Managing Anxiety in a Stressful World: Tips from a Psychiatrist

Sure, taking medications can relieve your anxiety but that doesn’t remedy the cause of one’s anxiety. The cause of one’s anxiety comes from many places; the medical lingo is that it’s multifactorial. The way you worry, you might have inherited a trait from your mother, father or another family member; family genetics can be significant and shouldn’t be overlooked. As a result, it’s a deep, sensitive, and intricate history that a psychologist or psychiatrist must ascertain in order to understand the roots of a patient’s anxiety. 

Through the process of psychotherapy, the patient can learn to reframe some of these anxious thought processes. These thought processes have become second nature for us, and sometimes we can’t help but get into this psychological rut. If you have a friend, family member or mentor who can see your mind objectively like this, then you are blessed. Most of the time, our loved ones and mentors incorporate their own biases and limiting beliefs and fears into the advice they give us. At other times, the advice is accurate. 

A good psychiatrist or therapist should be trained to give us this objective feedback. With that objective feedback and tips for managing anxiety, we can reframe these rut-like negative beliefs and thought processes, which are the origin of your anxiety.These tips for managing stress and anxiety are really helpful. Customized meditations help with this too. Since everybody holds to their way of thinking in a different way, people need customized psychotherapy and customized meditations to really understand their anxiety and surrender or let go of it through meditation. A nuanced psychopharmacologist can tease out what comes from your personality and what can be remedied by medications; whether that is a regular medication or a controlled substance medication. Controlled substance medications should be used for a temporary period of time until the patient has repaired their psychological and emotional worries. Arnab Datta, MD, provides all of these things in his practice: medications, psychotherapy and meditation. 

Don’t think that Arnab Datta, MD, is anti-medication. If one wants to practice psychopharmacology properly, one needs to understand the origin of the patient’s depression and anxiety. Dr. Datta takes great pleasure in understanding the origin of the anxiety in his patients. He starts every session by understanding why the patient is feeling this anxiety in the present day of their lives as well as how this anxiety has affected them in the past. Most patients who find him see that he provides overview of psychotherapy, meditation techniques, as well as medication management. Before Arnab Datta, MD,  prescribes an SSRI or a benzodiazepine for anxiety, he understands the origin of the patient’s anxiety. 

Arnab Datta, MD, shed light on whether the anxiety was inherited from the mother, father or family. The environment in which the patient was raised contributed to the anxiety. The upbringings of my patients are all so different, so each and every person receives customized treatment. How the anxiety changed and turned into an entity all in and of its own. That’s how we get to, how anxiety and stress is presented today. This drastically changes psychopharmacology or medication management. Understanding the philosophy of medication management is crucial, as it encompasses not just the selection of medications but also the rationale behind their use and the holistic approach to a patient’s well-being. Only if the provider masters this level of psychological and emotional detail can the patient’s anxiety actually be cured from the inside. All three worlds need each other. 

Pharmacology is often very helpful in achieving results quicker. Arnab Datta,MD, has seen patients who have been dedicated to psychotherapy for years but never took medication. If they took medication, they would see that their anxiety had drastically improved. However, taking medication alone may not always repair deeply damaged emotions. Very skilled psychotherapy and meditation are required for emotional repair. The medication may get you there faster. 

So why not remedy your problems in an efficient manner? Without further ado, why not get to the bottom of where your anxieties come from? Patients who have gone to different doctors over the years can find Arnab Datta, MD, online. They sign Dr. Datta on like a private detective and receive the rationale for why each doctor did what they did. Dr. Datta provides this to the best of his ability so that his patients have clarity about where their anxiety comes from and how they can repair it from the inside. Dr. Datta has no fear of using medications. Dr. Datta has educated different clinics regarding anti-anxiety medications as well as controlled substance medications and how they correlate to the psychology of the patient. Understanding and treating anxiety is a multifactorial endeavor.

Here are some examples of where one’s anxieties come from. As you can see, the permutations and combinations of the human experience are infinite. Sometimes your mother and father may be anxious about money and your career. One might be thinking, “I don’t have a good enough education. My associate’s degree is not going to get me a good enough job. Or I have a job, but I want to make more money. When I go to socialize, I don’t feel successful enough. I don’t feel it’s worth it. I feel people around me are more successful, smarter and more educated.” This could be a type of anxiety that a very particular kind of person has. Anxieties may differ. It’s important to have a psychiatrist, therapist and meditation teacher teach how to tease out each element. So that you’re not left over medicated, not with an overwhelming dose of benzodiazepine (like xanax), and receive the right kind of emotional repair. Another example is that someone who walks into a social situation might be an overthinker and very much in their head. They need to drink two shots of Patron Tequila in order to relieve their anxiety. Sometimes they can’t stop drinking for the remainder of the night, and it turns into a bender. This is why a customized session with a psychiatrist and psychotherapist is needed. This is why the doctor we see should be well versed in controlled substances, medication and addictions. Arnab Datta, MD, does all of these things for his patients. 

For example, someone might have been in a relationship where there was abuse or domestic violence. They have two children together and after many years of debate, they decided they didn’t want to stay with each other anymore. That they’re more happy (or as happy as can be) alone. However, they are anxious about the burden of being a single parent at the age of 45. The children are still not out of high school. It’s important to have an objective listener. Arnab Datta, MD, provides family and couples therapy in addition to being a controlled substance specialist and psychopharmacologist. Dr. Datta is also the medical director of a clinic that specializes in domestic violence. 

Reciting your life story, vulnerabilities and struggles can be cathartic and therapeutic. As we are reciting our life story, part of our conscious and unconscious mind is organizing our own story. We must get your story out. If our story is just sitting in our minds silently, all by its lonesome, it might not be organized in the best way. Once we start telling our story to others, our own mind organizes it for us. A step up in organizing our life story is finding a good psychiatrist and/or therapist who has the skill of listening objectively and providing objective feedback. The psychiatrist or therapist should be good enough in that they are not held back by their biases, limitations or fears. They should be able to see you in your shoes and through your eyes and give tips for stress and anxiety management. Their advice should be congruent with the patient, not congruent with themselves. Make sure your psychiatrist or therapist has had their own psychoanalysis so they can be truly objective with you. Arnab Datta, MD, has had this training. 

Getting into nature also helps reduce one’s anxiety. Putting your phone or computer down and not being plugged into the internet or all of the new images and information that’s on social media. We need to unplug for some time, at least three times a week. Doing some exercise also helps. Whether it’s lifting weights, running, rock climbing, yoga or pilates, Pick something that can be done consistently, and stick to it. This is also medically beneficial. If we are sedentary all the time, it sure isn’t healthy. Being sedentary is a state of inertia. The human mind and body were meant to be dynamic. The muscles and bones were supposed to move, the blood was supposed to flow and the mind was meant to be in a thinking state as well as a quieter meditative state. We’re not supposed to be thinking and solving problems all the time. We’re supposed to be sleeping, disengaging and meditating to see the bigger picture of our lives. This is a dynamic balance between engagement and disengagement; it reduces our anxiety and worry. 

In conclusion, don’t be an island. Talk to friends and family members, even if they are biased. Socialize a little bit. This gives you a sense of reality. If we are sitting at home in isolation, watching TV or social media, We will get lost in our own delusional reality. We have a better sense of reality when we bounce ideas off of other people, whether they are our friends or not. We are blessed if we have friends who truly know us, want to get to know us and are giving us feedback based on who we are.