Signs, Symptoms & Treatment in Fort Lauderdale

The following are common symptoms experienced by individuals with anxiety disorders:[2]

• Persistent Worry: Feelings of worry or fear that appear unmanageable.
• Panic Attacks: Episodes that occur without notice or at any time. These may include extreme fear, stomach pain, shortness of breath, or feeling as if you are losing control.
• Physical Symptoms: Muscle tension, lethargy, racing heart, nausea, and shortness of breath.
• Sleep Issues: Inability to sleep when tired or having prolonged periods where your thoughts race through your head.
• Avoidance: Avoiding social events or situations that you know will bring on feelings of anxiety.

Early diagnosis of anxiety allows people to seek out timely therapeutic interventions that will limit the degree of severity and amount of time spent experiencing symptoms.

Anxiety disorders generally cannot be attributed to one specific cause but are likely the result of several factors combined.[3] 

• Family History: A family history of anxiety can increase the odds of a person developing an anxiety disorder. 
• Brain Chemistry: An individual’s brain chemistry and how it regulates neurochemicals (adaptations in the production of different amounts of stress hormone, serotonin, or dopamine) can also affect the likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder. 
• Life Experiences: An individual’s history, including past traumatic events, working under chronic stress, health or medical challenges, or significant life changes, will also affect how vulnerable they are to developing an anxiety disorder. 

Often, anxiety develops gradually when these biological and environmental factors overlap over time.

Anxiety disorders can present themselves in different ways depending on each person and their specific condition.[4] The following are the most common:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Individuals with GAD exhibit excessive anxiety and worry related to ordinary daily living. Patients with GAD are likely to feel “anxious” in many situations throughout the day.
• Panic Disorder: Characterized by experiencing episodic panic attacks or an unrealistic fear of feeling out of control. These episodes often relate to physical sensations like restricted breathing or heart palpitations.
• Social Anxiety Disorder: Excessive fear regarding social situations where their peer-to-peer relationships might be negatively perceived by others.
• Specific Phobia: Defined as an unreasonable amount of fear related to a particular object or activity, such as driving, leaving the house, public transportation, germs, elevators, insects, etc. A person with a specific phobia may become unwilling to participate in social or family events because of excessive anxiety associated with those activities.

Anxiety can affect many areas, including emotions, thought processes, and behavior, as well as one’s ability to assess and respond to events throughout the course of a lifetime. Over time, untreated anxiety can result in problems with maintaining interpersonal relationships and lower levels of productivity.[5]

On the other hand, if you seek therapeutic intervention and mental health treatments related to the symptoms of anxiety, you will have the opportunity to understand your triggers, develop coping strategies, and build your confidence in all aspects of daily living.

Therapy is an effective way to treat anxiety. Therapists use evidence-based therapeutic approaches to help people understand patterns in their lives that lend to anxiety and to develop new coping strategies.[6]

Effective therapies include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT focuses on the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and how you behave. It helps to identify any unhelpful patterns of thinking that you may have developed over time and replace them with healthier, more realistic perspectives that will help you to make positive changes in your life.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): This is a skills-based therapy that assists you with effectively coping with difficult emotions. DBT focuses on improving your ability to tolerate distress, improving your interpersonal relationships, and developing healthier coping skills.
• Mindfulness-Based Interventions: These interventions teach you how to develop awareness of the thoughts and feelings that are occurring at that moment (present moment awareness) without judgment. This helps you to reduce your stress, improve your ability to regulate your emotions, and build resilience.

These therapies minimize symptoms through brief intervention techniques that include coping skills, emotional regulation, and healthier responses to trigger situations. Additionally, exposure therapy may be used if deemed beneficial. This approach helps you to gradually face your fears of a certain situation, memory, or sensation in a safe environment. The goal is to reduce avoidance behavior so that, over time, your anxiety response can be lessened.

Many people who suffer from anxiety use substances to manage their symptoms.[7] However, continued use or abuse of these substances creates greater anxiety over time, which makes it important to treat both SUDs and Anxiety Disorders simultaneously.

At Agape Treatment Center, our dual diagnosis treatment helps people understand the connection between anxiety and substance use, while supporting both mental health stability and long-term recovery.