Anxiety Treatment – What most people do wrong.
When most people realize that they need anxiety treatment and mental health services, they immediately look for a traditional outpatient therapist. They go once a week to see the therapist for one hour. Half of the time talking to the therapist is catching up on what happened the last week. Then the other half of the time is actually doing “the work”. So that results in about 30 minutes of productive mental health services per week.
Well this often goes on for months, even years, and becomes frustrating for both clients and counselors as little progress is made. Each session on average will cost about $125. Not many counselors are paneled with insurance companies so it’s over $6000 in just one year. Now that can cause some anxiety.
The scary way
There is still a strong stigma against seeing a therapist. I guess people are afraid of what others will think. Maybe they’ll be viewed as being broken. Well what is scary is that often mental health issues often go untreated and get worse until the person completely shuts down or does something drastic like attempting suicide.
This is when a family goes to the hospital for help. It’s called getting stabilized. They call it that because the hospitals aren’t equipped to provide ongoing care for the whole population. Once a person is deemed “stable” they are sent home. Their physical needs, like pumping their stomach, or sewing up the wounds are treated, and they are kept for about a week. Then sent home because there simply isn’t enough room. Stabilization for 1 week of care will often cost more than $15,000.
Doctors and nurses are in desperate need of qualified therapists and counselors in the community to provide that ongoing care. The problem is that hospital policy often won’t allow docs and nurses to refer out. They are afraid it might look like favoritism. So families go home after being stabilized and most often don’t get the ongoing care they need to fully overcome the problem. That often results in them winding up back at the hospital the next time they attempt suicide, or even worse, at the morgue and it’s too late.
It’s kind of like getting in a bad car accident. The hospital can set bones and stitch you up, but without the physical therapy, it’s a good chance you’re going to suffer from effects of that trauma your entire life. Mental health trauma is real. Without intensive treatment, patients are most likely going to suffer throughout life if they don’t get the help they need.
Anxiety Treatment – The Effective Way
Everyone who has been in some kind of counseling knows that Group Counseling is the most effective form of therapy. It doesn’t matter if it’s addiction recovery, marriage and family, or eating disorder therapy, connecting with others in group is what heals you. Our bodies crave and heal from Oxytocin. It’s the long term happy neurotransmitter our bodies make when we have deep meaningful discussions with others.
An Intensive Outpatient Program is like a college course for mental health services. Clients come for 9 hours a week. There are 3 groups sessions, 1 individual session, and 1 family group session every week. The great part is that it’s only for 8-12 weeks. It is the physical therapy of mental health. You don’t want to do it forever, but you learn the exercises and have a guide to teach you how. Healthy practices become tools you use on your own throughout your life.
Oh, the best part is that a quality program like Life Launch Centers, is covered by insurance. You’ve probably already paid for treatment. Since we’re in network with Select Health, DMBA, PEHP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and many many more, treatment will be your most affordable option.
Anxiety Treatment Plan
1 out of 3 youth struggle with anxiety as reported by the CDC. Less than 20% of those youth get the mental health services they need. There’s the long, scary and expensive way to seek mental health services, and then there’s the effective, self sustaining, more affordable way. Seek out and IOP – Intensive Outpatient Program like the group counseling program at Life Launch Centers in St George, Hurricane and West Jordan Utah. You’ll be glad you did!
