Anxiety treatment serving Delray Beach — exposure-based CBT, in-house psychiatry.

RECO Health's Delray Beach campus at 140 NE 4th Avenue is a five-minute walk from Atlantic Avenue and directly serves Pineapple Grove, Lake Ida, Tropic Isle, and the Beach District. Anxiety care is delivered at PHP and IOP levels by in-house psychiatry and exposure-trained therapists — not a generic "anxiety group." Every treatment plan names the primary DSM-5-TR diagnosis (GAD, panic, social anxiety, or OCD), the SSRI trial dosed at the anxiety-effective range, and the outcome measure (GAD-7, PDSS, LSAS, or Y-BOCS) that will be retested at discharge.

RECO Health’s main campus sits at 140 NE 4th Avenue, one block off Atlantic Avenue and a five-minute walk from the ocean. For residents of Pineapple Grove, Lake Ida, Tropic Isle, the Beach District, or Osceola Park, that means anxiety treatment does not require uprooting a life or driving I-95 — it happens in the same neighborhoods where the anxiety already shows up. Care runs at partial hospitalization (PHP) and intensive outpatient (IOP) levels, staffed by in-house psychiatry and therapists trained in the exposure protocols that anxiety disorders actually respond to.

Disorder-specific assessment before treatment starts

“Anxiety” is a symptom rather than a diagnosis, and treatment collapses when the two are confused. RECO’s intake separates generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder because each carries a different treatment structure and a different outcome measure. The scale battery uses the GAD-7 for generalized anxiety severity, the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) for panic frequency and impairment, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) for social anxiety, and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) for OCD symptom burden.

A PHQ-9 runs alongside because major depressive disorder co-occurs in roughly half of anxiety presentations, and an ASRS screens for adult ADHD when the clinical picture warrants it. Every treatment plan names the primary DSM-5-TR diagnosis, lists secondary conditions, and specifies the outcome measure that will be retested at admission, mid-course, and discharge. GAD responds to worry exposure and stimulus-control work; OCD requires strict Exposure and Response Prevention with no covert rituals; social anxiety fails when it is treated as a generic “anxiety group” because the feared stimulus — evaluation by others — is never actually addressed.

SSRI pharmacotherapy at anxiety-appropriate doses

Sertraline, escitalopram, paroxetine, and fluoxetine each carry FDA approval for one or more anxiety disorders and remain first-line pharmacotherapy at RECO. Anxiety-effective dosing typically sits at the upper end of the depression range — sertraline titrated toward 150-200 mg, escitalopram to 20 mg, paroxetine to 40-60 mg — because underdosing is the most common reason a trial is misread as a “failure.” Initial titration is deliberately slow, often starting at a quarter of the target dose, to blunt the activation and jitteriness that otherwise cause clients to abandon the trial in the first two weeks.

Augmentation is used where indicated. Buspirone adds coverage for generalized anxiety without sedation or dependence risk. Hydroxyzine gives an as-needed option that avoids the benzodiazepine trajectory. Propranolol has a clean role in situational performance anxiety, and low-dose atypicals such as quetiapine are reserved for treatment-resistant presentations with careful metabolic monitoring. Medication decisions are made by RECO’s in-house psychiatrists rather than routed through an outside referral network, which keeps titration continuous with the therapy work and the outcome measure.

Exposure-based CBT is the therapy that works

For every anxiety disorder in the DSM-5-TR, the strongest evidence base points to exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy rather than supportive or insight-oriented talk therapy. For OCD, that means Exposure and Response Prevention — hierarchical, therapist-guided, and structured so that the compulsion is blocked while the client sits with the anxiety until it habituates. For panic disorder, interoceptive exposure deliberately provokes the feared bodily sensations (hyperventilation, spinning, elevated heart rate) so they lose their threat signal. For social anxiety, graded in-vivo exposures paired with cognitive restructuring replace safety behaviors with the direct experience of evaluation.

RECO’s individual therapists run these protocols. The group programming — process groups, DBT skills for distress tolerance, ACT for values-based action — supports the individual exposure work rather than substituting for it. Between-session homework is not optional; that is where the extinction learning consolidates. Motivational Interviewing is used to address avoidance and treatment ambivalence when they appear, particularly in clients whose anxiety intersects with a substance use history.

Why we do not lean on benzodiazepines

Alprazolam, clonazepam, and lorazepam relieve acute anxiety within an hour, and that speed is precisely the problem. Benzodiazepines blunt the extinction learning that exposure therapy depends on — a client who takes 0.5 mg of alprazolam before a feared situation does not learn that the situation is safe; they learn that the medication is safe. A substantial share of RECO’s clinical population carries a co-occurring substance use disorder, and benzodiazepine dependence in that context is a predictable trajectory rather than a rare adverse event.

Where situational bridging is genuinely required, hydroxyzine, gabapentin, or a short course of a low-dose beta-blocker cover most use cases without the dependence risk or the interference with exposure work. Clients who arrive on established long-term benzodiazepine prescriptions are not force-tapered. The psychiatry team constructs an individualized taper schedule — often over months — aligned with the therapy trajectory, the client’s baseline stability, and any concurrent alcohol or opioid recovery work.

What to expect on your first visit

Admissions from Delray Beach can be same-day when programming slots and, for co-occurring substance use, detox beds are available. The intake appointment begins with a psychiatric evaluation, the anxiety-specific scale battery described above, a full substance use history, and a review of prior medication trials with dose, duration, and reason for discontinuation. When a substance use disorder is present, the ASAM Criteria dimensions are applied to determine the appropriate level of care and whether medically monitored withdrawal is indicated.

A same-day treatment plan is produced: primary DSM-5-TR diagnosis, initial medication decision, individual therapist assignment, group schedule, and a named outcome measure. Most clients begin programming within 24-72 hours of intake, and family orientation is scheduled in the same window when the client consents.

Insurance and admissions from Delray Beach

RECO Health is in-network with the major commercial carriers used in Palm Beach County, including Florida Blue, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and BCBS. A verification of benefits is completed before admission with the deductible, coinsurance, and any prior authorization requirements confirmed in writing. For Delray Beach residents at 0 miles from the campus, admissions typically involve no travel logistics — a brief in-person or telephone intake, a same-day psychiatric evaluation, and programming that begins within days rather than weeks.

Serving residents of: Pineapple Grove, Lake Ida, Tropic Isle, Beach District, Osceola Park.