Anxiety Disorders
Overview & Clinical Expertise
Silver Hill offers separate and highly effective treatment programs for adults and adolescents suffering with anxiety disorders. Our skilled and caring clinicians use evidence-based therapies to help you regulate the thoughts and emotions that drive your anxiety.
Causes and Symptoms
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the US. They affect 40 million adults and approximately eight percent of children at any given time, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Anxiety disorders may be caused by changes in your brain, environmental stress, and genetics. Some, like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), can be triggered by violence or a traumatic event.
People with these disorders experience:
- Overwhelming feelings of panic and fear
- Uncontrollable obsessive thoughts
- Painful, intrusive memories
- Recurring nightmares
- Physical symptoms such as feeling sick to your stomach, “butterflies” in your stomach, heart pounding, startling easily, and muscle tension
How We Treat Anxiety
If left untreated, anxiety and panic attacks can paralyze a person to the point that they avoid their normal daily activities or anxiety-inducing situations. The good news for you is that anxiety disorders are highly treatable with medication, psychotherapy or a combination of both.
Our treatment approach for anxiety is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This highly-structured form of behavioral therapy provides you with the skills necessary to regulate your emotions, control destructive behaviors and improve interpersonal relations. Core DBT skills are Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance and the Middle Path.
Anxiety Treatment for Adolescents
Our separate facility for adolescents aged 13 to 17 recognizes that your treatment for anxiety requires a different approach than treatment for adults. We work hard to establish a warm team relationship with you, your family and your medical and educational support in the community. We build on these connections to help you achieve your treatment goals.
During your inpatient or transitional living stay, you will continue school work under the guidance of a certified teacher. To minimize disruption to the school year, and with your family’s permission, our teacher will communicate with professionals in your school. Specialized support for academic areas such as foreign languages, higher level sciences, and advanced placement classes is available from private tutors for an additional fee.
Patient Testimonials
Co-Occurring Disorders
Anxiety disorders often co-occur with other psychiatric conditions, such as depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and in children, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Because Silver Hill is a true psychiatric hospital, we are uniquely qualified to provide comprehensive care for adults and adolescents who need treatment for more than one disorder.
When you first come to Silver Hill you receive a thorough evaluation, and a treatment plan suited to your needs. If you are diagnosed with a co-occurring psychiatric disorder in addition to anxiety, our staff has the skill, sensitivity and training to treat your dual conditions together rather than one at a time, which is the most effective approach though often least available at other institutions.
For Families
We believe your family’s support is important from the moment you are first admitted for treatment, on any level of care. We encourage family members to meet with your social worker, psychiatrist or other members of the treatment team.
Support for your family includes:
Weekly Family Therapy – Family therapy addresses problematic behavior patterns, communication struggles, and difficulties understanding each other with the goal of promoting family healing.
Weekly Multi-Family DBT Group (Parents Only) – This program teaches parents the same DBT skills you are learning.
Monthly Meetings – This full-day program educates families about brain and emotional development in adolescence. It facilitates a greater understanding of mental illness and substance abuse, and helps improve communication between you and your family. It also provides supportive resources for your family prior to your discharge. This helps them prepare for your successful return home. This program is divided into morning and afternoon sessions:
Morning (Family Members only)
Education, information and support for family members including time for questions and answers with the program facilitator.
Afternoon (Adolescent Patients and Family Members)
Patients and families are encouraged to reflect on family relationships through supportive non-confrontational exercises. They learn about family roles and dynamics and how to improve communication. They also discuss aftercare and discharge planning.
Family Resource Program – This program offers continued support and education to your family after discharge, should any questions or concerns arise at any point in your continuing recovery process.