatment, an anxiety disorder will keep getting worse. Anxiety disorders are a very common form of an emotional disorder and can affect any age. Some symptoms that people experience with an anxiety disorder include rapid breathing, restlessness, increased heart rate, and trouble concentrating or falling asleep.
What Is Depression?
Depression is a medical illness that can affect how you feel, think, and act. With depression, you experience feelings of sadness and loss of interest in things that once made you happy. Depression can cause you to not be able to function well at work and home. Some symptoms of depression include feeling sadness, sleeping too little or too much, low energy, feeling worthless, difficulty concentrating and deciding things, and suicidal thoughts. These symptoms usually have to last two weeks or more in order to have a diagnosis of depression. Depression can affect one in 15 people, and one in six adults will experience this at some point in a lifetime. Depression can occur at any time, but it does usually first appear in the mid-20s or late teens.
It’s important to note that depression is different from normal sadness and grief. It can be difficult to deal with the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job or a relationship, and it’s normal to feel sadness during those periods of time. However, this isn’t depression. Grief is having the painful feelings come in waves and can be mixed with positive memories. Depression is a depressed mood for two weeks or more. There are certain risk factors for depression that include genetics, personality, biochemistry, and environmental factors.
How Anxiety and Depression Treatment Work
Treatment for anxiety can be done in two ways, with either medication or psychotherapy. By meeting with therapists, you can learn tools and strategies for coping with anxiety when it occurs. Medications to treat anxiety are used to balance the brain chemistry, which can help prevent anxiety attacks.
Depression is a very treatable disorder and about 80% to 90% of people with depression respond to treatment. Usually a blood test is done to rule out if depression is due to a medical condition and to arrive at a proper diagnosis. Medicine can be used to modify a person’s brain chemistry. Full benefits of medication aren’t usually seen for a couple of months. If there is no improvement, the medication is usually altered in order to help the patient. Psychotherapy can be used along with medication and cognitive behavioral therapy, and is focused on the present and problem solving. Anxiety and depression can occur separately, but it’s common for them to occur together. Symptoms of both can be managed with the same treatments.
There are a number of things that can be done to help reduce symptoms, including lifestyle changes. Regular exercise, getting enough sleep, and having a healthy diet can treat symptoms.
Finding Anxiety and Depression Treatment at 2nd Chance Treatment Center
2nd Chance Treatment Center is a full-service rehabilitation center specializing in addiction treatment and behavior health in AZ. an alternative to inpatient rehabilitation, because sometimes that is not the best option. It is the first treatment of its kind in the state. The full-service outpatient center has the most up-to-date medical and psychiatric treatments for recovery.
