Anxiety stress disorder

The term anxiety, or anxiety disorder is really a catch-all term for many anxiety related mental conditions. To simply say someone has anxiety is to suggest that they are experiencing a feeling of fear, apprehension, worry, or other vague and unpleasant feelings. An anxiety disorder is often accompanied by physical symptoms and sensations. The word ‘anxiety’ is often used in a very general sense: anyone who’s nervous or appears uptight may be classified as anxious.From a diagnostic perspective however, the term anxiety encompasses a number of separate, specific conditions, each of which is clinically recognized.Specifically, there are six major anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

One could make the argument that post-traumatic stress disorder is the most considerable of the anxiety disorders because it involves the literal reliving of a significant physical, or even life threatening, trauma. People with post-traumatic stress disorder are prone to having “flashbacks”, where they psychologically return to the place and time of their physical trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder is obviously a very significant condition.

Anxiety symptoms

Generalized anxiety disorder is often a physically and emotionally exhausting condition to deal with, understandably so, as the sufferer may be in an almost constant state of agitation. The symptoms of generalized anxiety include feeling restless or jumpy; easily tired; irritable; muscle tension; fitful sleep patterns; and difficulty concentrating. Generalized anxiety can also put significant physical stress on the cardiovascular system through increased blood pressure, and a consistently rapid heart rate. For this reason alone, generalized anxiety disorder should be considered a serious condition.

The usual psychological and emotional symptoms of anxiety disorder, however, include dread or apprehension, behavioral problems which are usually observed among adolescents and children, hypervigilance, confusion, irritability, avoidance, insecurity, extreme self-consciousness and intense desire to escape.

On the other hand, physical symptoms, apart from what we have earlier mentioned include heart palpitations, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, insomnia, fatigue, queasiness, diarrhea or frequent urination and muscle aches or tension.

With these varieties of symptoms, people having anxiety disorders often believe that they have illnesses other than psychological disorders. If not, they are misdiagnosed of other psychological and mental diseases that are far worse than what they actually have.

Under the umbrella of anxiety disorders, several sub-categories are included. These are as follows:

- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)- This is marked by exaggerated and chronic tension and worry without anything to provoke it. Someone who has this disaster often expects that a looming disaster will befall upon him, or a tragedy such as losing a job, a death of a love one or problems in the family may arise. It is of course hard to pinpoint where exactly the feared object or event is coming from. Nonetheless, for a person who has GAD, these fears are very realistic.

-Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – The behaviors of the person comes from irrational thoughts or obsessions. These then results to compulsion of doing something that has no logical coherence. Normally, by performing the rituals r the compulsions, the person will feel more relived.

- Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder- panic attacks are period of intense discomfort or fear.

- Phobias- these are irrational fears of things that do not act as actual threats, more specifically to other people. - Separation Anxiety- this disorder commonly roots from childhood. People who have separation anxiety normally feels extremely anxious with the prospect of losing contact with someone close to him.

- Social Anxiety / Social Phobia- this is an excessive feeling that the person is being watched, and thus being examined by the public's eyes.

There is no single cause for all the types of anxiety disorders. In fact, the root causes may be too vague that some tend to be common and indistinct. Among them are environmental factors that may have rooted during the developmental stages, personality traits and differences which often border on the negative factors, imbalances in the brain chemistry, factors on heredity, and traumatic experiences.

While anxiety disorders could be considered chronic, patients could still find help through early diagnosis and use of helpful preventive measures and treatments.

There are several ways in providing treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, use of natural and herbal treatments and through medications. If you think that you have the symptoms of anxiety disorders, it is in your best interest to seek professional intervention to help relieve you from further aggravated conditions and to provide self-help treatments.

Don’t worry too much

Don’t worry too much if you struggled. It isn’t unusual for people to struggle with half of the items on this list. Turn this around for a moment and think about the gains to be achieved when you do learn to relax. Think how pleasant it would be to feel more optimism. To take greater pleasure in your animal nature (eg exercise, sex, food, sleep). To enjoy greater control over your own destiny. And, of course, the career benefits to be enjoyed from greater efficiency and effectiveness. Support Support from family and friends can play a pivotal role in speeding up recovery times. If a friend or family member is there at the time of an attack, having knowledge of the issue could help them dispel your fears.