Scientists have not found out so far the reason why anxiety is progressing in people. Many specialists believe that anxiety occurs due to violation in the work of certain brain areas. Others are certain that anxiety arises in people, who get in stressful situations and become exhausted quite often.
However, we can surely say that the number of people suffering from anxiety is increasing annually. Therefore, the question «how to get rid of anxiety?» is a relevant one for many these days.
Please note that healthy people can have anxious feeling, as well. Still, when people experience undue fear and anxiety, for no obvious reasons, this may indicate the disease, called anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorder is a mental disorder. It occurs because of mental overstrain or due to a severe stress. If not to cure an anxiety disorder, the consequences may lead to even more serious violations of psyche.
In addition, irritability and impatience of patients cause conflicts with friends and relatives. To get rid of anxiety, people should see a specialist timely.
To cure anxiety disorder, two methods of treatment are used:
- Psychotherapy
- Anti-anxiety medication treatment
Psychotherapists and psychiatrists practice the psychotherapy. However, when psychotherapy does not help, the anxiety disorder treatment is followed by the use of anti-anxiety medication.
Anti-anxiety medications are prescribed when people need to achieve a quick therapeutic effect, but nondrug methods of treatment do not provide a desired result. The choice of anti-anxiety medication depends on the severity and degree of the disease.
For anxiety disorder treatment, various anti-anxiety medications are used. These are Benzodiazepines, Antidepressants and Beta Blockers.
Anti-anxiety medications (Benzodiazepines) provide a soporific, sedative, anticonvulsant and myorelaxant effects. By affecting the central nervous system of a patient, Benzodiazepines provide a powerful healing anti-anxiety effect.
A long-term treatment by means of Benzodiazepines may cause such side effects as sleepiness, dizziness, blurry vision and mental retardation. Therefore, anti-anxiety medication is prescribed for a short treatment course (several days to several weeks).
Other effective anti-anxiety medication belongs to antidepressants group. Despite the fact that these medicines were actually developed for depression therapy, the effectiveness of anxiety disorder treatment using antidepressants has been confirmed long time ago.
One of the conditions of the treatment by means of antidepressants is the therapy duration. To get a desired therapeutic effect, person should use an anti-anxiety medication for 6 and more months.
The most common anti-anxiety medication side effects while using antidepressants are slackness, sleepiness, dry mouth, sexual disorders, vision disorders, palpitations and malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract.
Mild side effects, such as headache, dry mouth and nausea do not last long as a rule and are not the reason for termination of anti-anxiety medication. However, if side effects cause great concerns for a patient, he might need to consult a specialist.
Beta Blockers are also used as anti-anxiety medications. These medications affect the part of the nervous system that is responsible for stress. Beta Blockers reduce the sympathomimetic activity of the central nervous system and the heart rate. Along with this, it causes a gradual decrease in the blood pressure.
While using Beta Blockers, patients may experience the following side effects: decreased sexual drive, sleepiness, fatigue, swelling, nausea or vomiting. It is important to note that patients must never stop using anti-anxiety medications on their own.
Pausing the use of anti-anxiety medications require the consultation with a doctor.