Anxiety treatment · Hopkins, Minnesota
Anxiety Treatment in Minneapolis, Minnesota
An outpatient anxiety center approach for adults who drink or use to quiet a mind that will not settle, and want a way to settle it that lasts.
Northwoods Haven Recovery treats anxiety disorders alongside substance use disorders on an outpatient basis for adults across Minneapolis and the Twin Cities, from our center in Hopkins. Group therapy with people who know what a racing heart at 3 a.m. feels like, individual counseling with your own licensed alcohol and drug counselor, and CBT, DBT, and acceptance and commitment therapy for the worry, the panic, and the drink that used to stop them. Then you go home.
In-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica
Anxiety and substance use
The drink calmed it once. Now it makes it worse.
Anxiety and substance use
Why treating both at once matters.
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people start drinking or using in the first place. It is also one of the most common reasons quitting fails. Treating both at the same time is the point.
3
Common forms: generalized anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety
2 to 4
Months in IOP, then the Relapse Prevention Program step-down
18+
Adults, including young adults
0
Nights away from home. Every level of care here is outpatient
What anxiety disorders are
Anxiety is a normal alarm stuck in the on position, and substances turn it up
Everyone feels anxious sometimes. An anxiety disorder is different: the alarm fires when there is no danger, keeps firing, and starts running your decisions. Generalized anxiety disorder is chronic, hard-to-control worry about many things, with tension, restlessness, poor sleep, and trouble concentrating. Panic disorder brings sudden waves of terror with a pounding heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, and the conviction that something is badly wrong, plus fear of the next attack. Social anxiety disorder is intense fear of being judged, watched, or embarrassed in front of others. All three are common, diagnosable, and treatable.
Alcohol and drugs are the fastest anxiety relief most people ever find, which is exactly the problem. A drink before the party loosens the fear of being watched. A benzodiazepine dissolves a panic attack within the hour. Cannabis takes the edge off a night of worry. The relief teaches the brain a rule: anxious, therefore use. Over time tolerance builds, the substance works less well, and the anxiety between uses grows sharper, because withdrawal from alcohol, benzodiazepines, and cannabis produces anxiety of its own.
At Northwoods Haven Recovery we treat anxiety as a co-occurring condition alongside chemical dependency programming. Mental health psychoeducation runs through the whole program, and your counselor works on the worry and the substance use as one picture. If anxiety is your primary concern and substance use is not part of it, a program built specifically for anxiety disorders will serve you better, and we will help you find one.
Who this treatment is for
We treat anxiety alongside substance use, not on its own. If you are anxious and do not have a substance use concern, a dedicated mental health program is the better fit, and we will help you find one. Call anyway. Every caller leaves with resources.
Our space
Inside our outpatient treatment center in Hopkins, Minnesota
A safe haven should feel like one. Our suite on Green Oak Drive looks out over water and trees, and the rooms where groups meet were built to feel calm, comfortable, and homey. Not clinical, not institutional. You are more than your diagnosis here, and the space is meant to say so before anyone does.
The lounge
Where people land and catch their breath before group.
The group room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
The view
Water and treeline out every window: the northwoods, in the metro.
Another Group Room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
Quiet corners
Somewhere to sit with a thing before you say it out loud.
Room to breathe
Daylight and treeline out every window. No clinical fluorescence.
Signs and symptoms
Signs anxiety and substance use are feeding each other
Anxiety is easy to miss inside a drinking or drug habit, because the substance is doing the job a diagnosis would otherwise point to. If several of these are true, both deserve attention.
Psychological
Worry and panic
Worry that is hard to switch off and jumps from topic to topic. Panic attacks that arrive out of nowhere, or the constant fear of the next one. Dread before social situations or ordinary errands.
Physical
Body on alert
Racing heart, tight chest, shaky hands, sweating, stomach trouble, muscle tension, and sleep that will not come. Morning anxiety that eases only after the first drink or dose.
Behavioral
Using to cope
Drinking or using before events you dread, to fall asleep, or to stop a panic attack. Needing more than you used to. Feeling far more anxious than usual in the hours or days after using.
Consequences
Life around it
Turning down invitations, avoiding driving, calls, or meetings, running late or leaving early to use, and relationships strained by both the worry and the substance. A world that keeps getting smaller.
How anxiety and addiction interact
Why quieting anxiety with a substance backfires, and what treating both looks like
The loop is chemical as much as psychological. Alcohol and benzodiazepines calm the brain by boosting its main inhibitory signal. The brain adapts by turning that signal down and the excitatory signals up, so when the substance wears off, the anxiety rebounds higher than baseline. People wake at 3 a.m. with a pounding heart and call it anxiety when it is partly withdrawal. Cannabis works similarly for many people, and stimulants such as cocaine, meth, and misused Adderall produce anxiety and panic directly. Each round of relief buys a sharper edge afterward.
