Beyond Just Coping: What Real Anxiety Treatment Looks Like
By Dr. Chriss Mulumba, Board-Certified Psychiatrist — STARS Integrative Care with TMS
You have probably gotten a lot of advice about your anxiety. Breathe deeply. Cut back on caffeine. Try to relax. Maybe you’ve downloaded the apps, started the journal, learned the grounding exercises — and on some days, those things genuinely help.
But if you’re reading this, I suspect you’ve also had the quieter realization that coping and healing are not the same thing. That you can get very, very good at managing anxiety and still be worn out by it. That “just push through” has started to feel less like strength and more like survival.
I want you to know something, as a psychiatrist who treats anxiety regularly: you are not failing at coping. You may simply have reached the edge of what coping alone can do — and that is not a personal weakness. It is a medical signal that it may be time for real treatment.
Coping is a tool. Treatment is the plan.
Coping skills matter. They help you get through a hard moment, and I never want anyone to abandon them. But anxiety that shows up most days — that interrupts your sleep, tightens your chest, races your thoughts, or quietly shrinks your world — is not a moment to get through. It is a condition to treat.
Anxiety disorders are among the most common and most treatable conditions in all of medicine. The problem is rarely that treatment doesn’t work. The problem is that so many people wait years, white-knuckling through, because somewhere along the way they were told anxiety is just something they have to manage on their own. You don’t.
What real anxiety treatment looks like at STARS
When you come to STARS, we start by actually understanding what you’re experiencing — not rushing you through a fifteen-minute visit. Anxiety wears a lot of disguises: it can look like irritability, stomach trouble, insomnia, perfectionism, or a constant low hum of dread. Sometimes it travels with depression. A thorough evaluation helps us see the whole picture, so we can build a plan around you instead of around a checklist.
From there, your care is personalized. For many people, that includes:
- A clear diagnosis and a plain explanation of what is actually happening in your body and brain — because understanding anxiety takes away some of its power.
- Medication management, when it’s appropriate, handled carefully and collaboratively. It isn’t the right answer for everyone; when we do use it, we use it thoughtfully, at the right dose, with regular check-ins.
- Coordination with therapy, so the skills you build in counseling are reinforced by the medical side of your care.
- Integrated care, because your mental and physical health share the same body. With primary care under the same roof, we can address the physical conditions that sometimes mimic or worsen anxiety.
When anxiety travels with a depression that won’t lift
For most people, anxiety responds well to a thoughtful combination of therapy and medication. But sometimes it rides alongside a depression that hasn’t budged with the usual approaches — and if that’s you, you deserve to know there are more advanced options.
At STARS, we also offer treatments for harder-to-treat cases, including TMS therapy — a non-invasive, FDA-cleared treatment — and Spravato® (esketamine) for eligible patients. These are not first steps for typical anxiety, and they are not right for everyone. But if you’ve felt stuck for a long time, it helps to know the road doesn’t end where standard treatment stops. We’ll talk honestly about whether any of it fits your situation.
You don’t have to have it all figured out to start
One of the most common things I hear is, “I wasn’t sure I was ‘bad enough’ to come in.” Let me put that to rest: you do not need to be in crisis to deserve care. If anxiety is taking up space it shouldn’t — in your sleep, your relationships, your work, your sense of peace — that is reason enough.
We see patients ages 15 and up for behavioral health, in a calm, judgment-free space, with providers who speak English, French, Swahili, and Haitian Creole. We accept Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, United Healthcare, and Humana, and more — call us to verify your specific plan.
You’ve already done the hardest part: you noticed that coping isn’t enough anymore. The next step is smaller than you think. Call STARS at (470) 253-1350 or visit starsmedpsych.com to schedule an evaluation. There is a calmer life on the other side of this — and you don’t have to white-knuckle your way to it alone.
— Dr. Chriss Mulumba, Board-Certified Psychiatrist
If you need help right now
If you or someone you love is in crisis or thinking about self-harm, support is available 24/7. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If there is immediate danger, call 911.
