Anxiety Disorder Recovery: Discovering a Life Worth LivingAuthor / Source: Jennifer Lafferty O’Connor, PhD, Remuda Ranch Category: Anxiety |
Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness in both children and adults, affecting one in six individuals in America each year. Although these disorders vary distinctly in their presentation and symptoms, at their core these disorders all involve persistent, intense, and irrational anxiety, fear, or dread that interferes with daily life. Too often, anxiety disorders are misunderstood or misdiagnosed, preventing the sufferer from receiving appropriate treatment. When left untreated, anxiety disorders can quickly become incapacitating and may result in the development of additional problems including unemployment, social isolation, depression, and substance abuse.
Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) is a form of treatment that has been proven to be effective in reducing and managing anxiety symptoms. The primary goal of CBT treatment is to free sufferers from a vicious cycle in which they have come to rely on ineffective behaviors in a futile effort to self-manage their anxiety. For example, persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) typically rely on time consuming compulsions and avoidance behaviors to manage intrusive and distressing obsessions. OCD sufferers with contamination obsessions may spend three hours daily in washing and cleansing compulsions, confined to their homes because they avoid “contaminated” locations such as school, work, and public places.
Over time, compulsive and avoidance behaviors drastically reduce the sufferer’s life quality, resulting in disability. These behaviors also strengthen the distorted and obsessive fears that drive the OCD cycle to begin with. OCD sufferers may believe that if they ever enter the perceived “contaminated” places or stop their compulsive washing, they will contract a horrible disease. Because of avoidance, their beliefs are never subjected to reality testing, but instead grow stronger.
CBT interventions directly challenge both distorted thoughts and ineffective behaviors. Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP) is the primary CBT intervention used to treat most anxiety disorders, including OCD, social phobia, panic disorder, and OCD-spectrum disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder. ERP involves direct exposure to feared situations plus prevention of clients’ ineffective behaviors, such as their compulsions and avoidance behaviors.
Prior to ERP, clients receive extensive psycho-education, facilitating insights into their thinking and behavior. As clients realize that their compulsive and avoidance behaviors are preventing the lives they want, they begin to desire change. Clients learn that the pathway out of this cycle is facing their fears through ERP. They learn about behavioral concepts, such as “habituation”: if they remain in distressing situations long enough, their anxiety naturally abates, making avoidance and compulsive behaviors unnecessary.
Clients create “fear hierarchies”—lists of situations that trigger their anxiety. Fear hierarchies always begin with situations that provoke mild/moderate distress and proceed to those provoking severe distress. Clients gradually develop confidence in their ability to tolerate distress without using ineffective behaviors for relief.
As clients face fears on their hierarchy, they learn experientially that habituation does indeed occur and that their imagined fears do not come to pass. As this happens, clients become less entrenched in fear and more willing to confront challenging situations. As clients develop confidence in their ability to manage a variety of previously distressing situations, they become free to lead lives that are guided by their personal values, goals, and priorities, rather than limited by anxiety and efforts to reduce or avoid it.
Remuda Ranch offers Christian inpatient and residential programs for
individuals of all faiths suffering from eating or anxiety disorders. Each
patient is treated by a multi-disciplinary team including a Psychiatric and
a Primary Care Provider, Registered Dietitian, Masters Level therapist,
Psychologist and Registered Nurse. The professional staff equips each
patient with the right tools to live a healthy, productive life. For more
information, call 1-800-445-1900 or visit www.remudaranch.com.
