Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and
can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us
prepare and pay attention. Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of
nervousness or anxiousness, and involve excessive fear or anxiety. Anxiety
disorders are the most common of mental disorders and affect nearly 30 percent
of adults at some point in their lives. . But anxiety disorders are treatable
and a number of effective treatments are available. Treatment helps most people
lead normal productive lives.
Causes
Researchers
don’t know exactly what brings on anxiety disorders. 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 control fear
and other emotions.
Symptoms
All
anxiety disorders share some general 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
Types of disorder
Panic disorder. You feel 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.
People with
social anxiety disorder (sometimes called “social phobia”) have a marked fear
of social or performance situations in which they expect to feel embarrassed,
judged, rejected, or fearful of offending others.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder
involves persistent and excessive worry that interferes with daily activities.
This ongoing worry and tension may be accompanied by physical symptoms, such as
restlessness, feeling on edge or easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating,
muscle tension or problems sleeping. Often the worries focus on everyday things
such as job responsibilities, family health or minor matters such as chores,
car repairs, or appointments.
Phobias. A phobia is an intense fear
around a specific thing like an object, animal, or situation. Most of us are
scared of something, but these feelings don’t disrupt our lives. With phobias,
people change the way they live in order to avoid the feared object or
situation.
Agoraphobia. Agoraphobia is fear of being in a
situation where a person can’t escape or find help if they experience a panic
attack or other feelings of anxiety. A person with agoraphobia may avoid public
places or even avoid leaving their homes.
Health anxiety. This means you experience
obsessions and compulsions relating to illness, including researching symptoms
or checking to see if you have them. It is related to OCD.
Body dysmorphic
disorder (BDD) –
this means you experience obsessions and compulsions relating to your physical
appearance.
Perinatal
anxiety or perinatal OCD – some women develop anxiety
problems during pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
(OCD). Obsessive-compulsive disorder is
made up of unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that cause anxiety (obsessions)
or repeated actions meant to reduce that anxiety (compulsions). Obsessions or
compulsions usually take a lot of time and cause a lot of distress.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). Post-traumatic
stress disorder can occur after a very scary or traumatic event, such as abuse,
an accident, or a natural disaster. Symptoms of PTSD include reliving the event
through nightmares or flashbacks, avoiding reminders of the traumatic event,
and feeling unsafe in the world, even when a person isn’t in danger.
Risk Factors
Researchers
are finding that genetic and environmental factors, frequently in interaction
with one another, are risk factors for anxiety disorders. Specific factors
include:
·
Shyness,
or behavioral inhibition, in childhood
·
Being
female
·
Having
few economic resources
·
Being
divorced or widowed
·
Exposure
to stressful life events in childhood and adulthood
·
Anxiety
disorders in close biological relatives
·
Parental
history of mental disorders
·
Elevated
afternoon cortisol levels in the saliva (specifically
for social anxiety disorder)
Diagnosis
If you
have symptoms, your doctor will examine you and ask for your medical history.
She may run tests to rule out medical illnesses that might be causing your
symptoms. No lab tests can specifically diagnose anxiety disorders.
Treatments
Most
people with the condition try one or more of these therapies:
Medication: Many antidepressants can work
for anxiety disorders. They include escitalopram (Lexapro) and fluoxetine (Prozac).
Certain anticonvulsant medicines (typically taken for epilepsy) and low-dose
antipsychotic drugs can be added to help make other treatments work better. Anxiolytics are also drugs that help lower anxiety.
Examples are alprazolam (Xanax)
and clonazepam (Klonopin).
They’re prescribed for social or generalized anxiety disorder as well as for
panic attacks.
Psychotherapy: This is a type of counseling that
addresses the emotional response to mental illness. A mental health specialist
helps you by talking about how to understand and deal with your anxiety
disorder.
Cognitive behavioral therapy: This is a certain type of
psychotherapy that teaches you how to recognize and change thought patterns and
behaviors that trigger deep anxiety or panic.