It’s natural to feel anxious now and then. You may feel uneasy when you’re approaching a tight deadline at work or you’re behind on your bills. Those temporary nerves can often be alleviated with a bit of self-care or exercise. But when you have an anxiety disorder that causes you to feel overwhelmingly nervous and uncertain, often without a logical cause, it’s essential that you find scientifically proven methods that will help alleviate your symptoms.
When you’re researching how to reduce your anxiety, you’re likely to see a variety of recommendations. While some have been proven by data, others have not. Meditation can improve your mental health in many ways. But it may not be a solely effective solution for an anxiety disorder diagnosis.
Read on to learn about why meditation shouldn’t be your only anxiety treatment before learning about other options that may be more effective.
Why meditation shouldn’t be your only anxiety treatment
Meditation refers to an exercise that helps you practice mindfulness to find relaxation and calmness. It helps you increase awareness of your body as well as your thoughts and breathing. It’s an essential component of many religions and dates back centuries.
While meditation is believed to reduce stress and negative emotions, it’s not the most effective way to treat a diagnosable mental disorder like anxiety. Meditation can help alleviate temporary nerves. However, generalized anxiety disorder is a chronic condition. It requires treatments that provide results by focusing on long-term solutions.
Meditation can be a positive practice that you incorporate into your regular routine. But anxiety treatments should focus on changing your cognitive function and emotional patterns. Once you’ve been diagnosed with anxiety, or anxious depression, there are several medically tested treatments that you should explore.
Why you should seek therapy instead of meditation for anxiety
Psychotherapy is one of the main courses of action for anxiety treatment. It helps you explore your anxiety symptoms from every angle. A licensed therapist can provide many benefits for anxiety that meditation can’t offer.
Here are a few ways that you can alleviate your anxiety symptoms through therapy:
- Develop coping skills to handle triggers for your anxiety.
- Learn problem-solving and stress management techniques.
- Gain a different perspective on situations that cause anxious feelings.
- See how your thoughts contribute to symptoms, such as irritability and fear.
There are a variety of therapy approaches to help different types of mental disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is often one of the most effective psychotherapy anxiety treatments. CBT helps you understand how your cognitive and behavioral patterns affect your emotions. A therapist can help you adjust how these patterns interact with each other to reduce your anxiety symptoms.
How Active Path Mental Health can improve your anxiety beyond meditation
Meditation can play a positive role in your overall health and wellness, but it’s important that your anxiety is treated by data-driven treatments. Therapy may have been recommended to you or a loved one because it has been backed by medical research.
At Active Path Mental Health, our services will help you alleviate your anxiety disorder and anxious depression symptoms so that you can continue on your mental health journey.
Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
