Having an adjustment disorder with anxiety complicates a person’s life because of the stressful emotions and the resulting actions it produces. When a person’s life is disrupted by a traumatic event, they find it hard to cope with, they often have difficulty adjusting to what happened. When coupled with anxiety stemming from the same occurrence, it makes it difficult to find a way to cope and move on.
Montare Behavioral Health in Tucson offers structured treatment for people who live with adjustment disorder symptoms. We understand how to teach them to recognize their symptoms and work to overcome them. As a result, they improve emotionally and behaviorally and develop the ability to handle past and current events with a new approach.
What is an Adjustment Disorder?
An adjustment disorder causes temporary upset and troubling emotions and behaviors in a person’s life. Adjust disorder symptoms occur in reaction to a stressful event that happened. The circumstances are easily identifiable and may result from a person’s choices or an event that happened to them. While some people might have overcome the same situations and moved on, someone with an adjustment disorder becomes stuck.
People with adjustment disorders have difficulty coping with what happened to trigger them. They feel frustrated, depressed, and hopeless because they cannot move on. Many also experience anxiety related to this disorder.
What are the Types of Adjustment Disorders?
There are six different types of adjustment disorders that vary in their symptoms. They include:
- Adjustment disorder with anxiety: The person is overwhelmed with anxiety and worry.
- Adjustment disorder with depression: Symptoms include feeling depressed, hopeless, and disinterested in hobbies and social events.
- Adjustment disorder with anxiety and depression: This causes the person to have symptoms of both of the above types of disorders.
- Adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct: The individual rebels and acts out in impulsive and destructive manners.
- Adjustment disorder with disturbed emotions and conduct: The person feels anxiety and depression and engages in problematic behavior.
- Adjustment disorder unspecified: The person’s symptoms don’t exactly fit just one type of adjustment disorder.
How Common are Adjustment Disorders?
Within primary care, the range of people with adjustment disorders is from 3% to 10%. In an outpatient treatment program, 5% to 20% of the patients have an adjustment disorder. That number increases to as high as 50% or more in residential hospital psychiatric consultations.
What is an Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety?
An adjustment disorder with anxiety results from experiencing an event that has caused stress. The individual has difficulty adjusting to it and feels a tremendous amount of anxiety. They may not recognize they have a diagnosable disorder because the symptoms can happen to so many people going through a change.
Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety Criteria
A mental health professional can provide an assessment to determine if a person has an adjustment disorder. The symptoms will have surfaced within three months of the triggering event. An acute case causes symptoms that last up to six months. They begin to lessen as the stressful event ends or is resolved. A persistent or chronic case of an adjustment disorder lasts more than six months and is not resolved by the end of a traumatic situation.
Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety Symptoms
Symptoms of an adjustment disorder with anxiety include:
- Constantly feeling anxious
- Nervous about many situations
- Feeling overwhelmed and wanting to give up
- Difficulty sleeping
- Sadness
- Cognitive difficulties
- Feeling tired
What Causes Adjustment Disorders?
Adjustment disorders can develop for a variety of reasons. Difficulty coping with the aftermath of a traumatic or stressful event influences the development of this disorder. These types of events include:
- Death of a loved one
- Divorce or a breakup
- Medical crises including injury and illness
- Unemployment
- Natural disasters like hurricanes
- Financial difficulties
- Community crises such as school shootings
Even events that are positive in nature can cause a person to become overloaded. This includes getting married, having a baby, moving somewhere new, and retiring.
Adjustment Disorder and Anxiety in Children
Children can develop an adjustment disorder with anxiety after dealing with an especially stressful event, same as adults. It can be triggered by a severe illness or injury, the divorce of their parents, the death of a loved one, or moving to a new city or attending a new school. This can happen to children at any age. The parents should be on the lookout for situations that cause tremendous anxiety in their child. It can also cause them to be angry, do poorly in school, and have difficulty sleeping.
Treatment Options for Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety
Someone with an adjustment disorder with anxiety can find relief from their symptoms by attending professional treatment. Individual therapy helps people process their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and seek a healthy way to resolve their situation. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps them understand the concept of how their thoughts and feelings impact the behavioral choices they make. They can change unhealthy habits into positive coping mechanisms.
Group therapy offers an opportunity for people with adjustment difficulties to discuss their lack of ability to adjust with others in a similar boat. This type of peer support helps everyone in the group feel less alone and able to validate each other. Prescription medications also help minimize some of the symptoms of adjustment disorder, such as anxiety and depression.
Contact Montare Tucson to Treat Adjustment Disorder
Do you recognize yourself in the list of adjustment disorder symptoms and want to find effective help to overcome them? Montare Behavioral Health of Tucson understands the challenges of living with an adjustment disorder with anxiety. We have a team of mental health experts trained to teach you to identify the triggering issues and work through them. Our residential facility is built like a home to allow you to relax and ease into treatment. We provide several types of therapy that show you how to overcome the symptoms of an adjustment disorder.
Contact us today to find out more information. We believe everyone can improve their mental health with the assistance of our highly skilled and compassionate therapy team.
Published: 11/15/2024
