Anxiety Therapy in Bethesda, MD

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health diagnosis across the lifespan, affecting almost one in five adults and up to one in three kids and teens. Indeed, in the most recent US Census, the Census Bureau reported this finding: 69% of surveyed Americans feel “anxious, nervous or on edge” 69% of the time, with 1 in 3 feeling that way most of the time. However, most people who could benefit from science-based talking treatments for anxiety do not get them.

Research indicates that some kids are born with a temperament that predisposes them to develop an anxiety disorder. Different terms have been used to describe this temperament (e.g., “behavioral inhibition,” “highly sensitive child”). Toddlers with this temperament tend to have nervous responses to novelty or unexpected changes; they also tend to be clingier and fussier than their peers when faced with separation from a primary caregiver. Toddlers with this temperament are at higher risk for developing an anxiety disorder, which follows them into adulthood. Some anxiety disorders have a heavier biological component (e.g., OCD) while others do not (e.g., Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety). Moreover, some anxiety diagnoses are triggered by trauma (e.g., PTSD).

Some signs of an anxiety disorder are worrying excessively, avoidance of situations that are not dangerous but which feel dangerous, rituals that don’t have a logical purpose and which consume large amounts of time, panic, nightmares, not being able to keep painful thoughts out of their mind, social inhibition, excessive seeking of reassurances from loved ones, and an assortment of related symptoms. People suffering in this way often have accompanying physical symptoms such as a racing heart, headaches, gastrointestinal discomforts, sweating, and blushing.