Anxiety, Panic & Stress · Online Across India & New Delhi
When worry stops being normal
Everyone worries. Clinical anxiety is different: persistent, disproportionate, physically exhausting, and costly to daily life. Dr. Shaurya Garg, MD Psychiatry (AIIMS New Delhi), assesses and treats anxiety disorders with evidence-based care, online across India and in New Delhi.
A structured set of evidence-based anxiety management skills, personalised after clinical assessment and shared with patients following a consultation.
What Clinical Anxiety Is
Worry becomes a disorder
when it takes more than it gives
A degree of anxiety is useful: it prepares, sharpens, and protects. Clinical anxiety is worry that has outgrown its job, running long after the exam is over and loud when nothing is wrong.
Anxiety becomes a clinical concern when it is persistent, disproportionate to the situation, difficult to control, and begins to cost you things: sleep, concentration, relationships, opportunities you avoid rather than face. It takes several forms, and they often overlap: generalised anxiety (continuous background worry about many things), panic disorder (sudden intense episodes with racing heart, breathlessness, and a fear of dying or losing control), social anxiety (fear of scrutiny and judgment that shrinks life), health anxiety (repeated checking, reassurance-seeking, and fear of illness despite normal reports), and performance anxiety around exams, interviews, and public speaking.
The form matters, because the treatment differs. That is why assessment comes before advice.
The Physical Side
Anxiety is not
"just in your head."
Anxiety frequently arrives in the body first: palpitations, chest tightness, breathlessness, dizziness, trembling, stomach upset, and a wired-but-exhausted feeling. Many patients reach a psychiatrist only after emergency visits and cardiac workups that came back normal. Those normal reports are not evidence that nothing is wrong; they are evidence that the right specialist has not yet been consulted.
At the same time, careful psychiatry never assumes. Thyroid problems, cardiac conditions, anaemia, caffeine and stimulant use, certain medications, and substance withdrawal can all produce anxiety-like symptoms, and anxiety commonly travels with depression and ADHD. A proper assessment rules the mimics out and maps the overlaps, so treatment targets the actual problem.
Anxiety Care
The presentations
seen in clinic
Each is assessed on its own terms, because each responds to a different emphasis in treatment.
Treatment
Assessment first
Then the right tool
Treatment begins with a structured consultation: the pattern of your anxiety, its triggers and timeline, physical symptoms, sleep, caffeine and substance use, medical history, and what it is costing you. From there, a plan is built from evidence-based components: psychotherapy direction (cognitive-behavioural approaches are the best-studied for anxiety), medication when indicated, prescribed conservatively and explained clearly, lifestyle and sleep correction, and structured follow-up.
Anxiety disorders respond well to proper treatment. The aim is not to remove all anxiety, which is neither possible nor desirable, but to return it to its proper size: a signal you can hear and use, rather than a siren that runs your day.
Common Questions
Anxiety questions,
answered honestly
How do I know if my anxiety is normal or a disorder?
Ask what it costs you. Normal anxiety is proportionate, passes when the situation passes, and rarely changes your decisions. Clinical anxiety persists, feels out of proportion, disturbs sleep and concentration, and makes you avoid things that matter. If worry is shaping your life, an assessment is worthwhile.
My heart races and I feel breathless. Is it my heart or anxiety?
That question deserves assessment, not a guess. New, severe or unusual chest symptoms may need urgent medical evaluation, and cardiac or other medical causes should be considered where indicated. Normal reports do not by themselves prove anxiety; the timing, pattern and accompanying symptoms help a clinician decide whether panic is contributing.
Will I need medication for anxiety?
Not necessarily. Many anxiety presentations respond to structured psychotherapy and lifestyle correction alone. Medication is added when the severity, duration, or physical toll warrants it, and its rationale, options, and duration are always explained before anything is prescribed.
How long does treatment take?
It varies with the type, severity and duration of anxiety, the treatment chosen and the person's response. A responsible plan sets review points to assess benefit, side effects and whether the formulation or treatment needs to change, rather than promising a fixed timeline.
Can anxiety be treated online?
Often. A video consultation can support detailed assessment, psychotherapy planning and medication review for many anxiety presentations. Some physical symptoms need local medical examination, and emergencies require immediate local or in-person care.
Unlock anxiety care
Book a consultation first
Personalised, evidence-based anxiety management skills are shared after clinical assessment. Message on WhatsApp or email to book a consultation, online across India or in person in New Delhi.