Anxiety

What are anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorders develop when natural feelings like fear, stress, and worry become overwhelming in intensity, frequency, or both.

You’re bound to feel anxiety now and again, especially when you’ve got concerns like financial or relationship difficulties or a significant event such as an interview or hospital visit. However, people who develop generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) feel anxious most or all the time.

Everything causes stress when you have GAD. You avoid making decisions in case your choice works out badly, then worry endlessly about your indecision. You feel exhausted from continually being fearful.

You likely have difficulty sleeping, experience appetite changes, and suffer frequent headaches and muscle pain from tension.

Other anxiety disorders are less common, but one affecting many people is phobias. These irrational fears focus on something specific, like a bug or animal, or a situation like being somewhere enclosed.

How is anxiety treated?

Frontline anxiety treatments include talk therapy and medication. For many people, anti-anxiety drugs help to lessen symptom severity so they can cope with daily life better. Talk therapies use varying techniques, some of which address the underlying causes of your anxiety.

A particularly effective treatment for anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you view your fears more realistically. You learn to question your anxiety and develop coping mechanisms to reduce the condition’s hold over you. Relaxation techniques can also help.

While many people find these treatments effective, some fail to improve. If you’ve been through several anti-anxiety medications and talk therapy but still feel excessively anxious, ketamine could be the answer.

How does ketamine help with treatment-resistant anxiety?

Ketamine helps patients with treatment-resistant anxiety because it differs from other medicines for mental health disorders.

Ketamine stimulates a neurotransmitter (brain chemical) called glutamate that often plays a key role in anxiety and depression. Ketamine also enhances your brain’s neuroplasticity — the ability to change thinking patterns and form new habits. 

Ketamine infusions, therefore, help alter the brain’s processing, offering long-term anxiety relief.

Treatment requires you to remain quietly seated for 40-50 minutes while the infusion enters your bloodstream through a needle in your arm. This infusion process promotes a deeply relaxed state that many patients find beneficial. 

Oral medication requires many weeks to take effect, but you should feel the difference soon after starting ketamine therapy.

Call Ketalink Ketamine Center to learn more about anxiety treatment, or book an appointment online today.