Anxiety Treatments - What is Best?

The thing about anxiety treatment is that it is a very personal decision, everyone is different and we have all arrived at our anxious state for different reasons, so it makes sense that how we get back to "normal" may well be different for each individual. It is still worth knowing what the options are so you can try the method that seems to suit you best.
Having suffered from an anxiety disorder for a number of years and tried various treatments I personally believe that any treatment worth its salt will focus on treating the anxiety disorder and not the symptoms. Short term fixes are okay to get you through a bad time or crisis but I only overcame my own anxiety disorder when I ignored short term remedies and focused on the actual core problem.
Do drugs help with anxiety treatment? They have a place in treatment but are not for everyone. Tranquillisers may well help with short term anxieties and are good as a short term fix to help reduce the symptoms of extreme anxiety but should only be used help you through the worst. Because of their addictive nature they are not often prescribed.
Anti-depressants are used to treat some anxiety disorders such as GAD and OCD. My personal feeling is that these are anti-depressants. It would make sense to take them if your anxiety disorder is as a result of or accompanied by depression but otherwise I can't help feeling that they are just treating the symptoms and not getting to the root cause of the anxiety.
Beta blockers are sometimes prescribed to help with the physical symptoms of anxiety disorders such as palpitations and shaking. Although they do nothing to help with the psychological symptoms they can have a calming effect simply because they get the physical symptoms under control. This in itself can help with general anxiety levels.
What about counselling? Not for everyone, I found it very difficult to talk with a counsellor. I think counselling is a very personal thing. A counsellor will talk things through with you and help you to focus on what you want to achieve. For some people this works well and research has shown that counselling can help a proportion of people with certain kinds of anxiety disorder. GAD, panic attacks and social phobias can respond well to counselling in the short term.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a type of anxiety treatment that is based around talking therapy or psychotherapy and is usually carried out by a trained therapist. The idea behind CBT is that negative thinking leads to negative reactions. CBT helps you to find out the reasons behind your anxiety and then teaches you, through self awareness, to change your thinking. You are then gradually exposed to anxiety causing situations and learn to deal with them differently.
There are also a range of complementary therapies on the market for anxiety disorders. There is not yet any conclusive evidence that they work and I can't help feeling that most of them again deal with the symptoms rather than the root cause of your anxiety.
Relaxation techniques is often a part of different types of anxiety treatment and I personally think that they are really helpful. If anxiety is a problem, classes like Tai Chi and Yoga which teach you breathing and relaxation techniques can only possibly help. If your own anxiety disorder makes socialising difficult there are now great DVDs available on the subject.
Finally I come to Self Help Programmes. There are a number on the market and some of them are having impressive results. This was the route that I took to overcome my own anxiety disorder so I am a firm advocate of them, but I do have a word or two of caution.
Whenever someone produces a successful product, there will always be imitators. Exactly the same applies to Self Help Anxiety Treatment Programs. I would suggest that if you take this route, you always stick to an established program that has been around for a while and has a proven track record of success with your particular anxiety disorder.