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Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Yes, usually. Video assessment, with a prescription when appropriate.
- Anxiety is assessed by video using structured screening questions; SSRIs may be prescribed after a full assessment, and benzodiazepines are not prescribed online.
- Generalised anxiety disorder means worry most days for six months or more, usually with muscle tension and broken sleep.
- Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions worldwide; cognitive behavioural therapy is a first-line treatment.
- If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call 112 in an emergency.
If you are having your first-ever episode of severe chest pain, breathlessness or a pounding, irregular heartbeat, do not assume it is anxiety. Call 112 or get emergency care so a heart problem can be ruled out first; panic can only be diagnosed safely once physical causes are excluded. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, use the crisis information in the red box lower on this page.
Can an online doctor treat anxiety?
Often, yes. A video consultation can often provide enough information to assess an anxiety disorder: the doctor uses structured screening questions, checks for physical causes, refers you for talking therapy and, after a full assessment, can prescribe an SSRI with booked reviews.[1] Prescribing rules vary by country, benzodiazepines are not prescribed online, and chest pain always needs physical causes excluded first.
Listen: Anxiety Treatment Online
The audio version of this topic from the Mobi Doctor podcast. Open the episode.
How an online consultation helps with anxiety
The doctor uses the same kind of screening questions used in clinics (how often you feel on edge, whether the worry is controllable, what it stops you doing) and explains what the answers mean for you.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a first-line treatment for anxiety disorders.[1] The doctor explains what it involves and can refer you, so you are not left to navigate the system alone.
What SSRIs can and cannot do, how long they take, what the first two weeks feel like, and why benzodiazepines are not prescribed online.
Scheduled reviews so treatment is adjusted rather than abandoned, especially through the first weeks of an SSRI, when support matters most.
What are the symptoms of an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder symptoms combine a worried mind with a body on alert. Mental signs include persistent worry that is hard to control, dread, irritability and poor concentration. Physical signs include muscle tension, a racing heart, churning stomach, breathlessness, sweating and disturbed sleep. Symptoms most days for months, not occasional nerves, suggest a disorder.[2]
- Persistent worry that is difficult to switch off
- Feeling on edge, restless or keyed up
- Irritability and a short fuse
- Poor concentration; mind going blank
- Muscle tension, aches or trembling
- Racing heart or palpitations
- Breathlessness or chest tightness
- Churning stomach, nausea, needing the toilet often
- Sweating, hot flushes or dizziness
- Broken sleep and daytime exhaustion
When worry becomes a disorder
Generalised anxiety
Everyone worries. Generalised anxiety disorder is different: worry that jumps from topic to topic, is out of proportion, feels uncontrollable, and has been present most days for six months or more, usually with muscle tension, a churning stomach, tiredness and disturbed sleep.[1] Many people have carried it so long they assume it is just their personality. It is not, and it responds to treatment. Anxiety disorders are also among the most common mental health conditions worldwide,[2][4] and they run a long course when ignored. That is worth knowing only because the treatments work at any stage, and earlier is easier.
Panic attacks
A panic attack is a sudden surge of fear that peaks within minutes: hammering heart, breathlessness, dizziness, tingling, a feeling that something catastrophic is happening. Attacks are frightening but not dangerous once cardiac causes have been excluded, and the real damage is usually the avoidance that follows, as life shrinks around the fear of the next one. Between attacks, many people live braced: scanning their heartbeat, carrying water, mapping exits. That anticipatory anxiety is part of the disorder, and it responds to the same treatment.
How do I stop a panic attack?
You ride it out rather than fight it. A panic attack peaks within minutes and always passes. Slow your breathing with a longer out-breath: in for four, out for six. Ground yourself by naming five things you can see and four you can touch. Stay where you are if it is safe; leaving teaches your brain the place was dangerous.
These techniques manage an attack; they do not prevent the next one. If attacks are recurring, treatment for panic disorder, usually cognitive behavioural therapy and sometimes an SSRI, works well,[1] and the avoidance can be unlearned the same way it was learned.
Social anxiety, phobias and health anxiety
Not all anxiety is generalised. Social anxiety centres on being judged (presentations, phone calls, eating in front of others) and is far more than shyness when it dictates your choices.[2] Specific phobias attach the fear to one trigger. Health anxiety keeps you scanning your body and the internet for evidence of illness, with each reassurance wearing off faster than the last. The doctor identifies which pattern is yours, because the therapy is targeted differently for each.
When should I see a doctor about anxiety?
