Anxiety

Anxiety services offered in Bossier City, LA

Feeling anxious about problems and challenges is perfectly natural, but if such feelings take over your life, you could have an anxiety disorder. Corine Bowman, MD, and her colleagues at Bowman Family Medicine Clinic, LLC in Bossier City, Louisiana, are experienced practitioners who understand how distressing anxiety can be. They dedicate themselves to helping their patients overcome anxiety disorders using a sympathetic, personalized approach. If you experience anxiety, call Bowman Family Medicine Clinic, LLC, or book an appointment online today.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal emotion everyone feels from time to time. It’s the nervousness before a first date, the worry about making a good impression at an interview, or the tension you experience before taking an exam.

Feeling anxious or worried about such events is natural. However, if you’re worried or afraid all the time, and it affects your ability to live life to the fullest, then you likely have an anxiety disorder.

What are anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorders take several forms, but all are mental health conditions that cause such extreme or chronic feelings of fear and worry that they prevent you from being able to carry out everyday activities.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the feeling of being constantly worried, usually without good cause and often to a disabling degree. You may find it hard to concentrate or perform daily tasks because of overwhelming anxiety, affecting your family life and work.

Your Bowman Family Medicine Clinic, LLC provider diagnoses anxiety disorders by looking at your medical history and discussing your symptoms with you. They examine you and request diagnostic tests to rule out any physical cause for your anxiety.

What symptoms might anxiety disorders cause?

The main symptoms people with anxiety experience are constant or extreme feelings of worry and fear. Physical anxiety symptoms include the following:

Trouble sleeping
Being fidgety or restless
Excessive sweating
Numbness or tingling
Shortness of breath
Palpitations (pounding heart)
Nausea
Muscle tension
Dry mouth
Dizziness

Anxiety can also cause panic attacks, where your fear becomes so extreme that it’s immobilizing.

What treatments reduce anxiety?

Anxiolytic drugs and several types of antidepressants help reduce anxiety symptoms. Anticonvulsant medications and low doses of antipsychotic drugs may be useful to increase your treatment’s effectiveness. Different forms of talking therapy help you diffuse anxiety’s causes or learn to manage your symptoms in daily life.

Bowman Family Medicine Clinic, LLC can advise you on which treatments will most likely help you. It’s also important to look at your lifestyle and make changes that reduce the effects of anxiety, including regular exercise, eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, and finding ways to manage stress.

If anxiety is taking over your life, act now to reverse the effects by calling Bowman Family Medicine Clinic, LLC, or booking an appointment online today.