Although there are many strategies for treating anxiety disorder, far too many people continue to suffer unnecessarily. When a person is avoiding certain places or situations due to irrational fear responses it is time to seek professional treatment. Some people believe treating anxiety disorders means multiple sessions with a psychiatrist exploring childhood experiences to determine the cause of anxiety. This perception of treatment is totally wrong. Modern treatments are much less emotionally invasive and often achieve success in less than 5 visits.

In response to irrational fears and anxiety in certain situations many sufferers turn to self-medication. Alcohol is often the first drug tried. It brings on its own problems and is of little actual value in treatment. The other most common self-treatment is avoidance. Avoiding anxiety-prone situations may work as long as the anxiety trigger is not a common part of everyday life. Unfortunately untreated anxieties sometimes grow and spread. Anxiety brought on by spiders, for instance, can grow and expand to include insects then eventually become a fear of leaving the house. It is important to seek treatment before an anxiety trigger becomes this life-limiting.

Well-meaning friends and relatives can misunderstand the methods and possibilities of treating anxiety disorder and try to convince a sufferer that the problem is 'all in your head' or that the solution is to 'get past it.' A sufferer of anxiety disorder can fall deeper into misery in the face of this advice, making it harder to seek help. Sometimes they believe there is no escape or that treatment is time consuming and ineffective. In fact, there are effective self-help options that can be effective for many people. The misery of anxiety disorders can be treated.

The growth of internet access permits online access to tons of information about treating anxiety disorders. Anyone can explore the treatment options, locate local help resources and investigate the success rates of the many treatment options in dealing with their specific anxiety trigger. The active search for information is actually an excellent first step toward recovery. Simply understanding the problem equips a person with the tools to defeat it.

Drugs are often used for treating anxiety disorders. Medication should not be considered as a long-term cure because some of the drugs used can be habit forming and side effects can be hard to tolerate. Ideally drugs are used in conjunction with behavior-based therapies to achieve easier initiation of therapy in severe cases. As a patient responds to therapy drugs are cut back. Behavior-based treatments actually offer better long-term (even permanent) relief.

Cognitive- and exposure-based anxiety treatments are the two most commonly used approaches. Cognitive-based therapy is based on teaching the patient some strategies to recognize and break up the thought processes that lead to anxiety attacks. Breaking the chains of thought has been proven highly effective in non-specific anxiety disorders.

Public misconceptions about exposure-based therapies often cause anxiety sufferers to fear seeking treatments (there is some irony in that). The thinking goes something like this: If I'm afraid of spiders why would I seek help from someone who is going to hand me a spider? This is not a description of exposure therapy. In fact, exposure therapy is often more based on education than in exposing a person to the triggers of their fears. When actual exposure is part of the therapy it is only after the patient has been taught the relaxation methods and mental exercises to deal with anxious thought. Exposure occurs in carefully controlled situation with the support of the therapist.

Both cognitive-based and exposure-based methods for treating anxiety disorders often use drugs in the early phases of treatment. The goal of therapy should be to give the patient the tools to overcome the anxiety without being numbed or propped-up by drugs. New and more effective treatments for anxiety disorders are being developed constantly. Recent success has been shown with exercise, relaxation techniques, bio-feedback and hypnosis. Each person responds differently and the ideal therapy for any individual may require trying more than one approach.