See a doctor when anxiety has been present most days for a few weeks, when it interferes with work, sleep or relationships, when you are avoiding things that matter, or when physical symptoms such as chest tightness, palpitations or stomach problems keep appearing without explanation. You do not need to be in crisis to deserve help.
The earlier pattern-breaking starts, the less there is to unpick: untreated anxiety tends to recruit more triggers over time, not fewer. And if you have already rearranged parts of your life around the anxiety (routes, roles, invitations), that is not proof you are coping; it is the disorder negotiating on your behalf. Asking for an assessment commits you to nothing. It turns a private struggle into a map, and you choose the route from there.
Which anxiety treatment might the doctor recommend?
Treatment follows the pattern and the severity. This is the decision framework our doctors use, aligned with European and UK guidance:[1]
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Presentation | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When referral or in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Situational stress and worry that settles between triggers | Structured self-help, with a follow-up plan | Usually yes | If it persists, escalates or starts driving avoidance |
| Generalised anxiety: worry most days for six months or more, with tension and broken sleep | CBT referral; an SSRI after full assessment when appropriate | Usually yes | Little response after adequate treatment courses, or complex needs: psychiatry referral |
| Recurring panic attacks with growing avoidance | CBT for panic disorder; sometimes an SSRI | Usually yes, once heart and lung causes are excluded | A first or severe episode of chest pain needs 112 or emergency assessment first |
| Anxiety alongside heavy alcohol or sedative use | Supervised, in-person assessment | No | Withdrawal can be dangerous and needs local, supervised care |
| Anxiety with thoughts of harming yourself | Crisis support today | No: crisis support comes first | Call 112 in an emergency, or find your national crisis helpline at findahelpline.com |
Availability and prescribing vary by country; your doctor confirms what applies where you are.
Not sure which row fits your anxiety? A doctor can tell you in one consultation. €47, exact price shown before payment.
See available times →What the doctor checks in an online anxiety consultation
If the idea of the appointment itself makes you anxious, that is normal and the doctors know it. You do not need to prepare a speech; “I have been on edge for months and I am tired of it” is a perfectly good opening. Behind the conversation, the assessment is structured. The doctor will typically check:
- Frequency and control: how often in the past two weeks you have felt nervous, on edge or unable to stop worrying, using the same screening questions used in clinics.
- The pattern: generalised worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, a specific phobia or health anxiety, because the therapy is targeted differently for each.
- Duration and cost: how long this has been running, and what it is stopping you doing at work, at home and in the 3 a.m. inbox-checking hours. Treatment aims at your life, not just your score.
- Physical mimics: an overactive thyroid, heavy caffeine or energy-drink use, decongestants, corticosteroids, some asthma medicines and withdrawal from alcohol or sedatives can all produce anxiety-like symptoms. Where the history points that way, the doctor arranges a blood test locally before settling on a diagnosis.
- Everything you take: prescriptions, supplements and anything bought online; bring the list, it shortens the detective work.
- Sleep and mood: anxiety, insomnia and depression feed each other, and the plan has to account for all three.
- Safety: asked plainly, because it is the most important question in the room.
By the end, the doctor has graded how severe the anxiety is, formed a view on which type it is, and understood what it is costing you. One limit is stated just as plainly: chest pain is never self-diagnosed as anxiety, and a first severe episode needs emergency assessment before anyone is entitled to call it panic.
Treatment options for anxiety
What you can do yourself
Some self-help genuinely helps. During a surge, slow your breathing with a longer out-breath (in for four counts, out for six) for a few minutes; it dampens the physical alarm. Regular brisk exercise has real evidence for reducing anxiety, not just distracting from it. Cut caffeine honestly, including energy drinks. Alcohol calms tonight and rebounds tomorrow, so it makes anxiety worse over time. A daily 15-minute “worry time” with a notepad trains your brain to postpone rumination. And protect your sleep, because anxiety and insomnia feed each other.
Equally honest is what does not help: avoiding feared situations shrinks your life without shrinking the fear, repeated reassurance-seeking and symptom-googling feed the loop, and unregulated herbal calming products vary wildly in quality and evidence, so tell your doctor about anything you are already taking. If self-help alone is carrying you for now, that is a fine place to be; if it stops being enough, that is information, not failure.
