Many factors in our lives can serve to make us feel anxious at times. Often, anxiety is a normal response to stressful events, and at times it can be a helpful coping mechanism. Anxiety tells us when we are in a dangerous or threatening situation, and it marshals the body’s adrenaline reaction to prepare you for “fight or flight”.
However, frequent anxiety may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders can affect anyone. A state of anxiety can be experienced as bodily sensations of “butterflies” in the stomach, nausea, tightness in the chest or throat, trembling, or feeling faint. These sensations are often accompanied by negative thoughts which serve to increase our fear and belief that something is terribly wrong.
Anxiety can be very impairing, and often feels intolerable to those who experience it. Untreated anxiety can affect job performance and ability to carry out everyday activities. It may also lead to depression and an increased risk of alcohol and drug abuse.
Types of Anxiety Disorders:
Panic Disorder: a sudden, often frequent episode of intense fear that feels uncontrollable or irrational, often called a panic attack. Symptoms of a panic attack include rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, dizziness, trembling, nausea, sweating, and a sense that something terrible is going to happen. Sometimes people having a panic attack think that they may be having a heart attack.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: constant and exaggerated worries and thoughts that are hard to control and cause ongoing feelings of stress. These excessive worries are hard to put out of your mind, may cause trouble sleeping, irritability, stomach upset, frequent headaches or muscle aches, and last for at least 6 months.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Repeated, intrusive and unwanted thoughts that cause anxiety. These obsessive thoughts often lead to compulsive rituals that serve to relieve the anxiety temporarily. People feel compelled to engage in these repetitive acts despite knowing they doesn’t make any sense. Examples are endless checking and rechecking (ex: the stove, locks on the door); repetitive hand-washing, counting rituals, and repetitive behaviors performed to ward off a sense of danger.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This may develop when someone experiences or witnesses a severely distressing or dangerous event where one’s life feels in jeopardy. People with PTSD experience recurrent nightmares and flashbacks of the event, may feel emotionally numbed or over-reactive, often feel on guard for future dangers, and avoid all cues and reminders of the event. Without treatment, PTSD can become chronic.
Social Phobia: an overwhelming sense of fear of being embarrassed in front of others, being scrutinized by others, or being humiliated in social situations. These fears cause people to avoid all situations and normal social activities where they fear they may be judged by others.