Is Anxiety a Behavioral Health Disorder?

Anxiety is described as intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fears about everyday situations. The question is, would anxiety be considered a behavioral health disorder? The short answer is sometimes. But, at Nextus Billing Solutions, we make it a point to become knowledgeable on all aspects of behavioral health. This includes understanding what disorders can be treated by behavioral health providers. Read on to learn more about anxiety and when it becomes a behavioral health disorder.

What is Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety disorder, at its core, is a mental health disorder. It often involves a consistent feeling of fear, dread, and worry. These fears can be triggered by anything, and it varies from person to person. Symptoms of anxiety include feeling restless, wound up, or on edge. A person struggling with anxiety disorder can also experience fatigue, irritation, difficulty concentrating, headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, and difficulty controlling feelings of worry. There are several different types of anxiety disorders, as well. The different types are generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and various phobia-related disorders.

Anxiety Induced Behaviors

People that struggle with true anxiety disorder are often in need of a healthy outlet to help them cope. This outlet could like counseling, medication, or maybe even a combination of both. Practical tools can be taught in counseling to help when someone feels like their anxiety is out of control and the fears and worry become crippling. However, not everyone with anxiety disorder seeks this type of help. Some people turn to much unhealthier forms of coping. Often, these unhealthy coping mechanisms can be alcohol or drug abuse. In some cases, both. It is an unfortunate spiral when someone with anxiety as a behavioral health disorder causes them to abuse substances in hopes of making the deep fears and worries go away.

Anxiety as a Behavioral Health Disorder

All in all, anxiety as a momentary feeling is not considered a behavioral health disorder. However, anxiety as a disorder that requires counseling and medication is considered a behavioral health disorder. People experience deep-rooted, crippling anxiety that can often alter their everyday lives negatively. It can also sometimes lead to other disorders such as alcoholism and drug abuse. The good news is, there are behavioral health facilities that have the tools, resources, and counselors to help someone that is coping with anxiety. Whether it be generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or phobia-related disorders, there are behavioral health facilities out there that want to help patients heal and cope. 
At Nextus Billing Solutions, we get the honor and privilege to handle the billing and claims for some of the most incredible behavioral health facilities. These facilities treat patients with all sorts of behavioral health disorders, including anxiety disorders. We handle their billing so that they can focus on their patients. At Nextus, we treat behavioral health providers’ businesses like our own, because they are. That is a motto we live and operate by. To learn more about Nextus Billing Solutions and how we can help your behavioral health facility with its billing and claims, visit our website today.