Anxiety Disorders – Types, Symptoms, and Treatment
What is Anxiety Disorder?
Everyone feels anxious now and then. It’s a normal emotion. But the Anxiety Disorders are different. They are a group of mental illnesses, and the distress they cause can keep you from carrying on with your daily life.
For people who have Anxiety Disorder, worry and fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be disabling. But with treatment, many people can manage those feelings and get back to a fulfilling life.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorder is an umbrella term that includes different conditions:
Panic Disorder
Panic Disorder
You feel the terror that strikes at random. During a panic attack, you may also sweat, have chest pain, and feel palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats). Sometimes you may feel like you’re choking or having a heart attack.
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder
Also called as ‘Social Phobia’, this is when you feel overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. You fixate about others judging you or on being embarrassed or ridiculed.
Specific Phobias
Specific Phobias
You feel intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying. The fear goes beyond what’s appropriate and may cause you to avoid ordinary situations.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
You feel excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little or no reason.
Signs and Symptoms
Panic, fear, and uneasiness
Sleep problems
Not being able to stay calm and still
Cold, sweaty, numb or tingling hands or feet
Shortness of breath
Heart palpitations
Dry mouth
Nausea
Tense muscles
Dizziness
Causes
Like other forms of mental illness, they stem from a combination of things, including changes in your brain and environmental stress, and even your genes. The disorders can run in families and could be linked to faulty circuits in the brain that controls fear and other emotions.
Risk Factors
Factors that may increase your risk of developing an Anxiety Disorder:
Trauma
Stress due to an illness
Personality
Other mental health disorders
Having blood relatives with an anxiety disorder
Drugs or alcohol abuse
How to overcome Anxiety Disorder?
Listed below are the treatments for Anxiety Disorder.
Pharmacotherapy
including Anti-Depressants
Behaviour Therapies
Relaxation Therapy
Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy
Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorder is an umbrella term that includes different conditions:
PANIC DISORDER – You feel the terror that strikes at random. During a panic attack, you may also sweat, have chest pain, and feel palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats). Sometimes you may feel like you’re choking or having a heart attack.
SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER – Also called as ‘Social Phobia’, this is when you feel overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. You fixate about others judging you or on being embarrassed or ridiculed.
SPECIFIC PHOBIAS – You feel intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying. The fear goes beyond what’s appropriate and may cause you to avoid ordinary situations.
GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER – You feel excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little or no reason.
Signs and Symptoms
- Panic, fear, and uneasiness
- Sleep problems
- Not being able to stay calm and still
- Cold, sweaty, numb or tingling hands or feet
- Shortness of breath
- Heart palpitations
- Dry mouth
- Nausea
- Tense muscles
- Dizziness
Causes
Like other forms of mental illness, they stem from a combination of things, including changes in your brain and environmental stress, and even your genes. The disorders can run in families and could be linked to faulty circuits in the brain that controls fear and other emotions.
Risk Factors
Factors that may increase your risk of developing an Anxiety Disorder:
- Trauma
- Stress due to an illness
- Personality
- Other mental health disorders
- Having blood relatives with an anxiety disorder
- Drugs or alcohol abuse
How to overcome Anxiety Disorder?
Listed below are the treatments for Anxiety Disorder.
Pharmacotherapy
including Anti-Depressants
Behaviour Therapies
Relaxation Therapy
Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy
Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation