Therapy for Anxiety
Everyone has anxiety. We need it to survive. But when does it get out of hand? And what can I do when that happens?
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal and necessary emotional response for survival. It is future-oriented - in anticipation or preparation for real or perceived threat. Like other emotions, anxiety is transient and consists of several components including our thoughts, physical sensations, and behaviours.
Clinical levels of anxiety occur when one experiences a disproportionate level of anxiety across situations over a period of time. This happens when there is consistently an inflated or inaccurate assessment of threat in a situation, contributing to excessive and inappropriate responses. These challenges with clinical levels of anxiety can be experienced in many or some areas of life (e.g., work, health, social interactions).
Unfortunately, struggling with clinical levels of anxiety is much more common than we’d think. Globally, approximately 301 million people have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. In Singapore, it is estimated that 4 in 100 experience an anxiety-related disorder at some point in their life.
“Prior to being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, it is important to rule out other medical conditions as symptoms of anxiety might mimic other health conditions such as heart, hormonal, or brain conditions.”
These medical conditions include cardiopulmonary (e.g., asthma), endocrine (e.g., thyroid disease) and neurological (e.g., complex partial seizures) disorders, among others. Getting a medical examination is important prior to being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Infographic of what anxiety feels like? 6 common symptoms of anxiety.
Therapy for Anxiety
Infographic of when should you reach out for support? Signs you need support.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
The most researched therapy treatment for anxiety-related disorders is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT includes a broad array of therapeutic strategies to help you understanding the roots and mechanisms of your anxiety, challenging your anxious thoughts, and relearning new ways of responding to anxious feelings.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Other therapy types for anxiety have also been shown to be effective in managing anxious symptoms. This includes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). From an ACT lens, anxiety arises because of our struggle with distressing thoughts and living in misalignment with our values. To manage it, ACT advocates an acceptance of our distressing thoughts to help us live in a values-aligned manner.
TDLR;
Anxiety, as an emotional state, is normal. The discomfort of anxiety is intended to be helpful for our survival. However, when experienced at a disordered level and/or at inappropriate situations, can distressing and debilitating as it inhibits us from engaging with life fully. Support is available for anyone struggling with anxiety.
A throughline across therapy types, is that therapy for anxiety includes a component of confronting our anxious thoughts and engaging in the anxiety-provoking situation. The primary objective for this is to learn that we can manage the uncertainty involved in the anxiety-provoking situation and/or that the anxiety-provoking situation is not as uncertain or threatening as we made it out to be.