Anxiety Treatment
Anxiety: What’s Normal and What Isn’t
It is normal to feel anxious when the situation calls for it. When stakes are high and performance is crucial, feelings of anxiety help keep our bodies ready for action.
If anxiety persists for an extended period of time and affects your day-to-day living, you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders can be debilitating conditions that affect both our mental and physical well-being, but they can be managed with the help of a psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Panic Disorder
This type of anxiety disorder is used to describe a person who experiences random panic attacks in day-to-day life without any apparent cause or triggers. A panic attack can consist of sweatiness, chest pains, severely elevated heartbeat, choking or symptoms that feel like a heart attack.
Specific Phobias
When a person experiences extreme fear of a particular stimulus or situation, we call this a phobia. Flying, blood, spiders and snakes are examples of phobias that are commonly experienced. When facing their phobias, people will tend to freeze up; experience severe tremors; have a racing and pounding heart; and rapid, shallow breathing.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
A person with this type of anxiety disorder has excessive worries about everyday matters for a long period of time (typically 6 months or more). Some other symptoms of GAD include restlessness, fatigue, trouble concentrating, irritability, muscle tension and sleep disturbances. Such a person may also have trouble making commitments, and find it tough to decide on day-to-day matters.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
When a person has repeating, distressing and intrusive thoughts of images and urges to perform certain actions or rituals over and over, this person may have OCD. In general, such a person knows that these actions are not rational but still has trouble stopping the behaviour. Their excessive fears of things that are otherwise minor causes them to repeatedly take precautionary or salutatory measures to that end. Washing hands repeatedly for fear of infections, constantly checking that the door is locked when going out for fear of burglary are some examples of OCD behaviour.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Victims of an extreme situation – combat, child abuse, rape or natural disasters – may develop PTSD. People with this type of anxiety disorder tend to be excessively vigilant, experience flashbacks of the extreme events, see everything as threats, experience excessive anger, and may have sleep problems.
Causes of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are generally caused by any combination of the following factors:
Biological Causes
A person has chemical imbalances in the body, typically an excess of cortisol (the ‘stress’ hormone).
Genes
The family tree of the anxious person is full of similar cases.
Upbringing
Being exposed to traumatic or stressful situations in their early years may cause people to experience anxiety when presented with similar situations.
How to deal with anxiety
Even without medication, we can undertake some of these stress-busting activities to stay calm in the face of anxiety or stress:
- Step back from the stressful situation.
- Take care of our diet.
- Reduce alcohol and caffeine.
- Sleep well.
- Exercise frequently.
- Breathe deeply.
- Count slowly.
- Commit to action.
- Make light of the situation.
- Stay positive.
- Talk to a friend.
If taking these steps don’t seem to help your symptoms, you should seek help from a psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor for help in treating your anxiety.
We believe in tackling anxiety with a holistic program that may include counselling, group therapy and if necessary, medication by our psychiatrists, counsellors, psychologists and therapists.
Our Anxiety Team includes (but not limited to):
GET IN TOUCH
Please be assured that all information shared with us will be kept confidential*.
At Promises, we aim to create a safe space to aid you in your recovery journey.
*Please refer to our Privacy Policy for further details. For further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
ADDRESS:
#09-22/23, Novena Medical Center,
10 Sinaran Drive, Singapore 307506.
OPENING HOURS:
Mon to Fri: 9am – 6pm
Sat: 9am – 3pm (Clinical Services Only)
TELEPHONE:
+65 6397 7309
FAX:
+65 6397 7301
EMAIL ADDRESS:
Clinic: Please use the "Contact Us" form to get in touch with the clinic.
Careers: hr@promises.com.sg
Media/Marketing: marketing@promises.com.sg
EAP/Training: mindwealth360@promises.com.sg
Medico-legal/Forensics: forensics@promises.com.sg
Does Having Anxiety Make Me Weak?
Senior Clinical Psychologist Dr Elain Yeo was interviewed by the popular YA YouTube channel, LadiesFirstTv (Titan Digital Media) about struggling with Anxiety. Click on the red play button to watch this 11min 37sec video.
Anxiety and The Body
Anxiety refers to a state of anticipation of alarming future events. Anxiety is usually a normal transient response to stress and may be a necessary cue for adaption and coping, the body’s protective mechanism known as the ‘fight or flight response’. However, anxiety...
EXPAT MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES
“While the expat lifestyle can have a glamorous veneer, challenges often lie beneath. The experience of living overseas can be difficult and demanding, adding unique stressors to everyday living,” explains KRISTI MACKINTOSH, psychotherapist at Promises Healthcare,...
What is psychodrama and does it help anxiety?
Since 2011, Sharmini Winslow has been a pioneer of psychodrama in Singapore and holds sessions with Promises Healthcare. After pursuing a career in dance and choreography, and founding her own Pilates studio, Sharmini discovered her natural affinity for forming...
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Treating Its Debilitating Effects
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a mental health condition characterised by the failure to recover from exposure to a traumatic event, bringing about intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to the experience. Contrary to the widely-held belief,...
Anxiety In Children – Your Questions Answered
Senior Clinical Psychologist, S C Anbarasu, was interviewed by Honeykids Asia's Growing Pains Season 2 about Anxiety in children - how they manifest, how it is caused and how to help them. Follow the link to listen to the 41min 47sec podcast.:...
Benefits of Family Therapy in the Caregiving Process
When one has to live with debilitating chronic conditions or even degenerative disorders, it is natural that we place emphasis on seeing that the afflicted recover and receive the appropriate management. As our society rapidly ages, the number of elderly living with...
COVID-19, Singapore Easing Measures and Mental Health
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. The ubiquitous influence of the pandemic has been—and continues to be— felt by individuals globally. Many experiences the fear of being infected or infecting others, disruptions in their daily routines, social isolation, the...
What Are Panic Attacks and How To Manage?
Written by: Dr Elaine Yeo, Senior Clinical Psychologist All of us have felt anxiety at some point in our lives, whether before a big test, public speaking, or a job interview. Anxiety is a perfectly normal emotion that serves the purpose of motivating us to prepare...
What Does Journeying with a Psychiatrist for My Mental Health Issue Look Like?
For many people, when they hear the word ‘Psychiatrist’, it would instantly conjure up an image of a doctor prescribing medicine for someone with a mental health condition. This is true to the extent that a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has undergone training...