Understanding Anxiety
Everyone feels anxiety during their lives. Worry and fear are normal human responses to everyday situations we all experience from time to time.
However, what happens when the fear response to a perceived danger or stressful event becomes all-consuming and is clearly out of proportion to the actual event? That’s usually a sign that you’re struggling with anxiety or an anxiety disorder.
Over time, anxiety can be truly devastating. It puts severe stress on our bodies, potentially leading to digestive, heart, and other problems. However, anxiety is treatable in many ways, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.
Anew Era TMS & Psychiatry proudly uses TMS as part of our outpatient services. You might be surprised at how thirty minutes each day can help you manage your anxiety and live the life you deserve.
How Does TMS Therapy Treat Anxiety?
TMS therapy uses precise electromagnetic pulses aimed at the prefrontal cortex, located at the front of the brain. This area is involved in managing our:
- Emotions
- Personalities
- Executive functions
- Decision-making skills
The electromagnetic pulses stimulate this area of the brain, helping the brain to engage in neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change its structural areas. This helps the brain to create new, healthy pathways, which help lessen the symptoms of anxiety.
How TMS Works for You
The benefits of TMS include:
- Supports Better Mood, Energy and Sleep: Helps promote healthier brain function.
- Minimal Side Effects: Some people may notice mild scalp discomfort or a headache, which usually fades quickly.
- Drug-Free Treatment: No medication is required, which helps reduce the likelihood of side effects.
- Noninvasive and Comfortable: No anesthesia or sedation is needed.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal human emotion revolving around feelings of apprehension, worry, and fear. It’s experienced as a reaction to situations perceived as risky, dangerous, or unpleasant.
Most, if not all, people feel anxious during their lives. It might be felt over relatively minor things, like giving a presentation at work or riding a rollercoaster, or over more serious events like combat or undergoing surgery.
In some cases, anxiety can even be helpful.
However, when anxiety becomes constant and chronic, it’s a sign of a greater problem…especially when there’s no reason to feel anxious. This kind of constant and grinding anxiety, often known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), is part of a family of mental health conditions known as anxiety disorders.
What are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders are a class of mental health disorders revolving around intense feelings of anxiety, dread, and fear. These feelings aren’t caused by anything that warrants anxiety or are an outsized reaction to situations that don’t warrant intense anxiety.
Anxiety disorders include:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorder, often called panic attacks
- Social anxiety disorder
- Phobias
- Anxious depression, also known as mixed anxiety-depressive disorder (MADD)
These disorders can be extremely disruptive in daily life. However, they’re also treatable. Methods like transcranial magnetic stimulation can help you control your anxiety symptoms, helping you live a life where you’re in control – not your symptoms.
Do I Have Anxiety? Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety has both physical and emotional symptoms.
Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety
- A sense of impending danger, worry or dread
- Constantly feeling on edge, irritable, or restless
- Problems concentrating
- Intrusive or obsessive thoughts
Physical Symptoms of Anxiety
- Rapid heartbeat
- Hyperventilation or feeling short of breath
- Sweating
- Feeling weak like you’re going to pass out
Anxiety Statistics
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million Americans struggle with an anxiety disorder each year. The most common are generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with 6.8 million adults affected, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with 7.7 million adults affected.
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Who Gets Anxiety?
Like other disorders, anxiety affects everyone, regardless of age, gender, economic level and more.
However, there are certain factors that contribute to the development of anxiety disorders. They include:
Biological Factors for Anxiety
Differences in brain chemistry, brain structure and genetics all play roles in how anxiety develops. For example, if you have a family member or close relative with anxiety, you’re more likely to develop it.
Environmental Factors for Anxiety
Traumatic events, stressful environments, and substance use can all contribute to anxiety. Social media can be an increasing cause for anxiety that many young people struggle with.
Other Factors for Anxiety
Personality traits like perfectionism often blossom into chronic anxiety. Many long-term chronic diseases, like heart conditions and diabetes, can also make people anxious. Even some prescriptions can lead to anxiety.
How is Anxiety Diagnosed?
Anxiety can only be diagnosed by a medical professional. In general, diagnosing anxiety involves psychological and physical assessments. During a psychological assessment for anxiety, you’ll be asked questions about:
- Your overall physical health and any prescriptions you may be taking
- How long you’ve been feeling anxious
- If you have any ongoing stressful events in your life
- Behaviors like substance use
And more.
Many clinicians use questionnaires to learn more about you. Combined, these help clinicians get to know you and your needs better.
How Can I Help a Loved One with Anxiety?
Seeing a loved one struggle with anxiety can be incredibly difficult. It can leave them feeling overwhelmed by worry, fear or uneasiness, even when nothing obvious is wrong.
While it may feel discouraging at times, there are compassionate and meaningful ways to help them feel supported and remind them that they’re not alone.
Listen with Empathy
Telling someone to “calm down” or “stop overreacting” rarely helps. Instead, acknowledge their feelings, even if you don’t fully understand what they’re going through.
Learn About Anxiety
Understanding how anxiety works can help you better support your loved one and ease some of your own uncertainty in the process.
Create a Judgment-Free Space
When someone knows they can talk openly without criticism or fear, it becomes easier for them to share what they’re experiencing and feel less isolated.
Encourage Professional Support
If they’re willing, gently suggest seeking treatment. You can offer to help them explore options or accompany them to appointments if that feels supportive.
Remember Self-Care
Supporting someone else is much easier when you’re well rested and grounded. Make sure you’re tending to your own needs: sleep, nutrition and downtime matter.
What Happens if Anxiety Isn’t Treated?
When anxiety isn’t addressed, it often intensifies over time. Symptoms can become more disruptive, interfere with daily life, and may contribute to the development of other mental health conditions such as depression.
Long-term anxiety can also influence how the brain functions, affecting concentration, memory, and decision-making. Some people may even turn to substances in an attempt to cope, which can create additional challenges.
Persistent anxiety can leave a person feeling overwhelmed or hopeless, and those feelings can increase emotional distress.
The encouraging news is that anxiety is highly treatable. At Anew Era TMS & Psychiatry, we support clients as they:
- Understand the underlying sources of their anxiety in a safe, compassionate setting
- Build effective strategies to manage symptoms
- Gain insight into themselves and their patterns
- Move toward a life that feels lighter, more balanced, and less controlled by anxiety
A healthier, more grounded future is possible. Many people have already made that journey.
Take Your Life Back from Anxiety Today
Worry, fear and dread. When you struggle with anxiety, you know how these emotions feel, especially when they just don’t go away. Anxiety is taking your life away from you, leaving you feeling isolated, alone and always frightened.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Anew Era TMS & Psychiatry uses TMS therapy to help you regain control of your life, putting you back in charge of your emotions. TMS has no anesthesia, meaning you’ll be back and up on your feet as soon as your sessions are over. Plus, with the average TMS session lasting between 15 and 30 minutes, it’s easy to fit it into even the busiest schedule.
You deserve to live a life where anxiety is not behind the wheel. Reach out to us today to learn more.
