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Chronic Anxiety

Successfully diagnose and treat chronic anxiety with a personalized, root-cause approach.

Addressing Chronic Anxiety

Anxiety is a complex condition that can cause overwhelming fear, racing thoughts, and a persistent sense of dread—often without any clear reason. You may feel paralyzed by your symptoms, unable to carry out your daily activities or find relief despite your efforts. Chronic anxiety can present with physical, emotional, and cognitive symptoms, making it difficult to understand or manage. Underlying root causes often include hormonal disruptions, metabolic imbalances, poor gut health, environmental exposures such as mold or toxins, and dysregulated blood sugar levels.

Chronic Anxiety, image of a sad woman sitting on a couch with her knees tucked into her chest, her right arm wrapped around her knees and her left hand on her forehead.

Because anxiety stems from multiple physiological disruptions, its symptoms are often misattributed or improperly treated. Conventional approaches—like sedatives and SSRIs—may offer temporary relief but often fail to address the deeper root causes of your anxiety. The result is a cycle of symptom management without long-term improvement. These treatments can leave you feeling frustrated, unheard, and still struggling with persistent anxiety that disrupts your quality of life.

At Michael Rothman MD, we take a functional, metabolically directed approach to anxiety that focuses on identifying and treating the underlying factors contributing to your condition. By evaluating your diet, hormones, metabolic balance, immune responses, and environmental exposures, we create a treatment plan tailored to your unique biology. This approach supports your body’s natural healing processes and aims to restore balance to your homeostatic systems—offering you long-term relief and sustainable improvements in your mental and physical well-being.

Ready to Take Control of Your Health?

If you are experiencing symptoms of chronic anxiety and are seeking effective, metabolically directed treatments, contact us online or call (732) 268-7663 for a consultation.

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What are the Symptoms of Chronic Anxiety?

Anxiety symptoms can manifest differently for each person, affecting not just your emotional state but also your physical health. These symptoms may fluctuate with your environment, diet, hormone levels, and other stressors.

The symptoms of anxiety can vary from person to person, but some of the most common include:

  • Persistent Nervousness: A constant sense of unease or impending doom that doesn’t seem to have a clear cause.
  • Sleep Disturbances: Trouble falling or staying asleep, often due to racing thoughts or a wired feeling.
  • Palpitations and Rapid Heart Rate: Your heart feels like it’s racing or pounding, even when you’re resting.
  • Fatigue: Ongoing tiredness or exhaustion that doesn’t improve with sleep.
  • Irritable Bowel Symptoms: Bloating, diarrhea, or constipation without an identifiable cause.
  • Hormonal Imbalances: Mood swings, irregular cycles, or adrenal fatigue.
  • Sweating and Dry Mouth: Perspiration and a feeling that your mouth is dry, without exertion..
  • Restlessness and Inability to Focus: Feeling keyed up or struggling to concentrate.
  • Mood Fluctuations: Including depression, irritability, or emotional reactivity.
  • Muscle Tension: Chronic tightness or discomfort in your neck, shoulders, or jaw.
If you are experiencing a multitude of seemingly unrelated symptoms, it is essential to consult a knowledgeable physician. A holistic, metabolically directed treatment approach can help you identify the root causes of your symptoms, restore your body’s balance, and improve your overall well-being.
Chronic Anxiety, image of a sad man sitting on a couch, looking down, with his arms resting on his knees and his hands together.

Our Functional and Metabolic Medicine Approach to Chronic Anxiety

At Michael Rothman MD, we understand the significant impact that metabolic imbalances have on your digestive health and overall well-being. Our approach to treating chronic anxiety involves a comprehensive, metabolically directed method to identify and address the root causes of your symptoms, such as gut dysbiosis, food intolerances, environmental exposures, stealth infections metabolic imbalances, blood sugar dysregulation, and autonomic dysfunction.

Diagnostic Methods Used:

  • Comprehensive evaluation of your dietary habits, environmental exposures, and stress levels to assess lifestyle contributors.
  • In-clinic metabolic testing to determine your acid-base balance, anabolic/catabolic status, and autonomic nervous system function.
  • Comprehensive stool testing to identify your gut microbiome imbalances, inflammatory markers, and stealth infections that may trigger anxiety.
  • Blood tests to assess your hormone levels, nutritional deficiencies, inflammatory markers, thyroid health, and immune responses to potential biotoxins.
  • Metabolic testing to analyze your homeostatic control mechanisms..
  • Environmental assessments to evaluate your exposure to mold and other biotoxins from water-damaged buildings that can activate chronic immune responses.

Potential Treatment Options:

  • Lifestyle modifications to manage your stress, improve your sleep, and reduce your toxic exposures.
  • Personalized dietary modifications to support stable blood sugar levels and reduce dietary triggers like toxic seed oils, neuro-excitotoxins, and imbalanced macronutrients.
  • Supplements to support your adrenal function, neurotransmitter balance, and metabolic regulation.
  • Gut-focused therapies to reduce inflammation, restore your microbiome health, and support your digestion.
  • Elimination of environmental triggers such as mold and other biotoxins through exposure reduction and detoxification protocols.
  • Food allergy testing and avoidance strategies to reduce immune overstimulation.
  • Metabolically directed therapy to restore your impaired homeostatic control system and alleviate chronic anxiety symptoms.

