Each year more than 20 million Americans, more than 5% of the population, seek treatment for an anxiety condition. There are generally a number of treatments that are available to these individuals for helping them begin dealing with anxiety. Let’s discuss some of the main pluses and drawbacks of each form of anxiety treatment generally available.

The most common method treating anxiety is through medications prescribed by a mental health specialist. Generally the benzodiazepines are the most common prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, including klonopin and Valium. These drugs are effective at alleviating acute anxiety. However they are not nearly as effective in dealing with chronic anxiety. Among the drawbacks to this type of drug is that they are habit forming. Once you begin to use a benzodiazepine to treat your anxiety you will have to take it everyday and failure to do so with elicit extreme withdrawal symptoms. Consider these drawbacks carefully before beginning.

Another common method of treating anxiety is by one on one counseling with a mental health therapist. There are several advantages and disadvantages of this method as well. One unfortunate truth about therapy is that it, on its own, is probably not going to grant you a lot of relief from your symptoms. It can help with certain disturbed thinking and can be great for brainstorming but it is also expensive and time consuming. People in therapy usually don’t cure their anxiety.

The greatest disadvantage to therapy is that most therapists do not suffer from severe anxiety disorders. Therefore they have no first hand information about which therapies are most effective for treating the symptoms. They are generally book trained and all subscribe to the same company line about the causes of anxiety. There are several ways in which therapists could begin to better understand the plight of their patients.

The next treatment option is to check in to a psychiatric center for an extended stay. This type of inpatient treatment can be very helpful if your anxiety is crippling to the point that you are unable to function in life. It can be especially helpful if you are contemplating suicide or harming yourself.The main thrust of inpatient treatment is to teach individuals new coping skills so that they will not consider suicide. In this way the treatment options provided by an inpatient clinic are usually not very precise for dealing with more subtle forms of anxiety.

The main therapy employed by psychiatric hospitals is called DBT or dialectical behavioral therapy. DBT teaches simple distress management techniques and mindfulness therapy. If you are a severely low functioning human being with a history of suicide attempts or self harm then DBT may be for you. If you have a more refined condition then you will get very little out of this form of treatment.

Finally, in patient treatment can be very expensive. A decent clinic runs at least $750 a day and if you do not have insurance the cost becomes prohibitive. Still if you are close to taking your life and need the immediate intervention then an inpatient psychiatric clinic may be your best bet.

These options are the most common anxiety disorder interventions. If you want to start overcoming anxiety you may want to consider one of these options.