Hope Counseling
Helps Men, Women, and Teens
with Anxiety Disorders
Teen Challenge Hope Counseling
Provides Low Cost Online Counseling
Looking for Anxiety Disorder Counseling and Therapy?
Whether you want to find an in-person counseling session, or want to receive virtual counseling over the phone or online, Hope Counseling in Columbus, Georgia offers low cost online counseling services for men, women, and teens!
Hope Counseling, part of Teen Challenge, provides outpatient in-person or low cost online counseling for men, women, and teens struggling with anxiety. Our licensed professional counselors also help with depression, harmful thoughts, trauma, and PTSD, anger management, family conflict, relationship issues, isolation, and loneliness.
Understanding Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders
Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).
These feelings of anxiety and panic interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger, and can last a long time. You may avoid places or situations to prevent these feelings. Symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years and continue into adulthood.
Common anxiety signs and symptoms include:
- Feeling nervous, restless, or tense
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom
- Having an increased heart rate
- Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Feeling weak or tired
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
- Having trouble sleeping
- Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
- Having difficulty controlling worry
- Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
Helping Teens and Children with Anxiety
Anxiety is a common issue in children, adolescents, and teens, often experienced at different phases of development. Anxiety disorders can be first diagnosed in children between the ages of four and eight, while a recent survey found that about 32% of adolescents in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder, a number that has substantially increased over the years. The study also revealed that one in four to five adolescents has a severe disability related to their anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders are most likely caused by a combination of environmental and biological factors. Anxiety tends to run in families and is more common in girls than boys.
Children and adolescents may have more than one type of anxiety at the same time. The three most common types of anxiety in children are separation anxiety, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety.
The onset of an anxiety disorder is often triggered by stressful events, such as abrupt changes in their lives, difficulties in school, having additional responsibilities beyond their level of maturity, stress from family situations, or traumatic experiences, including being bullied or other forms of abuse.
Examples of anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder (social phobia), specific phobias, and separation anxiety disorder. You can have more than one anxiety disorder. Sometimes anxiety results from a physical medical condition that needs treatment.
Whatever form of anxiety you have, treatment can help.
Treatment for Anxiety Disorder
The two main treatments for anxiety disorders are psychotherapy and medications. You may benefit most from a combination of the two. It may take some trial and error to discover which treatments work best for you.
Also known as talk therapy or psychological counseling, psychotherapy involves working with a therapist to reduce your anxiety symptoms. It can be an effective treatment for anxiety.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective form of psychotherapy for anxiety disorders. Generally a short-term treatment, CBT focuses on teaching you specific skills to improve your symptoms and gradually return to the activities you’ve avoided because of anxiety.
CBT includes exposure therapy, in which you gradually encounter the object or situation that triggers your anxiety so you build confidence that you can manage the situation and anxiety symptoms. Your worries may not go away on their own, and they may get worse over time if you don’t seek help. See your doctor or a mental health provider before your anxiety gets worse. It’s easier to treat if you get help early.
If you want to learn more Hope Counseling’s low cost online counseling and mental health services for men, women, and teens, contact Hope Counseling now. Call 855-981-8542
Sources:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/anxiety/anxiety-in-children-and-teens.htm
"NO WARRANTY" LEGAL NOTICE: While independent outcomes studies have shown very high recovery rates for indiviuals in our programs, we cannot guarantee recovery for any particular individual. Recovery and future abstinence from addicting substances and the effects that such substances may have on the individual or their life, actions, or their future are entirely dependent on the individual and how well they apply the principles we have taught them. We are an educational institution, and how the individual in our program learns from what they are taught and modeled here, is totally up to them. Individuals who stay the full term (until graduation) have much better long-term recovery from addicitons than those who do not.
