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Each one of us has probably experienced the feeling of impending doom before an important event at one time or another in our lives. However, for some people, these feelings are persistent and impact their quality of life and relationships. Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental health issues in the world. This blog aims to explore what is an anxiety disorder, its types, and the complexities behind it — making it easier to understand, seek help, and offer support to those who live with it.
What are the Symptoms of Anxiety?
A persistent feeling of dread, fear, and panic in anticipation of an event or occasion is known as anxiety. For most people, it is a temporary feeling that they experience once in a blue moon. Anxiety disorder on the other hand produces persistent and long-lasting feelings of anxiousness that don’t go away and may even worsen with time.
To understand anxiety disorder, we have to understand what anxiety is in a clinical sense. Symptoms of anxiety disorder include:
The feeling of impending doom
Anxious thoughts
Tension
Restlessness
Increased heart rate/palpitations
Breathlessness
Aches and pains without cause
Faintness or dizziness
Behavioral changes
Avoiding certain situations
Anxiety symptoms may be felt by any one of us during daily life activities, However, for a person suffering from anxiety disorder, these feelings are ever-present, crippling, and prone to getting worse with time. There are various types of anxiety disorders. The same person may suffer from multiple types of anxiety disorder symptoms at once.
Agoraphobia
Triggered by unfamiliar situations, locations, crowds, or places outside the comfort zone, Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder that causes paralyzing feelings of fear that are overwhelming.
Panic Anxiety Disorder
Individuals with this type of anxiety disorder suffer from panic attacks. A panic or anxiety attack is an encompassing feeling of intense fear with no obvious trigger. The anxiety attack symptoms include pain in the chest/abdomen, nausea, pounding heart, dizziness, etc. These symptoms occur suddenly and without warning and remain for multiple minutes or longer. Panic disorder may overlap with Agoraphobia in some individuals.
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social anxiety manifests itself as the fear of being judged by others in a social situation. People with social anxiety disorder often feel like others are looking at them when they go out in public.
Separation Anxiety Disorder
The fear of being away from a loved one is a pretty normal response, especially in toddlers and infants. However, in adults/older children, it usually is crippling and excessive.
Health Anxiety
Previously known as hypochondria, health anxiety is a type of anxiety where people persistently worry about having or developing a serious health issue. It is also known as illness anxiety disorder. Patients often feel compelled to constantly search online for symptoms of health issues they believe they might have.
Selective Mutism
It is fairly common to encounter a child who refuses to speak under certain conditions (E.g., in school) while they interact normally with parents or at home. This condition can also present in adolescents and adults due to fear/anxiousness.
Effects of Anxiety on Your Body
The symptoms of anxiety can be both physical and psychological. Where the psychological impact of anxiety leads to feelings of constant dread and fear, the physical symptoms can take a toll on the overall health. People with anxiety disorder live in a state of “fight or flight”. The physical effects of always being on guard against a perceived non-existent threat put a strain on the body leading to ill health and injury.
The Physical Effects of Anxiety
Anxiety disorder has a significant physical impact. In severe cases, persistent anxiety symptoms can even negatively impact the immune system and leave it vulnerable to infections and illness. Anxiety disorder can affect various organ systems such as:
Heart – Increased heart rate, palpitations, chest pain
Respiration – Breathlessness, hyperventilating,
Digestive System – Nausea, vomiting, pain/cramps, diarrhea, IBS
General Health – faintness, headaches, insomnia
Muscles – aches and pains, strain, increased muscle tension
Weight – Fluctuations in weight and appetite
Effects of Anxiety on Your Mind
The effects of anxiety disorder on the mind vary with type and severity. In general, individuals with chronic anxiety often experience constant tension, irritability, mood swings, persistent fear or dread, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, and intrusive or uncontrollable obsessive thoughts.
The nerve cells in the brain produce chemicals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters control mood, emotional regulation, and decision-making abilities. Although the exact mechanism for mental health conditions like anxiety disorder is poorly understood, it is believed that imbalances in these neurotransmitters and certain hormones are responsible for symptoms of anxiety disorder.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
People suffering from generalized anxiety disorder or GAD worry about mundane life events (health, work, etc.) excessively, and these feelings of anxiousness are uncontrollable and do not subside. GAD is the most common type of anxiety disorder. The diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder is made when a person suffers from anxiety symptoms most days, lasting for a minimum of six months.
Symptoms
A generalized anxiety attack is characterized by out-of-proportion feelings of worry and dread and excessive thoughts about finding solutions to worst-case scenarios. During such an anxiety attack, the individual has:
Difficulty focusing
Indecisiveness
Irritability
Inability to handle the unknown
The physical symptoms of GAD include tiredness, insomnia, muscle tension, aches and pains, nervousness, grouchiness, and digestive symptoms (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). The intensity of these symptoms and signs may vary from time to time. However, they are ever present and impact daily life activities significantly.
Anxiety Tests
Unfortunately, there is no lab test for an anxiety diagnosis. The condition is diagnosed through thorough health check-ups, a psychological evaluation performed by a trained mental health professional, and using DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders) criteria put forward by the American Psychiatric Association.
Treatment
The treatment for any type of anxiety disorder (including GAD) is a two-pronged approach including medication and psychotherapy. Depending on the severity of GAD symptoms either of these two treatment options are implemented. However, most patients with anxiety disorder benefit from a combination of both.