Quitting, on its own, feels like proof the anxiety is unbearable, because the first weeks without the substance are often the most anxious a person has ever been. That is expected and it passes, but only if someone is treating the anxiety while it happens. Treating both together, with the same counselors, is what carries people through.
At Northwoods Haven Recovery that looks like group therapy where panic is discussed as openly as cravings, individual counseling with your own LADC, CBT for the catastrophic thinking that fuels anxiety, DBT distress tolerance for the moments that used to end in a drink, and acceptance and commitment therapy for building a life around your values rather than around avoidance. One caution: benzodiazepines such as Xanax, Ativan, and Valium carry real dependence risk for people with a substance use history, and stopping them abruptly can be dangerous. Any change to a benzodiazepine prescription belongs to your medical provider. We do not prescribe. Tell us what you take during the assessment so your plan accounts for it.
If you are in crisis right now
If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or call 911. Both are available every hour of every day. Treatment here can begin once you are safe, and we will be glad to hear from you.
Who it is for
Outpatient anxiety and addiction treatment is probably the right fit if you
- Drink or use to get through social situations, to stop a panic attack, or to quiet worry enough to sleep
- Have tried to quit and found the anxiety so intense in the first weeks that you went back
- Have been told you have generalized anxiety, panic disorder, or social anxiety, or suspect it, and want it treated alongside the substance use
- Take an anxiety medication a medical provider prescribed and want a program that coordinates with your prescriber rather than ignoring it
- Have a job, a family, or school you are not willing to step away from for weeks to get treatment
Not sure yet
A comprehensive assessment answers it.
A chemical use assessment establishes whether you meet criteria for a substance use disorder, asks about worry, panic, and social anxiety alongside it, and identifies the level of care that fits, here or somewhere better suited to you. If your needs are anxiety-primary without substance use, we will say so and help you find the right program. If you already have an assessment, send it over and we will review it instead of repeating it.
For families
About half our calls are from someone else.
You can ask a question without committing anyone to anything, and family involvement is part of the work when the client wants it.
How we treat it
How anxiety treatment works at Northwoods Haven Recovery
Anxiety shapes the early weeks: the first groups are hard for someone with social anxiety, and the first sober nights are long. It does not change the level of care, the therapies, or the counselors you work with.
Step one
Chemical use assessment
An hour with a licensed counselor that maps the substance use, asks about worry and panic, and lands on a level of care. If a dedicated anxiety program is the better fit, we say so and help you get there.
Where everyone starts
Most people start here
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Three-hour groups, individual counseling with your own counselor, and CBT, DBT, and acceptance-based skills for the worry, the panic, and the urge to quiet them with a substance. About two to four months, then you step down.
Explore IOP →
Then
Relapse Prevention Program
Ten to twelve weeks of low-intensity outpatient care with the same counselors. Your written plan names the situations, the body signals, and the thoughts that precede a drink, and what to do instead.
Explore relapse prevention →
Therapies
Evidence-based addiction therapies, taught as options, not prescriptions.
We’ll walk you through every approach we use and why, then build your plan around the ones that fit your beliefs and your life. No single pathway, no ideology, no judgment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Find the thought patterns that drive use, and learn to interrupt them.
Dialectical behavior therapy
Skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and hard relationships.
Acceptance & commitment therapy
Move toward what you actually value, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Motivational interviewing
Your reasons for changing, in your words. Nobody lectures you here.
Individual counseling
Your own licensed counselor, where the plan gets built and adjusted.
Group therapy
Three hours a day with people who know the terrain you’re crossing.
Addiction counseling
One-on-one counseling with your own chemical dependency counselor.
Trauma-informed care
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what’s wrong with you.
Relapse prevention and aftercare planning run through every level of care rather than sitting off to the side, and whole-person care means mental health psychoeducation happens alongside all of it.
Mental health
Co-occurring mental health conditions we treat alongside addiction
Treating one and ignoring the other does not work. Northwoods Haven Recovery treats co-occurring mental health conditions alongside chemical dependency programming. If your needs are mental-health-primary, a program built for that will serve you better, and we will help you find one.
Trauma and PTSD
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what is wrong with you.
Depression
The loop between using and feeling worse, treated from both ends at once.
Anxiety
Using to quiet it works for an hour and costs more than that.
Bipolar disorder
Care that steadies mood episodes while chemical dependency programming continues.
ADHD
Structure and skills for adult ADHD when stimulants, alcohol, or cannabis became the coping strategy.
Something else?
If a mental health condition is tangled with substance use, tell us. We treat both together or help you find who can.