Prescription treatment
Talking therapy, usually cognitive behavioural therapy, is a first-line treatment for anxiety disorders, and the doctor can refer you to it.[1][5] A prescription is never issued without a consultation; when medication is the right next step, an SSRI such as sertraline or escitalopram is the usual first choice.[1] Honesty about how that goes: SSRIs take four to six weeks to show their full effect, and in the first one to two weeks some people feel queasy, jittery or sleep worse before things improve. Your doctor will warn you, review you early, and adjust if needed. SSRIs are not addictive, and stopping is planned gradually. Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are a different matter: they are dependence-forming controlled medicines, European and UK guidance advises against them for ongoing anxiety,[1] and they are not prescribed through online consultations. For situational physical symptoms, such as a hammering heart before a presentation, a beta-blocker like propranolol is sometimes considered after assessment; it dampens the pounding, not the worry, and is unsuitable with asthma. Once an SSRI is working, it is usually continued for months rather than weeks to consolidate the improvement, with stopping always tapered. If you are pregnant or planning pregnancy, do not stop medication abruptly; book a review, because treatment decisions in pregnancy balance risks in both directions and deserve a proper conversation. Prescribing rules vary by country; your doctor confirms what applies to you.
When we treat anxiety online, and when we refer you
We treat online: generalised anxiety, panic disorder once cardiac causes are excluded, social anxiety, health anxiety and specific phobias; SSRI starts with early booked reviews; ongoing medication reviews and planned, gradual stopping; and therapy referrals with a doctor keeping oversight of the whole plan.
We refer or redirect you: a first or severe episode of chest pain, breathlessness or an irregular pounding heartbeat goes to 112 or emergency care before any anxiety diagnosis; anxiety tangled with heavy alcohol or sedative use needs supervised, in-person withdrawal care; complex or treatment-resistant anxiety, and anxiety with psychotic symptoms or significant safety concerns, go to psychiatry; and requests for benzodiazepines are declined with an explanation and a safer plan, because controlled medicines are not prescribed online. If you are in crisis, use 112 or findahelpline.com rather than booking anything.
When to get in-person care
Call 112 immediately for chest pain or breathlessness that could be a heart problem: especially a first severe episode, pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw, or symptoms with fainting or a racing irregular pulse. Anxiety is a diagnosis a doctor can only make once those are ruled out.
If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call 112 in an emergency. You can also find your national crisis helpline at findahelpline.com. You do not have to wait for an appointment.
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: open daily 7am–11pm, often the same day, with the exact price, €47, shown before you pay.
- Speak to a licensed doctor about anxiety: a private video consultation, from anywhere in Europe.
- Leave with your plan the same day: everything agreed on the call, and if treatment is right for you, the prescription follows straight away, sent to a pharmacy near you in most EU countries. If we can’t help you online, you get a full refund.
Frequently asked questions about anxiety
Can an online doctor prescribe anxiety medication in Europe?
Where clinically appropriate, yes. After a full video assessment, the doctor may prescribe an SSRI such as sertraline or escitalopram and will book reviews to check how you are responding. Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are controlled, dependence-forming medicines and are not prescribed through online consultations. Prescribing rules vary by country, and your doctor confirms what applies to you.
How much does an anxiety consultation cost?
A video consultation costs €47. The exact price is shown before payment, and there is no subscription. Follow-up appointments to review therapy progress or medication are booked the same way.
How quickly can I speak to a doctor?
Appointments are available daily from 7am to 11pm, often the same day, with evenings and weekends included. If you are in crisis, use 112 or findahelpline.com rather than waiting for any appointment.
Are SSRIs addictive?
No. SSRIs do not cause cravings or the need for ever-higher doses, which is what defines addiction. Stopping should still be planned gradually with your doctor to avoid short-lived withdrawal-type symptoms. That is very different from benzodiazepines, which do cause dependence; that is one reason they are not prescribed online.
Can anxiety really cause chest pain and breathlessness?
Yes. Adrenaline tightens chest muscles, speeds the heart and quickens breathing, so the symptoms are real, not imagined. But chest pain should never be self-diagnosed as anxiety: a first or severe episode needs emergency assessment to rule out a heart problem. Once the heart is cleared, treating the anxiety treats the pain.
Do I have to commit to therapy or medication before booking?
No. The first appointment is an assessment and an honest conversation about your options: therapy, medication, self-help or a combination. Nothing is prescribed or referred without your agreement.
How long will I need to take an SSRI for anxiety?
Long enough to consolidate the improvement, typically several months after you feel well, agreed at reviews rather than imposed. Stopping is planned and gradual. Coming off too early is the most common reason anxiety returns.
- Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management (CG113), NICE, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2011 (updated 2020).
- Anxiety disorders: fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, 2023.
- Guidance and resources on anxiety disorders, European Psychiatric Association, accessed August 2026.
- Mental disorders fact sheet, WHO, World Health Organization, 2025.
- Psychological therapies for generalised anxiety disorder, Cochrane, Cochrane Library, 2007.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor.
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