Anxiety Treatment
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions, and one of the most common reasons people turn to substances for relief. At New Wave in Salisbury, MA, we treat anxiety on its own or alongside addiction with proven therapy and daily holistic care.
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is more than ordinary worry. It is a persistent sense of fear, dread, or unease that can take over your thoughts, tighten your body, and make everyday life exhausting. It shows up in many forms, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, and more, and it is highly treatable.
For many people, anxiety and substance use go hand in hand. Alcohol or drugs can feel like they quiet the anxiety in the moment, but over time they make it far worse, creating a cycle that is hard to break alone. Treating the anxiety directly is what finally interrupts that cycle.
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety disorders come from a combination of biology, life experience, and environment.
Anxiety is the body’s threat-response system stuck in overdrive. For some people, this is partly genetic, an inherited tendency toward a more reactive nervous system. For others, it grows from chronic stress, trauma, or difficult early-life experiences that taught the brain the world is not safe. Brain chemistry, particularly the systems that regulate fear and calm, plays a central role.
Substance use is also a powerful factor. Alcohol and drugs can trigger or worsen anxiety, and withdrawal almost always spikes it. Understanding what is feeding your anxiety, whether it is genetics, trauma, stress, substance use, or a mix, is the first step toward calming it for good.
Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety
Anxiety is more than worry. It shows up in the mind and the body. Common signs include:
- Persistent worry, dread, or a sense that something is wrong
- Racing thoughts that are hard to quiet
- A racing heart, tight chest, or shortness of breath
- Restlessness, irritability, or feeling on edge
- Trouble sleeping or concentrating
- Panic attacks or avoiding anxiety-provoking situations
If anxiety is interfering with your daily life, it is treatable, and you do not have to manage it with substances or alone.
How Addiction Influences Anxiety
Anxiety and substance use form a powerful, self-reinforcing cycle.
Many people drink or use drugs to quiet anxiety, and in the short term, it can feel like relief. But substances ultimately make anxiety far worse. Alcohol and many drugs disrupt the brain’s natural balance, and withdrawal between uses triggers intense anxiety, driving more use to escape it. Over time, what began as self-medication becomes a cycle that deepens both the anxiety and the addiction.
This is why treating anxiety alone, or addiction alone, so often fails. At New Wave, we treat them together as a dual diagnosis. By calming the anxiety with real tools while addressing any substance use that is feeding it, we break the cycle at both ends. If substance use is part of your picture, our addiction treatment works hand in hand with your anxiety care.
Therapies That Work Best for Anxiety
At New Wave, anxiety treatment combines proven therapy with daily nervous-system care.
The approaches we find most effective for anxiety include:
CBT to identify and reframe anxious thought patterns
DBT for managing overwhelming feelings
Mindfulness and meditation to quiet a racing mind
Yoga and sound bowl therapy to calm the body
Individual therapy to address trauma and root causes
Medication management when it is helpful
Your plan is tailored to you, with the same therapist throughout.
Coping Skills for Anxiety
Anxiety responds to practice. We teach skills you can use anywhere, anytime.
Skills that help calm anxiety include:
- Slow, deep breathing to signal safety to your nervous system
- Grounding techniques to return to the present moment
- Challenging and reframing anxious thoughts
- Mindfulness to observe worry without being ruled by it
- Movement, yoga, and rest to discharge nervous energy
- Limiting substances, including caffeine and alcohol, that fuel anxiety
With practice, these tools give you a sense of control that no substance can offer.
How We Treat Anxiety
Care that calms the nervous system and addresses the roots of fear.
At New Wave, anxiety treatment combines evidence-based therapy with daily holistic care. Approaches like CBT help you identify and reshape the thought patterns that fuel anxiety, while DBT builds skills for managing intense feelings. Holistic practices, mindfulness, yoga, sound bowl therapy, calm the nervous system and give you tools you can use anywhere.
When anxiety occurs alongside substance use, we treat both together, because each one drives the other. With the same therapist over time and a plan built around you, you can learn to face life without being ruled by fear, or by the substances that once promised relief.
Your Path Through Treatment
We meet you at the right level of care and adjust as you grow stronger, with the same therapist throughout and holistic healing every day.
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Step 1: Detox
We connect you with a trusted detox partner, then welcome you back.
Co-Occurring Conditions We Treat
We treat mental health conditions alongside substance use. Explore the co-occurring conditions we treat:
Anxiety
Treated alongside substance use.
You are here
Care that feels different
We were founded by people in long-term recovery, so the way we treat you comes from having been where you are. That shows up in everything we do.
Founded by people in recovery
When you call New Wave, you talk to someone who has walked this path, not a call center. This is personal for us.
The same therapist throughout
You keep your private therapist as you move between levels of care, so your progress is never interrupted and you never start over.
Holistic care, every day
Reiki, yoga, sound healing, and mindfulness are woven into daily treatment alongside evidence-based therapy, not offered once in a while.
Meet the People Behind Your Recovery
Our licensed clinicians and team, many in long-term recovery themselves, are who you will work with at New Wave.
Angela Faccone
Co-Founder & Program Director
Charles Draleau
Executive Director
Melanie Draleau
Co-Founder & Reiki Practitioner
Ryan SmithBratton
Co-Founder & Director of Community Outreach
Danielle Visone
Mental Health Counselor & Clinical Director
Recovery That People Remember
Anxiety Treatment FAQs
Want to talk to a real person? Call us, someone in recovery will answer.
Do you treat anxiety in Massachusetts?
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What therapies help with anxiety?
Can you treat anxiety and addiction together?
Is anxiety treatment covered by insurance?
Do I need medication for anxiety?
Keep Learning
Helpful, judgment-free articles on recovery, treatment, and supporting the people you love.
In-Network Coverage Varies by Plan. Let's See If Yours Is a Match
We’ll verify your benefits and have an honest conversation about whether our program is the best match for your stage of recovery. And if we’re not the right fit for your journey, we won’t leave you guessing. We’ll help you find the place that is. Because we’ve been where you are, our only goal is getting you to the care that works.
Take the First Step Today
You do not have to live ruled by fear. Call and talk to someone who understands.
If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911.
- 100% Confidential
- Free Assessment
- No Commitment
- You'll talk to someone in recovery
In a crisis? If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911.