Alter is Ready to Help You or a Loved One
Anxiety is a very common disorder, and it is being diagnosed more and more worldwide. Having anxiety can feel overwhelming, frightening, and frustrating, but there is help available at anxiety treatment centers in California where residents can turn to Alter for treatment for themselves and their loved ones. Through caring, scientifically-based therapies and care, our team can take care of you and help you feel better.
Our Orange County, California treatment center is designed to be a relaxing, safe, and healing environment where you can regain your peace of mind, gain confidence, and take back your sense of self. We offer each patient an in-depth assessment, which ensures that you will receive only the treatments appropriate to your unique mental health issues so that your complex conditions and symptoms are adequately treated.
You can call Alter Behavioral Health at 949-570-6454 today for more details on our process for treating mental health and behavioral health disorders.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal state of being that everybody feels from time to time. It can feel like anticipation, worry, or physical tension in the muscles. People often feel anxious in dangerous situations, or when they are nervous about something like giving a presentation at work. You may doubt yourself, or find yourself thinking about the same things over and over.
In the body, you may experience a flood of adrenaline, a fight or flight response, rapid heart rate, and hyperventilation (fast breathing). It is a natural feeling that can be helpful in small doses to motivate you or keep you safe and alert in a time of crisis.
When Does Anxiety Rise Above a Normal Feeling to Become a Disorder?
When a person has an anxiety disorder, the feelings and thoughts that accompany normal worry become so overwhelming that they begin to interfere with a person’s daily life. They may experience panic attacks, or feel so afraid that they feel they cannot drive a car, leave the house, or think about certain topics, even when there is no logical reason for feeling this way. Some common anxiety disorders are:
- Generalized anxiety disorder.
- Phobias.
- Panic disorder.
- Social anxiety disorder.
- Separation anxiety disorder.
12 Signs of Uncontrolled Anxiety
If you are not getting help at anxiety treatment centers in California, you will likely find yourself struggling to concentrate on the task at hand as you are thinking about whatever is making you feel anxious. A major symptom of anxiety is persistent worry, or being fearful in everyday situations that do not pose a real danger to you. The fear is difficult to control and is far out of proportion to what is happening.
You may also experience symptoms like:
- Feeling tense or nervous.
- Having feelings of impending doom.
- Feeling irritable or quick to anger.
- Sweating.
- Trembling.
- Feeling weak or tired.
- Hyperventilation.
- Insomnia.
- Rapid heart rate.
- Gastrointestinal troubles.
- Feeling the urge to avoid people, situations, or places that trigger anxiety.
- Worry that is upsetting to you and causing real issues in your life (interfering with work or personal relationships).
How is Anxiety Treated?
When entering anxiety treatment centers, California residents can expect to first undergo a thorough evaluation of their symptoms, their physical health, and their psychological health, along with a look into their family history and any substance use issues they may have as well, as all of these factors will determine which types of treatment will be appropriate.
At Alter, we use a combination of evidence-based care, group therapies, and medications as needed to treat anxiety disorders. The types of therapy most often incorporated into our patient’s treatment plans are:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps patients identify their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors and make positive changes while providing coping skills to manage symptoms.
- Psychoeducational groups educate patients about mental health, behaviors, and consequences.
- Skills development groups to help patients develop practical ways of living with mental health symptoms.
- Dialectical behavioral therapy helps people learn emotional regulation, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance.
- Support groups to provide support from peers and professionals, with group discussions, shared experiences, and brainstorming for collaborative problem-solving.
- Interpersonal process groups help patients work together to process trauma and conflict, address underlying concerns, work on emotional development, and process intrapersonal dysfunction.
- Acceptance therapy teaches patients to identify goals for their future and then commit to taking actions that make life better, focusing on the positive.
- Seeking safety to help treat co-occurring PTSD and underlying mental health issues.
- Medications are also a part of many people’s anxiety recovery journey. They may be short-term prescriptions or longer-term medications, but for many, the combination of therapy, meds, lifestyle changes, and social support has immense benefits.
6 Benefits of Treating Anxiety
Some benefits you will see when you treat anxiety are:
- Better quality of life: The main benefit you will see from treating your anxiety is an overall improvement in your quality of life. Anxiety seeps into every aspect of your being, from the way you do your work to the way you feel about yourself and the world around you. Reducing the symptoms of an anxiety disorder can make the world easier to walk through, make challenges easier to deal with, and help you to live a happier and more carefree existence.
- Better health: Raised cortisol levels and stress can cause serious health issues, especially if you are living that way for a long time. Reducing this stress on the body can improve heart conditions, reduce high blood pressure, get rid of digestive problems, and help with chronic pain issues as tense muscles can finally relax.
- Better functioning at work and school: You will be better able to focus on the task at hand, memory issues will resolve, and you will be able to retain more information. You will also have more mental space to implement critical thinking and imagination into your work.
- Better relationships with others: Fear will no longer hinder you. This means different things for different people, but you will likely become more gregarious and enrich your social life. You may even begin to enjoy busy public gatherings and meeting new friends.
- Learning healthier self-talk and behaviors that will last a lifetime. Attending a treatment center that offers therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy will teach you the ways that you can better your own life from the inside out. You will learn to take control over the way you think and act, gain healthier self-esteem, and understand your mental health triggers better.
- Learning to deal with stress: You will also learn new coping mechanisms that you can practice for times when things feel overwhelming or stressful while identifying when and where to implement meaningful, lasting change in your day-to-day routine.
Alter is a Top Choice for Anxiety Treatment Centers in California
Alter is the top choice for anxiety treatment centers in California because we provide in-depth diagnoses to our patients, and then follow through with integrated, individualized treatment. We also help identify whether our patients require any referred ancillary services. The aim is to provide you with assistance, not only for your immediate safety but also to set you up for long-term wellness and success in all you do. To learn more about what Alter can do to help you or your loved one with anxiety issues, please call us at 866-380-3360. We are standing by now and can help you.