Substance use
Every substance use disorder we treat in Minnesota
Seven groups, one outpatient path. The substance shapes the withdrawal risk and the early weeks, not the level of care or the counselors you work with.
The most common reason people call us, and the one most often hidden behind a functioning life.
Prescription opioids, heroin, and the fentanyl that now contaminates most of the illicit supply. Detox often comes first. We do not provide it, but we help you find it.
Methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription stimulants. Group work is where most of the traction comes from.
Benzodiazepines, sleep medications, and other prescriptions that started as treatment. Stopping abruptly can be dangerous, so a medical provider guides the taper.
Legal does not mean harmless. Cannabis use disorder is a real diagnosis.
LSD, ecstasy and MDMA, ketamine, and PCP. Usually part of a wider pattern, which is what the assessment sorts out.
Inhalants, nitrous oxide, and substances that show up faster than the research does.
Not on the list?
This list is not a filter. Call us and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit, and help you find who is if we are not.
Paying for treatment
Insurance-covered addiction treatment that's accessible to anyone who wants it.
Medicaid was the first network we joined, on purpose. We’re also in-network with major commercial plans. We’ll verify your benefits and tell you plainly what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Minnesota Medicaid
Blue Cross Blue Shield
HealthPartners
UnitedHealthcare
Medica
Hennepin Health
Private pay accepted
Not listed? Call and we'll check.
Common questions
Questions people ask about anxiety and addiction treatment
If yours is not here, ask us directly. We would rather tell you honestly that we are not the right fit than have you find out later.
LegitScript Certified
Verified addiction treatment provider
Do you treat anxiety on its own, without addiction?
No. Northwoods Haven Recovery treats anxiety disorders as co-occurring conditions alongside substance use disorders. If anxiety is your only concern, a program built for anxiety disorders will serve you better, and we will help you find one. If you drink or use to manage worry, panic, or social fear, you are exactly who this treatment is for.
Which anxiety disorders do you treat alongside substance use?
Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder are the most common ones we see, and the skills we teach apply across them. If your anxiety is closely tied to a traumatic event, trauma and PTSD treatment here addresses that directly.
Will my anxiety get worse when I stop drinking or using?
For most people, yes, at first. Alcohol, benzodiazepines, and cannabis all produce rebound anxiety in withdrawal, so the first weeks are often the most anxious stretch. It is temporary and expected, and it is why we treat the anxiety at the same time rather than waiting for the substance use to settle.
Can I keep taking Xanax or another benzodiazepine while in treatment?
That is a decision for your prescriber, not for us, and never stop a benzodiazepine abruptly because withdrawal can cause seizures. If a medical provider has you on one, you are welcome here. Tell us during the assessment so your plan accounts for it and we can coordinate with your prescriber when helpful.
Do you prescribe anxiety medication?
No. We do not prescribe or manage medication. Antidepressants, buspirone, and other anxiety medications are a medical provider’s domain. Our work is the therapy and skills side: CBT, DBT, acceptance and commitment therapy, and group support, alongside chemical dependency programming.
I have social anxiety. How am I supposed to do group therapy?
Slowly, and with support. Many of our clients dread the first group and find it becomes the most useful part of treatment. No one is forced to speak. Your counselor helps you set a pace, and the group itself becomes practice for the situations you have been avoiding, without a drink.
Can I keep working while I am in treatment?
Yes. Outpatient care is scheduled around work, school, and family rather than in place of them. You attend groups and individual sessions several days a week and go home every night. Most people keep their jobs throughout.
Does insurance cover anxiety and addiction treatment?
We are in-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica. Give us your plan information on the first call and we will verify your benefits and tell you plainly what is covered before you commit to anything.
Related articles
Related reading on anxiety, stress, and recovery
Getting started
How to get started: four steps, no waiting eleven days.
Reaching out doesn’t commit you to anything. It means you asked a question, and we answered it.
01
Call
We listen to what’s going on and where you are in the process. No script, no pressure.
02
Chemical use assessment
A comprehensive assessment to determine diagnosis and the level of care that fits.
03
Referral to the right care
Ideally with us. If another program fits you better, we’ll connect you to it.
04
Intake
Programming starts immediately after intake. Already have an assessment? Send it over and we’ll review it.
Your team
Meet the counselors who answer the phone and guide your treatment.
Take the first step
When you're ready, we're here.
Reaching out doesn’t mean you’ve committed to anything. It means you’re asking a question, and we’ll answer it honestly, even if the answer points somewhere else.
100% confidential
Insurance verified fast
No commitment to ask
Outpatient only
Referring professionals
Send a comprehensive assessment, plus treatment plan reviews, discharge summary, med list, and insurance information if applicable. A list, not a portal.
Visit us in Hopkins
Northwoods Haven Recovery
5900 Green Oak Drive, Ste 306
Hopkins, MN 55343