How to get help for anxiety
Anxiety is a common experience, and small amounts of anxiety can be helpful. But if you’ve been experiencing overwhelming anxiety for a long time, have tried self-help strategies without success, or find that your anxiety is getting in the way of important things, your next best step is to seek professional support.
This page will cover:
How to get help for the different levels of anxiety
There are different levels of anxiety, depending on how distressing the symptoms are and how much they affect your everyday life.
Mild anxiety
Mild anxiety can impact you emotionally, socially and professionally, but it rarely gets in the way of your usual activities. If you don’t do anything about it, mild anxiety can lead to unhealthy coping strategies or more severe symptoms. Self-care strategies can usually make mild anxiety manageable.
Moderate anxiety
Moderate anxiety has a greater impact on day-to-day life. You might feel on edge, or like you can’t control your worrying, for a few days a week, but not every day. Although the symptoms can be disruptive, moderate anxiety can be managed using self-care strategies or with the help of a mental health professional.
Severe anxiety
Severe anxiety can be really distressing and negatively affect your quality of life. You might have physical symptoms of anxiety most of the time and feel like you can’t keep up with your work, study, hobbies and relationships. This type of anxiety is best treated with the help of a mental health professional.
Panic-level anxiety
Panic-level anxiety can involve extreme fear, your heart racing and pounding, and rapid breathing. You might also experience frequent panic attacks, which may be scary and disruptive to your life. If you experience ongoing panic attacks, you should seek professional help. Read more about panic attacks.
It’s important to know that everyone’s experience with anxiety is different, and the intensity of symptoms can vary from day to day and even during a single day. Someone can generally have moderate symptoms of anxiety but experience panic-level anxiety in response to something stressful. If you’re unsure what level your anxiety is, consider how much it gets in the way of living your life and doing what you want to do.
When should you seek professional help for anxiety?
If your anxiety is interfering with your everyday life, then you may need some support. Signs that you could benefit from anxiety support and treatment include:
avoiding places or situations as a way to manage your anxiety
feeling like anxiety is interfering with your work, relationships or other parts of your life
having trouble concentrating, relaxing or sleeping
feeling like you can’t control your anxiety
having suicidal thoughts or behaviours. If this is the case get urgent help immediately.
Types of treatment for anxiety
If you think you need professional anxiety support, there are various types of mental health professionals who can help, including psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, peer workers and youth workers.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for anxiety
CBT is considered the most effective treatment for common anxiety disorders. It involves working with a mental health professional to look at patterns of thinking (cognitions) and actions (behaviour) that make you feel anxious. Over time, CBT aims to challenge and change unhelpful thinking patterns that may contribute to anxiety.
Your therapist might teach you to:
recognise the difference between productive and unproductive thoughts
monitor your self-talk
challenge your fears and beliefs
let go of worries and solve problems
test out the reality of negative thoughts
use relaxation and breathing techniques to control the physical symptoms of anxiety.
Behaviour therapy for anxiety
Behaviour therapy focuses on changing behaviours to improve your mood and manage anxiety – for example, challenging yourself to do activities that you usually avoid. Slowly exposing yourself to these situations shows that you can cope with them and don’t necessarily have to avoid them. It also helps put your worries about the situation into perspective. Behaviour and exposure therapy can be done in person or with the use of online tools or virtual reality.
Other types of therapy that can help with anxiety
Health professionals can offer other types of therapies that focus on different aspects of anxiety relief and recovery:
Interpersonal therapy focuses on relationships with others and yourself, and on ways to communicate with people who are important to you.
Acceptance and commitment therapy encourages actions that align with your values. It includes mindfulness, which helps with mood regulation.
Narrative therapy is based on understanding the ‘stories’ used to describe our lives. There’s an emphasis on identifying your strengths and the resilience you’ve shown in the past.
Group therapy or support groups are another treatment option that may work best for you. Check out this list of support groups for anxiety to find one in your area.
Medication for anxiety
Medication may be prescribed to treat severe anxiety. It can be effective when combined with psychological treatment and self-help strategies. Your doctor will discuss the benefits and side effects with you and work together to find the right dosage and type.
Online therapy for anxiety
There are some online anxiety treatment programs available for free or at a low cost. You might want to try these if you’re unable to physically get to the doctor’s, if you can’t afford treatment, or if you want to give it a go before seeing a GP.
For people with mild to moderate anxiety, online therapies can be just as effective as face-to-face treatment. Most e-therapies offer some sort of support from a psychologist via email, text or phone, but you can also work through them on your own.
New Access is a free, six-session program with a professional to help you through the stress of everyday issues.
BRAVE Self-Help is an online therapy tool that can be completed at home and at your own pace. BRAVE Self-Help is available to all young people living in Australia aged 7–17 years. There are also versions of the program for parents.
E-couch is online CBT designed for working through anxiety. It is most helpful if used alongside professional help.
This Way Up has clinically designed courses to help improve symptoms associated with stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression.
MindSpot has eight-week online CBT courses for anxiety and depression. You can choose to talk with a therapist during the course or to work independently. The Mood Mechanic Course is designed for 18–25 year olds.
Getting help for anxiety and mental health concerns isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. It’ll take time to figure out what combination of anxiety treatment and strategies works for you. If you feel like you’ve already tried a bunch of these things, learn more about what you can do if your treatment isn't working.
Want to know more about getting help for anxiety? For answers to your questions, Ask ReachOut.
What can I do now?
Make an appointment with your GP to get a referral for a mental health professional.
Read about management strategies for anxiety.
Check out some support services for anxiety.