Students learn to cope with anxiety
The NADSP said about 3-4 percent of people throughout the country suffer from Genral Anxiety Disorder (GAD) at some point every year, and more cases are being detected in the USU psychology department’s Anxiety Specialty Clinic.
People with GAD usually expect the worst, and worry about money, family and health even when there are no signs of trouble. People with anxiety also have physical symptoms.
USU students who suffer from this and other forms of anxiety are recognized through screenings. The clinic offers services provided by psychology graduate students for a variety of anxiety disorders, said Jesse Crosby, a doctoral student working at the clinic.
Crosby said sessions will be provided to address issues with generalized anxiety,
posttraumatic stress, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias, perfectionism, stress, compulsive sexual behavior, compulsive pornography use, trichotillomania and related problems.
GAD is characterized by “six months or more of chronic, exaggerated worry and tension that is unfounded or much more severe than the normal anxiety most people experience,” according to the National Anxiety Disorders Screening Project (NADSP).
Many people with GAD also have physical symptoms such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headaches, irritability, or hot flashes, according to the NADSP.
Crosby said people struggling with anxiety can meet with someone in the clinic weekly, for 8-12 one-hour sessions.
The therapy most frequently used in the clinic is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a relatively new type of therapy that is used to help people cope with their anxiety and learn to live with it in stead of fighting it throughout their lives, Crosby said. ACT is supposed to help people focus on improving their life.
The services provided aren’t free but they’re inexpensive, Crosby said.
“Fees are charged based on a modest sliding scale according to income and the number of individuals in the home,” said Crosby.
The clinic also offers help to children between the ages of 7 and 17 who have obsessive compulsive disorder.
Doctoral student Andrew Armstrong said he specializes in this area and said there are various kinds of treatment but that this part of the clinic usually uses ACT.
Armstrong said that certain TV shows such as “Hoarders,” “Animal Hoarders,” “The OCD Project” and “Obsessed” use Exposure Therapy. This treatment makes people confront whatever it is that they’re afraid of.
“People will see that and think ‘I’m never going to go for treatment if this is what they’re going to subject me to,'” said Armstrong.
Exposure Therapy is a good treatment for many people, Armstrong said, but it isn’t for everyone.
“It’s a good therapy, it’s got research support behind it,” he said. “But it also freaks people out and a lot of people that are given that therapy option end up not doing that well.”
Exposure Therapy focuses are getting rid of the anxiety.
Armstrong said ACT uses the premise that people can’t always choose what goes through their minds but they can choose what they do with it.
“That’s the target of acceptance and commitment therapy,” said Armstrong. “The whole purpose of that is to help them lead a meaningful life along with the anxiety.”
People on average tend to be clinically diagnosed with OCD at age 10 or around 18, Armstrong said.
“When I say diagnosed with OCD, that means you’re meeting the clinical criteria that has been agreed upon by psychiatrists,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said people who are perfectionists, or have to have things very orderly and neat and clean, aren’t necessarily OCD, but could be. The difference is “significant impairment.”
“Clinical obsessive compulsive disorder is much more serious and much more debilitating,” said Armstrong. “It can really impair somebody’s life.”
Studies have shown that ACT is affective in boosting people’s quality of life, he said.
“They also found that compared to traditional Exposure Therapy, people rated it as much more highly acceptable,” Armstrong said. “They were willing to engage in the therapy. They found it to make sense and to be helpful.”
Armstrong said he’s noticed a significant change in the people he treats. The people are more able to stop doing their compulsive behaviors, which gives them more time to do other things.
“It’s about taking your life back from this thing that has been controlling you,” Armstrong said.
Services for children with OCD are free, unlike the treatments used for adults with anxiety.
The clinic began Aug. 30, and will be offered year-round with limited services in the summer, Crosby said.
– blaze.bullock@aggiemail.usu.edu