Treating Anxiety
Anxiety is more than occasional worry. It can show up as persistent unease, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, physical tension, disrupted sleep, and a sense of dread that does not match the situation. For many people, it becomes the background noise of daily life, so constant that they stop recognizing it as something treatable.
We see patients at every stage: those experiencing anxiety for the first time, those who have managed it for years without formal treatment, and those who have tried treatment before without finding the right approach. Our goal is to understand what type of anxiety you are dealing with, what is driving it, and what combination of tools will make a real difference.
We treat anxiety in adults, adolescents, and children.
How We Evaluate Anxiety
Every patient at Everhealth begins with a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. The core process is the same for every condition: a clinical interview, validated assessments completed before your visit, a review of your personal and family history, and a collaborative discussion about findings and next steps.
For anxiety specifically, the evaluation focuses on the type and pattern of your anxiety, what triggers it, how it affects your daily functioning, whether avoidance behaviors have developed, and how to differentiate between anxiety disorders. Anxiety is not one condition. Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and other anxiety-related presentations each have distinct features, and treatment depends on getting the distinction right.
Your pre-visit assessments are tailored based on what you share in your intake. If anxiety is a concern, you will receive screening tools designed to measure its severity and help your provider establish a clinical baseline.
How We Treat Anxiety
Treatment for anxiety involves multiple components tailored to your specific situation. Your provider builds a plan that addresses both the symptoms and the patterns that sustain them.
Medication Management
When medication is appropriate, your provider will discuss options suited to your type of anxiety, your history, and your response to any previous treatment. Medication can help reduce the intensity of symptoms while other strategies take hold. Adjustments are common, especially early in treatment, and your provider will explain what to expect at each stage.
Psychoeducation
Understanding anxiety is part of managing it. Your provider helps you learn how anxiety works in your specific case, what maintains it, and how treatment targets those patterns. This includes recognizing the difference between productive concern and anxiety that has taken on a life of its own.
Lifestyle and Coping Strategies
For anxiety, practical strategies matter. Your provider works with you on stress management, sleep habits, breathing and relaxation techniques, and identifying the avoidance patterns that often make anxiety worse over time. These are specific to your situation, not generic recommendations.
Ongoing Monitoring
Anxiety can shift over time, and treatment needs to shift with it. Follow-up visits track your progress, reassess symptoms, and adjust the plan as needed.
Coordination of Care
When therapy would benefit your treatment, particularly approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, we help coordinate that. We do not provide standalone psychotherapy, but we recommend the type of therapy most appropriate for your situation, point you toward resources to find a therapist, and provide referrals when needed. If you already have a therapist, we coordinate care with them directly.
TMS for Anxiety
For patients who have not responded adequately to medication, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) may be an option. TMS is a non-invasive treatment that uses targeted magnetic pulses to stimulate areas of the brain involved in anxiety regulation.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Nazarani, directly evaluates and treats all TMS patients. TMS for anxiety is considered when medication and other interventions have not produced sufficient improvement.
Who We Treat
In addition to adults, we treat anxiety in the following age groups, each of which requires a tailored approach.
Children
Anxiety in children often shows up as clinginess, avoidance of certain situations, physical complaints like stomachaches or headaches, or difficulty separating from caregivers. Children may not have the language to describe what they are feeling, which makes a structured evaluation especially important.
Learn more about care for children →Adolescents
In adolescents, anxiety frequently affects school performance, social relationships, and sleep. It can be mistaken for defiance or lack of motivation. Evaluation includes developmental context and, where appropriate, input from parents or guardians.
Learn more about care for adolescents →Not Sure Where You Stand?
The GAD-7 is a validated screening tool used widely in clinical practice to measure the severity of generalized anxiety symptoms. It is not a diagnosis, and only a qualified provider can make a clinical determination. But it can give you a starting point.
Take the GAD-7 Anxiety Screening →If your results concern you, we are here to help.
Common Questions
Everyone experiences anxiety at times. When it becomes persistent, disproportionate to the situation, or starts interfering with your daily life, relationships, or ability to function, it may be time for a clinical evaluation.
We treat generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and other anxiety-related presentations. The evaluation process helps determine which type of anxiety you are dealing with, because treatment depends on getting that right.
Not necessarily. Medication is one part of the treatment plan and is recommended only when clinically appropriate. Your provider will discuss the options with you and explain the reasoning behind any recommendation.
We do not provide standalone psychotherapy. Our treatment approach includes psychoeducation, coping strategies, and lifestyle guidance as part of every visit. When therapy such as CBT would benefit your treatment, we recommend the appropriate type of therapy, point you toward resources to find a therapist, and provide referrals when needed. If you already have a therapist, we coordinate care with them directly.
It can. Anxiety often develops avoidance patterns over time, where the things you avoid to manage anxiety actually reinforce it. Early intervention can help prevent those patterns from becoming entrenched.
Every situation is different. Many patients experience significant improvement with treatment. For some, anxiety is something they learn to manage effectively over time rather than something that disappears entirely. Your provider will set realistic expectations based on your specific situation.
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Read articleReady to Take the Next Step?
If anxiety is affecting your daily life, the first step is a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. It is where we begin to understand what type of anxiety you are dealing with and build a plan specific to your situation.