Anxiety is a part of daily life. Unfortunately, persistent anxiety and anxiety disorders are increasingly common and affect people across the country. Work stress, economic pressures, and fear of failure are only some things that can lead to anxiety and affect anxiety disorders. While many people may try to cope with anxiety on their own, anxiety treatment can provide tools to cope with common signs of anxiety.
If you or someone you love is struggling with symptoms of anxiety, the team at Northpoint Nebraska can help. Call us now at 888.351.3834 to learn more about our Omaha outpatient anxiety treatment program.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a physical, mental, and emotional state. When the nervous system becomes dysregulated, either ruminating about the past or worrying about the future, a person experiences anxiety. This means that when the nervous system is triggered into a fight, flight, or freeze response, the brain and body are no longer in a state of calm. Fight, flight, or freeze is an ancient natural response to danger. It helped our ancestors flee predators and helps us today during life-threatening situations.
Anxiety, however, does not happen when our lives are at risk. Instead, anxiety is a fight, flight, or flee response to worry about the future or ruminating about the past. This means that during anxiety, the body perceives an imagined threat.
Recognizing Common Signs of Anxiety
Anxiety affects everyone differently. While our nervous systems may respond similarly, prolonged stress, PTSD, diet, and stress tolerance can affect anxiety and symptoms of anxiety. The most common signs of anxiety include:
1. Physical Dysregulation
When the nervous system is dysregulated, it causes a range of physical symptoms. The hormones from fight, flight, or freeze response cause increased heart rate, trouble breathing, sweating, and shaking, depending on someone’s anxiety levels. This can cause exhaustion by taxing the adrenal glands.
2. Worry and Rumination
Anxiety affects the body but begins in the mind. Constant worry, confusion, and difficulty staying on task can come from irrational thoughts about the past or future. This can also include guilt and shame.
3. Trouble Focusing
Physical dysregulation and mental strain can make it hard for people to focus. Trouble focusing can lead to more anxiety when it affects someone’s to-do list.
4. Insomnia
While physical and mental fatigue are typical anxiety symptoms, rumination can lead to trouble sleeping. Someone may have difficulty falling asleep and often wake up in the middle of the night anxious.
5. Feeling Unsafe
Like PTSD, anxiety can make it hard for people to feel safe, secure, and grounded. Worry and rumination can increase these feelings.
Anxiety can be physically and mentally draining. It can cause erratic behavior and make it hard to relate to others. Anxiety treatment can provide tools, coping strategies, and peace of mind for those struggling. Through therapy, diet changes, and mindfulness practices like meditation, patients in anxiety treatment programs feel empowered to recognize and manage their anxiety. They’re also less likely to see unhealthy coping mechanisms like drugs and alcohol to manage anxiety symptoms.
Find Anxiety Treatment at Northpoint Nebraska
Unfortunately, anxiety is increasingly common. It’s also treatable. If you or someone in your life is struggling with anxiety, know you are not alone. You also don’t need to suffer. The team at Northpoint Nebraska can help.
Our clinic provides the greater Omaha area with anxiety treatment alongside addiction recovery and programs for other co-occurring disorders. With a range of evidence-based and alternative therapies, patients at Northpoint Nebraska receive a balance of care and flexibility for comprehensive behavioral healthcare.
Some of our evidence-based therapies and holistic approaches include:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Family therapy
- Group therapy
- Music therapy
- Meditation therapy
If you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety, call Northpoint Nebraska today at 888.351.3834 or reach out online.