Anxiety
is a normal and often healthy emotion. However, when a person regularly feels
disproportionate levels of anxiety, it might become a medical disorder.
Anxiety disorders form a category of mental health diagnoses that lead to excessive
nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry
These disorders alter how a person processes emotions and
behave, also causing physical symptoms. Mild anxiety might be vague and
unsettling, while severe anxiety may seriously affect day-to-day living.
Anxiety disorders affect 40 million people in the United States.
It is the most common group of mental illnesses in the country. However,
only 36.9
percent of people with an anxiety disorder receive treatment.
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So what is anxiety?
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines anxiety
as “an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical
changes like increased blood pressure.”
Knowing the difference between normal feelings of anxiety and an
anxiety disorder requiring medical attention can help a person identify and
treat the condition.
In this article, we look at the differences between anxiety and
anxiety disorder, the different types of anxiety, and the available treatment
options.
Anxiety
When an individual faces potentially harmful or worrying
triggers, feelings of anxiety are not only normal but necessary for survival.
Since the earliest days of humanity, the approach of predators
and incoming danger sets off alarms in the body and allows evasive action.
These alarms become noticeable in the form of a raised heartbeat, sweating, and
increased sensitivity to surroundings.
The danger causes a rush of adrenalin, a hormone and chemical
messenger in the brain, which in turn triggers these anxious reactions in a
process called the “fight-or-flight’ response. This prepares humans to
physically confront or flee any potential threats to safety.
For many people, running from larger animals and imminent danger
is a less pressing concern than it would have been for early humans. Anxieties
now revolve around work, money, family life, health, and other crucial issues
that demand a person’s attention without necessarily requiring the
‘fight-or-flight’ reaction.
The nervous feeling before an important life event or during a
difficult situation is a natural echo of the original ‘fight-or-flight’
reaction. It can still be essential to survival – anxiety about being hit by a
car when crossing the street, for example, means that a person will
instinctively look both ways to avoid danger.
Anxiety disorders
The duration or severity of an anxious feeling can sometimes be
out of proportion to the original trigger, or stressor. Physical symptoms, such
as increased blood pressure and nausea, may also develop. These responses move
beyond anxiety into an anxiety disorder.
The APA describes a person with anxiety disorder as “having
recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns.” Once anxiety reaches the stage of a
disorder, it can interfere with daily function.
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Symptoms
While a number of different diagnoses constitute anxiety
disorders, the symptoms of generalized anxiety
disorder (GAD) will often include the following:
- restlessness,
and a feeling of being “on-edge”
- uncontrollable
feelings of worry
- increased
irritability
- concentration
difficulties
- sleep
difficulties, such as problems in falling or staying asleep
While these symptoms might be normal to experience in daily
life, people with GAD will experience them to persistent or extreme levels. GAD
may present as vague, unsettling worry or a more severe anxiety that disrupts
day-to-day living.
For information on the symptoms of other diagnoses under the
umbrella of anxiety disorders, follow the links in the “Types” section below.
The
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders: Fifth Edition
(DSM-V) classifies anxiety disorders into several main types.
In
previous editions of DSM, anxiety disorders included obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well
as acute stress disorder.
However, the manual now no longer
groups Trusted Source these mental
health difficulties under anxiety.
Anxiety
disorders now include the following diagnoses.
Generalized
anxiety disorder: This is a chronic disorder involving excessive,
long-lasting anxiety and worries about nonspecific life events, objects, and
situations. GAD is the most common anxiety disorder, and people with the
disorder are not always able to identify the cause of their anxiety.
Panic
disorder: Brief
or sudden attacks of intense terror and apprehension characterize panic
disorder. These attacks can lead to shaking, confusion, dizziness, nausea, and
breathing difficulties. Panic
attacks tend
to occur and escalate rapidly, peaking after 10 minutes. However, a panic
attack might last for hours.
Panic
disorders usually occur after frightening experiences or prolonged stress but
may also occur without a trigger. An individual experiencing a panic attack may
misinterpret it as a life-threatening illness, and may make drastic changes in
behavior to avoid future attacks.
Click here to learn more
about panic disorder and panic attacks.
Specific
phobia: This
is an irrational fear and avoidance of a particular object or situation. Phobias are not like
other anxiety disorders, as they relate to a specific cause.
A
person with a phobia might acknowledge a fear as illogical or extreme but
remain unable to control feelings anxiety around the trigger. Triggers for a
phobia range from situations and animals to everyday objects.
Click here to learn more
about phobias and how they develop.
Agoraphobia: This is a fear
and avoidance of places, events, or situations from which it may be difficult
to escape or in which help would not be available if a person becomes trapped.
People often misunderstand this condition as a phobia of open spaces and the
outdoors, but it is not so simple. A person with agoraphobia may have a fear
of leaving home or using elevators and public transport.
Click here to learn about
agoraphobia, an often-misunderstood psychological disorder.
Selective
mutism: This
is a form of anxiety that some children experience, in which they are not able to speak in certain places or contexts, such as
school, even though they may have excellent verbal communication skills around
familiar people. It may be an extreme form of social phobia.
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Social
anxiety disorder, or social phobia: This is a fear of negative judgment from
others in social situations or of public embarrassment. Social anxiety disorder includes a range
of feelings, such as stage fright, a fear of intimacy, and anxiety around
humiliation and rejection.
This
disorder can cause people to avoid public situations and human contact to the
point that everyday living is rendered extremely difficult.
Separation
anxiety disorder: High levels of anxiety after separation from a person
or place that provides feelings of security or safety characterize separation
anxiety disorder. Separation might sometimes result in panic symptoms.
Treatments will consist of a combination of psychotherapy,
behavioral therapy, and medication.
Alcohol dependence, depression, or
other conditions can sometimes have such a strong effect on mental well-being
that treating an anxiety disorder must wait until any underlying conditions are
brought under control.
Self-treatment
In some cases, a person can treat an anxiety
disorder at home without clinical supervision. However, this may not be
effective for severe or long-term anxiety disorders.
There are several exercises and actions to
help a person cope with milder, more focused, or shorter-term anxiety
disorders, including:
- Stress management: Learning to manage stress can help limit
potential triggers. Organize any upcoming pressures and deadlines, compile
lists to make daunting tasks more manageable, and commit to taking time
off from study or work.
- Relaxation techniques: Simple activities can help soothe the mental and
physical signs of anxiety. These techniques include meditation, deep
breathing exercises, long baths, resting in the dark, and yoga.
- Exercises to replace negative
thoughts with positive ones: Make
a list of the negative thoughts that might be cycling as a result of
anxiety, and write down another list next to it containing positive,
believable thoughts to replace them. Creating a mental image of
successfully facing and conquering a specific fear can also provide
benefits if anxiety symptoms relate to a specific cause, such as in a
phobia.
- Support network: Talk with familiar people who are supportive,
such as a family member or friend. Support group services may also be
available in the local area and online.
- Exercise: Physical exertion can improve self-image and
release chemicals in the brain that trigger positive feelings.
