What non-pharmacologic interventions or resources do you recommend for parents of patients with severe anxiety?

It depends on the type of anxiety, but a few things that I have found helpful over the years...

1. Education about the physiology of anxiety, amygdala info, and the body’s response/cycle to anxiety is key. Help the patient understand that the goal cannot be to “get rid of” all anxiety; trying to contr...

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published its Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Anxiety in 2020. Across interventions - including medications - the guideline notes that the overall evidence base does not reach high confidence. Since your question focuses on alternatives...

The answer depends in part on the type of anxiety with which the patient presents. Mostly, I recommend cognitive-behavioral approaches, but they vary depending on the subtype type of anxiety. For example, in OCD and simple phobias, exposure within the context of CBT is often necessary to address sym...

1. This is a very common question from parents and sometimes teens in my experience: “What else besides medicines can I do?” I agree with the usual approach of a full diagnostic evaluation and use of evidence-based interventions whenever possible. In severe anxiety (the question notes severe, which is...

I would educate the parents on how managing their anxiety will help their child also manage theirs and refer them to a psychotherapist.