Benzodiazepines help relieve anxiety by enhancing the activity of a neurotransmitter in the brain and generating a sedative effect.
They work quickly, and can relieve anxiety for several hours. They are usually prescribed for those with generalized anxiety disorder , panic disorder , and social anxiety disorder. Because they work so quickly, and because people taking them can build up a tolerance that leaves them needing higher doses to feel better, doctors will prescribe them for very short periods of time — usually no more than a month. Unfortunately, people can become addicted to benzodiazepines, even in a short period of time.
Like every other disorder, anxiety needs treatment when, through frequency or intensity, or both, worry interferes with functioning. Anxiety encourages the maladaptive response of avoidance of uncomfortable situations , limiting experience and, often, enjoyment of life. Worries can consume an inordinate amount of time, day and night, disrupting concentration, preventing sleep, and just creating all-around suffering. And like most other mental health disorders, anxiety is isolating, discouraging the very contact that counters anxiety’s pervasive sense of threat.
As a preoccupation with some imagined future bad outcome, anxiety keeps people from enjoying the present and, perhaps more cruelly, finding a solution to whatever problem is the source of worry—when, in fact, freeing up mental space to engage in immediate activities is more likely to create the conditions for resolving the worry, one of the major goals of treatment.