Why Choose Functional and Metabolic Medicine for Chronic Anxiety?

Many people struggling with anxiety find that conventional treatments fall short. Medications like SSRIs and benzodiazepines often provide temporary relief but do not address the root causes of your symptoms. These treatments may also come with unwanted side effects and long-term dependence. Because your anxiety is influenced by multiple interconnected systems in your body—including your hormones,metabolic balance, immune function, gut health, and environmental exposures—addressing only your symptoms often leads to frustration and recurrence.
Anxiety, image of a doctor’s hands resting on a female patient’s hands on a white desk surface.

At Michael Rothman MD, we use a functional and metabolic medicine approach that goes deeper. We aim to identify the specific factors contributing to your anxiety by examining the unique interactions between your genetics, environment, diet, and lifestyle. This approach allows us to uncover hidden root causes like mold exposure, hormonal imbalances, chronic inflammation, or poor glycemic control. Your treatment plan is tailored to your individual needs and designed to restore your internal balance.

This holistic, root-cause-focused approach not only alleviates your symptoms but also supports your long-term health and mental clarity. By choosing functional and metabolic medicine, you’re investing in a more complete level of care—one that empowers your body’s natural healing processes and promotes lasting well-being.

Ready to Take Control of Your Health?

If you are experiencing symptoms of chronic anxiety and are seeking effective, metabolically directed treatments, contact us online or call (732) 268-7663 for a consultation.

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Meet Dr. Michael Rothman: Holistic Health and Metabolic Medicine Expert

Dr. Michael Rothman is a Functional and Metabolic Medicine Specialist with over two decades of holistic practice. Drawing on his personal experience with Crohn’s disease, he is passionate about utilizing metabolically directed functional medicine to address complex health conditions, like chronic anxiety. Dr. Rothman’s comprehensive method considers dietary habits, genetic predispositions, and environmental factors to identify and treat the metabolic imbalances at the root of health issues.

Certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners and the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, he also holds board certifications in Internal Medicine and previously in Emergency Medicine. His unique approach integrates knowledge from nutrition, biochemistry, physiology, and physics, alongside extensive training in environmental illness, medical acupuncture, naturopathy, Reiki, qigong, and oriental martial arts. Patients can expect a thorough, individualized approach aimed at restoring and maintaining lasting well-being.

Learn More
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Frequently Asked Questions

How can you tell if your anxiety is becoming a chronic condition?
When anxiety symptoms persist for weeks or months, interfere with your daily activities, and occur without an immediate threat or trigger, it may be considered chronic. Physical signs like ongoing muscle tension, disrupted sleep, digestive discomfort, and constant restlessness can also indicate that your anxiety has moved beyond occasional stress into a long-term condition.
Can chronic anxiety affect your digestion or sleep long-term?
Yes. Chronic anxiety destabilizes your autonomic nervous system, which can impair your digestion and cause issues like irritable bowel symptoms, bloating, or changes in bowel habits. Over time, it can also disrupt your sleep-wake cycles, leading to difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or feeling rested.
What’s the difference between anxiety and adrenal fatigue?
While anxiety is primarily a state of heightened mental and emotional stress—often accompanied by physical symptoms—adrenal fatigue refers to a state where prolonged stress has depleted your adrenal glands’ ability to produce hormones like cortisol effectively. Anxiety can contribute to adrenal fatigue, and adrenal dysfunction can, in turn, worsen your anxiety symptoms.
What role does your nervous system play in chronic anxiety?
Your autonomic nervous system regulates your body’s stress response. Chronic anxiety keeps this system in a prolonged state of sympathetic dominance—also known as “fight or flight”—which can lead to increased heart rate, hormonal imbalances, digestive disturbances, and impaired homeostatic control.
How do chronic stress and anxiety impact hormone levels?
Persistent stress and anxiety can disrupt the balance of your stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, and also affect your sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. These imbalances can worsen your mood, energy, and sleep, creating a cycle that perpetuates your anxiety.
Is it possible to treat anxiety without medication?

Yes. By identifying and addressing root causes—such as nutritional deficiencies, gut imbalances, environmental toxins, and hormonal dysregulation—many patients experience significant relief without long-term medication use. A functional and metabolic medicine approach can help restore your balance naturally.

When should you seek medical help for anxiety symptoms?
You should seek medical evaluation if your anxiety is persistent, worsening, or interfering with your ability to function in daily life. This is especially important if your symptoms are accompanied by significant changes in your digestion, sleep, mood, or overall health, as these may indicate deeper metabolic or hormonal imbalances that require comprehensive care.
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