Types of Anxiety Disorders Feeling jittery, forlorn, and feeling that there’s an impending explosion about to happen! That’s the normal for most people with anxiety disorders. Jobs like going to a crowded place, waiting for their turn in a queue, dealing with traffic jams and other tasks that people do biting their tongues is a near impossible task for those with anxiety disorder. The last thing they think of is anxiety disorder treatment! Welcome to the edgy world of anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorder has an uncanny knack of seeping into the minds of people irrespective of age and gender. Children get dumbstruck and depressed with exam anxiety, body image anxiety and social phobias. Anxiety disorder may have been a seed sown many years ago in the childhood of people. It might be an acquired trait, one that they got aping their parents. While four good cups of coffee can make you feel anxious, imagine a person being high on 15 cups of coffee all the time! That’s the life of a person with anxiety disorder. Now, with this perspective, let’s deconstruct anxiety disorder. Let’s also find what can make people anxious! Deconstructing Anxiety Disorder While a tough week at the office and deadlines make all us anxious, getting stuck in the anxious mode can damage both your body and mind. But, did you realize that one in four adults has anxiety disorder, yet we know very little about it? And, it might take years for a person to realize that he/she has anxiety disorder and more years to get it treated! Anxiety makes a person irritable, be afraid irrationally, have fast heartbeats, insomnia, restlessness, and dizziness, doubt everything, become isolated, and lock oneself in the closet. It can have serious effects on one’s social life and performance in jobs. It can also lead to other serious conditions like clinical depression, schizophrenia, and others.
Quick fact: Cigarette smoking significantly puts you at a higher risk of having anxiety disorders! Anxiety disorders are mainly classified into six types.
Phobias. Panic Disorder. Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Acute Stress Disorder. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
How does anxiety affect us?
Diminished cognitive abilities/Altered perceptions. Creates heart palpitations, shallow breathing, muscle tension, lightheadedness. Altered behavior that leads to isolation, paranoia, repeated actions, and obsessions.
There can be numerous effects of anxiety disorders depending upon the personality of the patients; however, the most common occurrences are excess physical reactions, paranoiac behavior, and a sense of deep distress.
Quick fact: It has been found that people with low self efficacy (a person’s belief in his/her ability to succeed) have more traits of neuroticism, and anxiety disorders. A fast fact guide to different types of anxiety disorders Phobias: Characterized by fear of a particular object, insect, animal, situation, space, or event. Cognitively irrational, these types of phobias can lead to altered perceptions, irrational fears, avoidance, and isolation. Phobias like social phobias are characterized by embarrassment, insecurity, low self esteem, and the general fear of people. Symptoms include:
Blushing. Sweating. Dry mouth. Excessive sweating. Muscle tension. Discomfort.
Panic Disorder: Characterized by panic attacks, distress, deep concern, and anxiety that is triggered by certain people, situations, places, spaces, and conditions. Symptoms include:
Heart palpitations. Chest pain/discomfort. Nausea/vomiting. Dizziness and lightheadedness. Shivering and trembling.
Shortness of breath.
Generalized anxiety disorder: This is characterized by worry and anxiety for more than six months and is triggered by numerous things, difficulty to control anxiety, and a feeling that everything is going wrong. Symptoms include:
Losing the ability to relax. Muscle tension. Irritability and restlessness. Insomnia.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: This is characterized by repeated actions, recurrent behaviors/obsessions, impairment, and deep distress. Following certain ritualistic behavior like cleaning, checking pockets, drinking water, having repeated thoughts, and doubting. Symptoms include cognitive impairment, muscle tension, discomfort, excessive cleaning, washing, or repeated actions. Acute Stress Disorder: Triggered by certain events or situations, acute stress disorder can lead to a feeling to being threatened, having a fear of death, or perceives an impending injury of a serious nature. This can be triggered by disturbing memories, traumatic events, and emotional anguish with symptoms of restlessness, insomnia, being startled all the time, tension, rapid heartbeats, and others. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Triggered as a response to extreme trauma, this leads to certain behavioral patterns like repeated dreams, disturbing memories, nightmares, outbursts of anger, hyper vigilant behavior, and others.
Though different theories have different methods of explanation for the origins of anxiety disorders, it is treatable and can be managed if diagnosed early on. Anxiety disorder treatment includes various approaches like medication, intervention therapies,
counselling and others. Importantly, it is essential to remember that though anxiety is normal, it becomes a disorder when it haunts you for more than a period of time. Seeking help is the best way to deal with it.