When you are facing an anxiety condition, you have multiple options available for your care in Dallas. Yet for many people, the leading solution is psychiatry. Psychiatry is focused on medication assisted treatment that relies on prescription medication to help manage anxiety symptoms.
But unlike a physician who can often still prescribe some mental health medications, a psychiatrist is specifically focused on mental health issues and is experienced with other treatment methods, such as psychotherapy. This makes a psychiatrist the right partner for anxiety treatment in Dallas.
How Anxiety Conditions Benefit from Psychiatric Care
Anxiety treatment from a psychiatrist, like Dr. Sehdev at Aware Behavioral Health, takes a comprehensive approach to mental health care by combining medication, psychotherapy, and other solutions, such as skill building, to help you reduce anxiety and overcome the challenges that it presents.
This differs from a therapist, who will only be able to provide psychotherapy, which, while still helpful, is often not enough to manage symptoms of anxiety disorders like generalized anxiety, panic disorder, PTSD, and OCD. A psychiatrist who can provide both offers the following advantage:
- Reduction in Symptoms with Anti-Anxiety Medications – Medication for anxiety will start lessening symptoms relatively fast when compared with other methods. Common anxiety medications like antidepressants will often take a few weeks and start having an effect on anxiety. Medications like benzodiazepines that are meant to work in the moment will start working almost immediately. Because these symptoms of anxiety conditions can be severe, these medications can provide much needed relief.
- Severe Conditions May Require Medication – Severe forms of OCD or PTSD could prevent you from functioning normally without medication. Even when you are taking additional steps to help mitigate symptoms, it may not be enough to minimize symptoms medications.
- Make Additional Treatment Possible – If you have experienced extreme forms of anxiety, it can be largely impossible to simultaneously focus on talk therapy because the anxiety will be too overwhelming. Medication can deal with the immediate symptoms so that you have the mental space to start pursuing other treatment methods that can provide more long lasting results if you later decide to transition off of medication.
- Psychiatrists Can Provide Psychotherapy – Once you have your most extreme symptoms managed, a psychiatrist can use approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, to help you start changing thoughts and behaviors. This can get to underlying causes of your anxiety, like trauma or unhelpful thoughts, that have formed the basis for the anxiety. Talk therapy can help you understand and process previous experiences and make changes to unhelpful thinking patterns.
- Offer a More Holistic Approach – As both a medical doctor and an expert in the brain, a psychiatrist can often provide a more holistic approach to your mental health, taking into account how your mental health and any physical conditions may all be working together to cause your anxiety before developing a treatment plan that addresses all of your different needs.
Dr. Sehdev at Aware Behavioral Health not only treats anxiety in Dallas through a combination of medication and talk therapy, but also by developing an extensive understanding of each patient. He is committed to understanding how anxiety conditions you experience are impacting you and which combination of talk therapy, medications, and other solutions will be most effective.
If you have anxiety or suspect your symptoms may indicate an anxiety disorder or other mental health condition, psychiatry might be the right solution for you with the range of methods necessary to relieve your symptoms and leave you feeling more calm and more confident. Send us a message or schedule an appointment to get started with Dallas psychiatry treatment.
