What are anxiety disorders?
Everyone worries. An anxiety disorder is different — and it's one of the most treatable conditions in mental health.
An anxiety disorder is when worry or fear becomes persistent, out of proportion to the situation, and hard to control — and it starts interfering with work, sleep, relationships, or health.
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions, and among the most treatable. Whether a particular pattern of worry amounts to a disorder — and which one — is a clinical question that a proper evaluation answers, not something to self-diagnose from a list of symptoms.
How do we evaluate anxiety?
Anxiety care at CIP begins with a thorough psychiatric evaluation, because the goal is a plan matched to you — not just a label.
You leave with a working diagnosis and a treatment plan, not a prescription on a first impression.
Full clinical assessment
Your history, current symptoms, sleep, stressors, and health background — the whole context, not a checklist.
Medical contributors reviewed
Physical factors can produce anxiety-like symptoms, so your clinician reviews possible medical contributors rather than assuming the diagnosis.
Screening for what rides along
The evaluation identifies which anxiety disorder is present and whether anything else is with it — depression and ADHD are frequent companions — and which treatments fit.
How do we treat anxiety at CIP?
Anxiety disorders are highly treatable. Most care is built from proven therapy and, when it helps, careful medication — often working best together.
The integrative difference
Anxiety is a whole-body condition — it lives in racing thoughts, but also in tense muscles, shallow breathing, and broken sleep. Our integrative approach treats the disorder with evidence-based therapy and medication while also addressing the lifestyle and physical factors that feed it, through functional and nutritional support. The goal is a plan that lowers anxiety and keeps it lower.
Which types of anxiety do we treat?
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Persistent, hard-to-switch-off worry about many everyday things — health, work, money, family — often with tension, restlessness, or poor sleep.
Panic disorder. Sudden, intense surges of fear with physical symptoms such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, or dizziness, and the ongoing dread of the next attack.
Social anxiety disorder. Intense fear of being judged or embarrassed in social or performance situations, strong enough that people begin avoiding them.
Specific phobias. Marked, persistent fear of a particular object or situation — flying, needles, heights — that leads to avoidance out of proportion to the actual danger.
These conditions often overlap with each other and with depression. Treating the full picture, not one symptom, is the point of starting with an evaluation.
When does anxiety deserve professional care?
When worry runs the show
When fear starts deciding what someone avoids, how they sleep, or what they no longer enjoy, it's worth a professional evaluation.
Earlier is easier
Anxiety disorders tend to persist without treatment, and well-established treatments exist. An evaluation is a low-stakes first step — and a first panic attack is a common, very treatable reason to start.
If you're in crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, don't wait for an appointment — call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room. For everything short of crisis, an evaluation is the right first step.
More on living with anxiety
Anxiety treatment — common questions
Medication vs. therapy, how CBT works, panic attacks, ages, and telehealth.
