About Overcoming Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Social Phobia, and GAD

Overcoming Anxiety | How We Can Help

My name is Dr. Rich and I like helping others overcoming anxiety. Unlike some of the other psychiatric disorders, people who experiencing anxiety have a good chance of making remarkable progress. For many, a complete recovery is possible. What you need is a willingness to face your anxiety.

On this site I will cover different types of anxiety:

• Panic Attacks
• Social Anxiety
• Generalized Anxiety
• Stress Management and Anxiety

I did not include PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for several reasons. Most of the PTSD encountered today is from combat experience. I am very familiar with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the research they have done with PTSD. They have VERY GOOD programs available. If you would like, please review the resources here that may be helpful to you if you have PTSD. One note about the VA: The quality of the services vary greatly from one clinic and on region to another. If you are not getting the help from one clinic, request going to another. Here is another article on the different types of anxiety.

Overcoming Anxiety | Panic Attacks

If you are overcoming anxiety in the form of panic attacks, you are in for a surprise because, panic attacks are simple to treat. I did not say easy. The medications available to treat anxiety are excellent. Some counselors are very experienced with treating panic attacks. Now, there are some very good home programs such as Panic Away and The Linden Method to help even more people.

A panic attack has a specific set of physical symptoms and the criteria for a panic attack is very specific. Generally, I encourage the use of short term medications in for my patients. For most, I do not believe medications are the answer to this condition. The real key is engaging in a program that will help you face you fear very slowly and in a way that to can begin to recover. The involve the use of anxiety exposure, learning relaxation, and changing the way you view the triggers for anxiety.

Social Anxiety

In my experience, social anxiety is a little difficult to improve. When overcoming anxiety, specifically social anxiety, one will need to learn the same ways to deal with anxiety as with panic attacks above. There is one different component: Social Skills Training.

Social skills training is basically learning how to make friends and be around others. This takes more work that just exposing yourself to anxiety as with panic attack. Typically, those with social anxiety have been disconnected form others. The skills need to get along with others without “sticking out” develop over years. The good news is that these can be be learned. Go here for more on social anxiety.

Generalized Anxiety

Overcoming anxiety, specifically generalized anxiety is very similar to the approach to social anxiety. One will need to expose themselves to the anxiety, learn a form of relaxation, and learn to change their thoughts (cognitive restructuring).

Generalized anxiety, too, has developed over many years and changing one’s thinking habits takes time. They say it “takes 30 days to make a habit and 30 days to break a habit” and I believe this to be true. Learning to not be worried and afraid of everything is possible. I have found medications a particularly helpful with this group in helping to get them started. Find out more about generalized anxiety.

Stress Management and Anxiety

In our fast paced society, learning about overcoming anxiety involves stress management. This is an absolutely huge topic ranging form time management to learning to prioritize the things to need to get done. Most anyone can make changes relatively easy with stress management.

How much time are you are you spending on the phone, email, the web, and driving? Do others impose on you time and do you have trouble saying “no” to them. Do you have a 1 year and 5 year goal list? These are some of the things covered under stress management. They are very simple, but believe me, very few people do them. Find out more about overcoming anxiety and stress management.

Learning some simple relaxation techniques for anxiety can be very helpful for many individuals.  Many techniques are simple to learn and can be practiced for a lifetime.

Tell Your Experiences

I’m going to allow commenting on this blog so people can share their experiences. If you have something of particular value to share with the visitors, please send me an email and I will look into featuring what you have to say. This site is about helping others overcome anxiety. It has practical things people can do, places to find more help, and motivational comments from others who have overcome anxiety.

More Resources on Overcoming Anxiety

Dr.Rich is a psychiatrist who writes about mental health related topics focusing on anxiety disorders and substance abuse on various blogs as he realizes anxiety and substance abuse occur together. You can find information about opioid dependence and drug treatment. Skip to our other sections:

Anxiety Information | Panic Attacks| Social Anxiety| Generalized Anxiety| Stress Management