Your mind is racing. Your chest feels tight. You cannot quite turn it off. You are not broken, and you are not alone.
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons adults seek psychiatric care, and it is also highly treatable. If worry has become constant, your body stays on high alert, or you are exhausted from running worst-case scenarios in your head, meaningful relief is possible.
At Nueva Vida Psychiatry, we provide thoughtful, evidence-based psychiatric care for anxiety in adults across California. Care is unhurried, individualized, and focused on understanding what is actually driving your symptoms, not only the symptoms themselves.
Everyone experiences stress. It rises when things are hard and fades when the situation passes. Anxiety, when it becomes a clinical issue, is different. It is persistent, often disproportionate to what is happening, and it affects your sleep, your body, your relationships, and your sense of self.
If your mind will not stop running through worst-case scenarios, if your body stays on alert even when things are fine, or if you have been pushing through for so long you are not sure what calm feels like anymore, what you are experiencing is real and it deserves real care.
Anxiety is one of the most treatable conditions in psychiatry. With a thorough evaluation and a plan that fits your life, most adults do not need to keep white-knuckling through it.
For some, anxiety is persistent worry that will not turn off. For others it is physical: a tight chest, racing heart, shallow breathing, muscle tension, stomach issues, restlessness, or trouble sleeping.
Many adults live with what looks like high-functioning anxiety: capable on the outside, internally exhausted and constantly on alert. You may appear calm while rehearsing every interaction afterward, or keep yourself busy to outrun the feeling underneath.
Anxiety can also show up as irritability, difficulty concentrating, avoiding things that matter to you, or feeling slightly detached from your own life. We work with adults experiencing generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, health-related anxiety, and work-related or high-functioning anxiety. It often appears alongside depression, adult ADHD, PMDD, and perinatal transitions, so evaluation looks at the full picture rather than one symptom in isolation.
For some women, anxiety worsens at specific points in the menstrual cycle or during hormonal transitions. If you suspect a cyclical pattern, we look for it carefully during your evaluation.
Anxiety often improves most when psychiatric care, therapy, and medical care are aligned. With your permission, we coordinate with your therapist, primary care provider, OB-GYN, and other clinicians so every part of your plan works together.
If you are a therapist or healthcare provider seeking psychiatric support for a patient with anxiety, we welcome the opportunity to collaborate.
Stress tends to come and go with specific situations and resolves when the situation resolves. Anxiety disorders are more persistent, often disproportionate to what is happening, and affect daily functioning, sleep, relationships, or work. If your worry feels constant, hard to control, or is significantly affecting your life for more than a few weeks, a thorough evaluation is worthwhile.
Anxiety can include persistent worry, racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, irritability, sleep problems, muscle tension, tight chest or racing heart, gastrointestinal discomfort, and avoiding situations that feel overwhelming. Some people experience primarily physical symptoms while others experience primarily cognitive or emotional symptoms.
We work with adults experiencing generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, health-related anxiety, work-related and high-functioning anxiety, and anxiety that accompanies other conditions such as depression, ADHD, PMDD, or perinatal transitions.
Yes. When medication is part of the treatment plan, we most often consider SSRIs or SNRIs, which have strong evidence for anxiety. Other options such as buspirone, beta blockers, and short-term medications may be considered depending on your symptoms, history, and preferences. All recommendations are individualized and reviewed carefully with you.
Yes, depending on severity and context. For mild-to-moderate anxiety, therapy (particularly cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure-based approaches), sleep optimization, exercise, stress management, and reducing anxiety-amplifying substances like caffeine and alcohol can be highly effective. For more severe anxiety, medication combined with therapy tends to produce the strongest outcomes.
If medication is part of the plan, many patients begin to feel meaningful improvement within 4 to 8 weeks of starting an SSRI or SNRI, with continued improvement over several months. Therapy gains typically build over a similar timeframe. Lifestyle changes can help within days to weeks. Anxiety is highly treatable, and most patients do not need to live with it indefinitely.
Yes, and we encourage it. Anxiety often responds best when psychiatric care and therapy are coordinated. With your permission, we communicate with your therapist to keep treatment aligned. If you do not have a therapist and would benefit from one, we can help you think about what kind of therapy and therapist would fit.
Yes. For some women, anxiety worsens at specific points in the menstrual cycle, during pregnancy or postpartum, or during hormonal transitions. This pattern can be important to identify because it changes how treatment is approached. If you suspect a hormonal pattern, we look for it carefully during your evaluation.
Yes. Nueva Vida Psychiatry is in-network with Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare through Optum. For other plans, we can provide a superbill you may submit for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Our team verifies benefits before your first appointment so you know what to expect.
You can request an appointment through our Request an Appointment page or by calling (310) 361-8043. After your initial request, our team will reach out for a brief intake conversation and to verify your insurance benefits before scheduling a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation.