Inpatient Anxiety Treatment

Why Choose Inpatient Mental Health Care

Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their lives. For the most part, anxious feelings do not have a negative impact on your overall health. However, if they are strong enough and last long enough, they can significantly harm your sense of well-being.

In such circumstances, you may develop a diagnosable anxiety disorder. Disorders of this type are often treated in outpatient programs. But many people need help from inpatient treatment for anxiety.

All inpatient anxiety programs provide you with more treatment than an outpatient program. However, not all inpatient programs are the same.

In some cases, you may need to undergo a period of psychiatric hospitalization. In contrast, you may be better-suited for non-hospital, residential treatment for anxiety.

Understanding Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are a group of mental health conditions that elevate your normal anxiety levels in some serious way. The list of these conditions includes:

• Phobias for specific situations, activities or objects usually regarded as harmless
• Panic disorder
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Social anxiety disorder
• Agoraphobia
• Separation anxiety disorder

Each of these illnesses affects you in its own unique ways. For example, people with agoraphobia have a strong, unusual fear of being trapped in places or situations such as:

• Buses, trains or airplanes
• Crowded rooms or areas
• Open or enclosed spaces
• Lines of people
• Anywhere outside their homes

Taken together, anxiety disorders are the most widespread mental illnesses in America. The single most common of these disorders is specific phobia. Up to 12% of all U.S. adults suffer from this condition. Social anxiety disorder is also particularly common.

No one knows exactly how anxiety disorders occur. The current theory holds that there are multiple potential causes. These causes include your genetic background and the way you develop as a child and young adult. They also include the environment in which you grow up.

An anxiety disorder may be mild, moderate or severe. Even mild symptoms can cause you significant distress and harm your ability to function. Only a doctor or mental health specialist can tell for sure if you are affected.

When Do You Need Inpatient Care

Why choose inpatient mental health care for an anxiety disorder? In other words, how can you tell if you require inpatient care rather than outpatient care? As a rule, you need inpatient treatment if any of the following applies to you:

• You have initial symptoms that are too severe for an outpatient program
• An outpatient program fails to adequately support your recovery
• Your exact symptoms have not yet been fully uncovered
• Not enough support is available to you in your home environment
• You are in the midst of an acute mental health crisis
• Doctors consider you at-risk for suicide
• You have the clear potential to harm other people
• Other illnesses or behaviors increase your overall risks for problems

Settings for Inpatient Treatment

Where does inpatient treatment for anxiety take place? Residential rehab outside a hospital setting is a common inpatient option. In residential rehab, you live 24/7 in your chosen facility.

While there, you receive daily or near-daily treatment. You also have immediate access to any other needed care. In addition, you get the benefits of a secure and safe recovery environment.

Under certain circumstances, you may need to be hospitalized as part of your treatment. These circumstances include being a risk to your own safety or that of other people.

They also include having severe and uncontrolled anxiety symptoms.

Inpatient Treatment for Anxiety and Depression

Like anxiety disorders, major depression is a very common mental illness. This means that you have a good chance of developing symptoms of both conditions. Inpatient treatment for anxiety and depression is often required. Why?

Together, these two illnesses can produce more problems than they would on their own. Depending on your situation, you may need residential rehab or a stay in a psychiatric hospital for effective recovery.

Inpatient Anxiety Treatment Features

Besides requiring you to live onsite, inpatient anxiety programs typically share certain additional features in common. Many of these shared characteristics center on the types of available treatment.

The two main inpatient anxiety treatment features are psychotherapy and medication.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is talk therapy. However, today, you do more than talk in many kinds of therapy. That includes the particular options known to help people with anxiety disorders.

These options belong to a school of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT.

In CBT, you work to achieve several important goals. First, you become more aware of how your behaviors and thoughts help promote feelings of anxiety.

You also learn how to identify specific harmful reactions in these areas. In addition, you learn how to respond in ways that encourage sound mental health.

Two kinds of CBT frequently play a role in inpatient anxiety treatment:

• Cognitive therapy
• Exposure therapy

In cognitive therapy, you specifically focus on changing harmful ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Exposure theory takes a different approach. In exposure sessions, you role play situations that increase your anxiety levels in everyday life.

This takes place for limited amounts of time under direct guidance from your therapist. The process allows you to gradually confront your fears. It also aims to make it easier and easier for your to neutralize those fears.

Medication

The frontline medications for anxiety treatment are called anxiolytics, or anti-anxiety meds. These medications do not eliminate all of your symptoms. However, they can help limit your symptoms’ intensity and improve your ability to cope with them. Specific anxiolytic options include:

• Benzodiazepine sedative/tranquilizers
• Buspirone

You may also receive an antidepressant for your anxiety symptoms. This may sound like an odd choice. However, antidepressants can help stabilize your general mood. For this reason, they may help your keep your anxiety-related symptoms in check.

Some people benefit from medications called beta-blockers. These medications were developed as treatments for high blood pressure. They are useful in anxiety disorder treatment because can help ease some of the physical effects of anxiety, including:

• Trembling or shaking muscles
• Skin flushing
• An unusually fast heartbeat

The Best Inpatient Anxiety Treatment Centers

What do the best inpatient anxiety treatment centers have in common? First and foremost, they rely on treatments that are appropriate for your situations. By and large, such methods are evidence-based. This means that they are backed by substantial and properly designed research.

Not all people benefit from the exact same types of evidence-based care. Still, overall, treatments in this category have proven value and effectiveness.

Appropriate treatment for anxiety is also customized. In other worlds, it treats you as a person with specific recovery needs. Customization plays a role in all aspects of a high-quality program. That includes determining which forms of therapy will work best for you.

It also includes picking the right medications. In addition, customized care helps determine whether you need help from just one or both of these options. At the same time, customization adds flexibility.

When required, it allows for any needed changes in your treatment plan. The best treatment centers also provide targeted assistance for people with dual diagnosis. You suffer from this condition if your anxiety disorder is accompanied by a substance disorder.

Dual diagnosis recovery requires more treatment than serious anxiety would require on its own. Specifically, you need help for your substance problems, as well.

Inpatient Treatment for Anxiety Near You

Inpatient treatment for anxiety near you provides you with the benefits of convenient care. As long as that treatment is evidence-based and customized, it will support your recovery.

Most people living in or near large cities will have access to local inpatient care. This is an optimal situation. However, depending on your location, you may need to travel in order to find a programs that suits your requirements.

Emerald Isle’s Inpatient Treatment for Anxiety

Inpatient anxiety treatment is a high-level option for mental health recovery. It provides more care for your symptoms than you could get in outpatient treatment.

It also provides you with extra layers of safety and security. Inpatient care often takes place in a residential treatment facility. Your doctor may also recommend a period of hospitalization.

There are specific criteria for hospital-based care. If you do not meet these criteria, residential treatment is more suitable.

The mainstays of inpatient anxiety treatment are therapy and medication. Two forms of CBT therapy have known benefits for people with anxiety disorders. Your plan may also include other therapy options.

Anti-anxiety meds are common in effective treatment. Your plan may also include antidepressants. In addition, some people receive help from a beta-blocker.

In the greater Phoenix area, turn to Emerald Isle for inpatient treatment for anxiety. We feature a full array of residential services. That includes treatments for all types of adult anxiety disorder. It also includes specialized treatments for dual diagnosis.

Crucially, all of our treatment plans are designed for your specific situation. This personalized approach accounts for any unique factors that have an impact on your treatment. For more information on Emerald Isle’s customized inpatient anxiety program, call us today.