Anxiety treatment in Houston & across Texas

What anxiety actually looks like

Most people picture worry. In a clinical presentation anxiety is at least as often physical: a chest that will not loosen, jaw tension, gut symptoms that have been investigated repeatedly and found normal, a heart rate that spikes for no visible reason. Many patients arrive having been worked up by cardiology or gastroenterology first.

It also shows up as avoidance — the meetings not attended, the phone calls not made, the drive not taken. Avoidance is often the most disabling part, and the part patients are least likely to volunteer, because it has been reorganised into “I’m just not a phone person.”

When it is time to see a psychiatrist

• Anxiety is shaping your decisions — what you take on, where you go, who you see.
• You are having panic attacks, or living in fear of the next one.
• Sleep has been affected for weeks or longer.
• You are using alcohol, cannabis or anything else to bring the volume down.
• Therapy has helped but has not been enough on its own.
• You have been on an anxiety medication for a long time without anyone reassessing whether it is still the right one.

How Dr. Torrijos evaluates anxiety

The evaluation runs up to 90 minutes because anxiety is the diagnosis most often assigned by default. Getting it right means establishing when the symptoms actually started, whether they are constant or episodic, what precedes them, and whether they sit on top of something else — untreated ADHD, undiagnosed trauma, a bipolar spectrum illness, or a medical driver.

That last category matters more than most patients expect. Thyroid dysfunction, anaemia, arrhythmias, sleep apnea, excess caffeine, stimulant medication, some asthma treatments, and alcohol withdrawal between drinks all produce a clinical picture that looks exactly like an anxiety disorder.

Treatment options

Treatment is usually some combination of medication, psychotherapy and targeted changes to sleep, substances and physical activity. Several medication classes have good evidence in anxiety; which one fits depends on your specific pattern, your medical history, what you have already tried and what side effects you are willing to accept.

Benzodiazepines deserve a direct comment. They work quickly, which is exactly what makes them a poor long-term foundation: tolerance, dependence and rebound anxiety are real, and a treatment plan built on them tends to be harder to unwind than the anxiety was to treat. Where they are used here, it is deliberately and with a plan, not by default.

What treatment looks like at Tentie

An initial evaluation of up to 90 minutes, then follow-ups every two to four weeks while a treatment is being established, lengthening as things stabilise. Progress is tracked against what you actually want back — the drive, the meeting, the night’s sleep — rather than against a score alone.

If you are in therapy, Dr. Torrijos will coordinate with your therapist with your consent. If you are not, he can point you toward one, and will say plainly whether he thinks therapy or medication should lead.