In a recent article, we discussed prevalence rates of anxiety among college students, and addressed the fact that many young adults are too anxious to seek professional support for anxiety, which creates a problematic situation: if they never seek support, their chance of finding anxiety treatment for young adults – meaning treatment targeted to their needs – decreases dramatically. Unless a family member or loved one finds treatment for them, their anxiety may go untreated.
To learn more about anxiety in college students, please visit our blog and read this article:
College Students: What If You’re Too Anxious to Ask for Help for Anxiety?
In that piece, we reported that among college students in the 2022-2023 school year:
- 6.5 million said they had an anxiety diagnosis
- 3.3 million said they had moderate anxiety
- 3.1 million said they had severe anxiety
That’s why we’re writing this new article: with millions of young adults reporting mild, moderate, or severe anxiety, it’s critical to understand that evidence-based treatment is effective, and there are various types of effective anxiety treatment for young adults available around the country.
Anxiety Disorders: Basic Definition and Different Types
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) indicates that there are many different types of anxiety disorders, each with specific features, but they all have one characteristic in common:
“Persistent, excessive fear or worry in situations that are not threatening.”
The most common anxiety disorders include:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Social anxiety disorder (SAD)
- Panic disorder (PD)
- Phobia-related disorders
- Agoraphobia
- Separation anxiety disorder
In this article, we’ll review each disorder. We’ll offer a definition provided by mental health experts, the basic symptoms of each disorder, and the most effective anxiety treatment for young adults for each subtype of anxiety disorder.
If you’re a young adult who feels anxious, nervous, generally uneasy or constantly on edge, please take the time to review the various types of anxiety disorders we discuss below. It’s possible your anxiety or sense of unease is related to a clinical mental health disorder. If any of disorders or symptoms below sound like what you’re experiencing, we encourage you to seek a full psychiatric evaluation administered by an experienced, qualified mental health professional.
The following sections include essential information about the most common anxiety disorders identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Behavioral Disorders, Volume Five (DSM-5), the standard reference resource for mental health professionals and experts in the U.S.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Mental Health experts define GAD as follows:
“Excessive nervousness and worry about a number of activities or events, present more days than not over a period of 6 months or longer.”
In some cases, people with GAD experience recurring symptoms for anxiety for several months – and sometimes years – before seeking treatment.
Symptoms of GAD include:
- Persistent restlessness/feeling on edge
- Persistent fatigue
- Problems concentrating
- Irritability
- Persistent headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains, with no clear cause
- Problems managing feelings of worry
- Insomnia
Anxiety treatment for young adults with GAD includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Medication:
- Antidepressants
- Anxiolytics
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
Mental health experts define social anxiety disorder as follows:
“Social anxiety disorder is characterized by fear or anxiety about certain social or performance situations. These situations are often avoided or endured with much distress, and include an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others.”
For people with severe anxiety disorder, fear /apprehension may prevent participation in work, school, social events, or typical daily activities.
Symptoms of social anxiety disorder include:
- Excessive sweating
- Sudden extreme blushing
- Elevated heart rate
- Stomach problems
- Excess physical tension
- Speaking in a soft/low volume voice
- Problems making eye contact
- Difficulty/discomfort around new people/places/situations
- Excessive self-consciousness
- Fear of judgment
Anxiety treatment for young adults with social anxiety disorder includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication:
- Exposure therapy (PE)
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Medication:
- Antidepressants
- Anxiolytics
Panic Disorder (PD)/Panic Attacks
Mental health experts define panic disorder/panic attacks as follows:
“A panic attack is a brief period of extreme distress, anxiety, or fear that begins suddenly and is accompanied by physical and/or emotional symptoms. Panic disorder involves recurrent panic attacks that lead to excessive worry about future attacks and/or behavior changes intended to avoid situations that might trigger an attack.”
Symptoms of panic disorder/panic attacks include:
- Accelerated/unusually high heart rate
- Excessive sweating
- Sensations of tingling in body
- Trembling
- Pain in chest
- Constantly feeling something bad is about to happen
- Constantly feelings out of control of life/emotions/events
Some people with panic attacks report they can happen more than once a day, while others report panic attacks less frequently, such as once a month or once every other month.
Anxiety treatment for young adults with panic disorder includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Exposure therapy (PE)
- Interpersonal psychotherapy
- Medication:
- Antidepressants
- Anxiolytics
Phobia-related Disorders
Most of us understand that phobia means fear or fear of something specific. Mental health experts define phobia, phobia-related disorders, and specific phobias as follows:
“Persistent, unrealistic, intense anxiety about and fear of specific situations, circumstances, or objects, where the fear is out of proportion to the actual danger caused by the situation or object.”
Symptoms associated with specific phobias and/or phobia-related disorders include:
- Extreme, irrational, excessive, disproportionate worry or fear of or about a certain thing
- Frequently taking steps to avoid the object of fear/anxiety
- Instant intense anxiety when encountering the object of fear/anxiety
Common phobias and phobia-related disorders include fear of:
- Flying
- Heights
- Animals/insects
- Getting shots
- Blood
Anxiety treatment for young adults with specific phobias or phobia-related disorders includes a combination of psychotherapy and, in some cases, the limited use of medication:
- Exposure therapy (PE)
- Medication:
- Anxiolytics, most often to manage extreme reactions to specific situations. For example, a person with a fear of flying may take an anxiolytic before traveling on a plane.
Agoraphobia
Mental health experts define agoraphobia as follows:
“Fear or anxiety about being in situations or places with no way to escape easily or in which help might not be available if intense anxiety develops. These situations or places are often avoided or endured with much distress.”
Symptoms of agoraphobia include irrational fear of two or more of these situations or circumstances:
- Public transportation, including buses/subways
- Open spaces
- Enclosed spaces
- Crowds
- Waiting in lines
- Spending time away from home
People with agoraphobia avoid the situations above because they fear they’ll trigger a panic attack, and they’ll have no way of getting to a place where they feel safe and secure. In some cases, people with severe agoraphobia never leave their place of residence and become housebound/homebound, which can increase risk of physical, mental, and behavioral disorders.
Anxiety treatment for young adults with agoraphobia includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication:
- Exposure therapy (PE)
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Medication:
- Antidepressants
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Most people associate separation anxiety with children. However, adolescents, adults, and young adults can develop and/or receive a new diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder. Here’s how mental health experts define separation anxiety disorder:
“Persistent, intense fear of being away from home or being away from people a person is close to, most often family members such as parents or spouses.”
Symptoms of separation anxiety include:
- Irrational fear being away from home/loved ones
- Persistent fear something bad might happen to loved ones
- Refusing to leave home/house because of fears described above
- Nightmares about being away from loved ones
- Feeling nauseous /sick before or during time away from loved ones
Many adults or young adults don’t seek treatment for or understand that they have separation anxiety because they think it only happens in young children, and don’t know that what they’re experiencing is, in fact, a clinical anxiety disorder that can develop after childhood, throughout adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood.
Anxiety treatment for young adults with separation anxiety disorder includes a combination of psychotherapy and medication:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Medication:
- Antidepressants
That’s the end of our list of common anxiety disorders, their primary symptoms, and the evidence-based modes of treatment considered effective by mental health professionals in the U.S. and around the world.
How to Find the Most Effective Anxiety Treatment for Young Adults
If you have problems with anxiety, then you may need to find professional support. By problems, we mean you experience one or more of the symptoms we list above, and they cause you significant distress or prevent/impair you from full participation in core life domains/activities, including home life, work life, school life, and social life.
Please understand this article is not a diagnosis, and only a mental health professional can diagnose a mental health disorder and give a referral for treatment. What this article can do for you, as a young adult, is help you understand that some of the things you think, feel, and do may be identifiable as symptoms of an anxiety disorder.
This article also tells you two more important things:
- You’re not alone. Millions of young adults in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder: check the statistics in the introduction. In addition to those figures on anxiety among college students, data from the CDC shows that close to 1/3rd of adults will receive a diagnosis for anxiety at some point during their lifetime.
- You can learn to manage your symptoms so they’re less disruptive and don’t dominate your life. The modes of psychotherapy we list above, in combination with medication, if necessary, can help most people with anxiety develop the skills they need to live the life they choose.
To find treatment, your first and best resources are people you know and trust: ask them if they know a good therapist who can administer an evaluation. If you live in the Bay Area of California, please consider calling us here at Bay Area Clinical Associates (BACA):
Free Screening: (844) 763-5532
If you’re not near us in the Bay Area, then we recommend consulting the following online resources:
- The Anxiety & Depression Association of America (AADA): Find Your Therapist.
- The American Psychological Association (APA): Psychologist Locator
- The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): Therapist Finder
- The S. Department of Health & Human Services: FindTreatment.gov
If you’re a young adult with anxiety or symptoms of anxiety, we encourage you to seek professional treatment sooner rather than later. With evidence-based modalities and an experienced therapist, you can learn the skills to move from where you are now to where you want to be. And remember: the best anxiety treatment for young adults – specifically you – is treatment that follows a holistic, integrated model, and tailors the treatment experience to meet your needs, and help you achieve your goals for recovery and life.
