What is Anxiety?

Before we get into our discussion on anxiety disorders, let’s look at anxiety in general. Merriam-Webster describes anxiety as apprehensive uneasiness or nervousness that usually occur over an impending or anticipated ill. Medically, it’s considered an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear. This is often marked by physical signs (such as tension, sweating, and increased pulse rate). It’s driven by doubt concerning the reality and nature of a threat, and by self-doubt about one’s capacity to cope. So, if you ever felt a sudden fear over the possibility of something bad happening, or felt unsettled because you were expecting a situation to go wrong, then you have experienced anxiety.

Similar to stress, not all anxiety is bad, and everybody has experienced it at some point. Perhaps you’ve felt anxious while waiting for a test result. Maybe even a response on a job application, beating traffic, or not missing an important event. That’s okay! Occasional anxiety is an expected part of life, and how we manage this is key. With that said, note that anxiety becomes a disorder when it continues for extended periods and begins to impact your health, behaviors, and normal social life. 

The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) indicates that more than 40 million people in the US over the age 18 suffer from some form of anxiety related disorder. For me, that means there is a very good chance that we have close friends, associates or family members who suffer from it. Learning more about the difference between everyday anxieties and anxiety disorders will help us recognize the signs so we can respond appropriately.

What Causes Anxiety?

There are different forms of anxiety, which are caused or triggered by many factors. For example, genetic and environmental factors can contribute to the risk of a person developing anxiety. Environmental factors include traumatic childhood experiences and war, among other things. From a genetic standpoint, if there is a medical history of someone in the family with an anxiety disorder, it would be safe to check and see if we are at risk of developing same.

Substance abuse, including alcoholism, can also be risk factors. Although used by many as means of coping, these can actually exacerbate anxiety. Over the years, I have observed individuals suffer this plight as their behaviors consistently spiraled downwards. Note that individual symptoms typically vary based on the type of anxiety disorder.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Before we look at the different types of anxiety disorders, let’s note that the anxiety does not go away by itself for individuals with an anxiety disorder. In fact, it can get worse over time so it’s important to get diagnosed and seek help. Also note that the symptoms can interfere with normal daily living, job performance, personal performance, and relationships. As we begin to understand anxiety and observe those around us, my hope is that we will become less judgmental as we recognize our human frailty and brokenness. Let’s get to the root cause of some of the behaviors we encounter with some individuals, and begin to rethink our approach as well as the way we view others. Let’s dig in…

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder is experienced by people who are excessively and unnecessarily worried about everyday routine life circumstances. While it is expected for us to feel anxious about life from time to time, it is not healthy to worry about them for overly extended periods. People with generalized anxiety disorder tend to express anxiety over things like their jobs, health, finances, and social interactions lasting six months or more. Note that this type of anxiety can also develop as an effect of experiencing chronic stress. This is where we can help ourselves and loved ones by implementing good stress management techniques. You see, generalized anxiety disorder can prove detrimental to several areas of life. This includes job performance, personal performance, and relationships. Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder express symptoms like restlessness, insomnia, fatigue, irritability and difficulty concentrating.

Panic Disorder

Unlike generalized anxiety disorder where the anxiety is experienced at all times and persists, panic disorder comes with sudden episodes. Panic disorders are characterized by frequent panic attacks. A Mayo Clinic publication defines panic attacks as sudden episodes of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause.

The symptoms of a panic attack can start and reach their peak within 10 minutes. A person having a panic attack will most likely have shortness of breath, chest pain, a racing heart, sweating, nausea, numbness, a choking feeling, an intense fear of death and losing control. People who have panic disorders also develop anticipatory anxiety. This can be explained as the fear of fear; they live in anxiety of them having another panic attack. This is counterproductive as it usually turns out to be a panic attack trigger in itself.

Social Anxiety Disorder

This form of disorder is also known as social phobia. People with social anxiety disorder are excessively self conscious and have an overwhelming fear of normal social activities. They avoid social functions in fear that their actions or behavior are not socially acceptable and they will get embarrassed when in social gatherings. Social phobia can be limited to a certain social act like public speaking or performances, or could be of a wider range covering any form of social interaction.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD as it is commonly called, is an anxiety disorder associated with stress that may develop after experiencing a terrifying incident which caused physical harm or posed a threat to life. These incidents include natural disasters, wars, physical assaults, relationship abuse, and even childbirth. Most people who have PTSD live in overwhelming fear of a recurrence of that event or the feelings attached to it. They would generally avoid people associated with the events, location of the events, and even avoid talking about it.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

People with this obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, deal with recurring unwanted thoughts together with repetitive behaviors. They cannot control these thoughts. In order to prevent the thoughts or avoid them, they engage in a lot of repetitive tasks and behaviors. These tasks involve hand washing, cleaning, counting and organizing. These tasks only give temporary relief, yet when not performed, that aggravates anxiety.

Other Phobia Related Anxiety Disorders

Some people live with an overwhelming fear of certain things or places. Examples are phobia for height, airplanes, injections, enclosed spaces or open spaces.

Agoraphobia is an example of a phobia related anxiety disorder. People living with agoraphobia usually have an intense fear of two or more of the following: being in open spaces, closed spaces, using public transportation, being in a crowd, standing in line or even being outside their homes at all. When people with phobia related anxiety are faced with their object or situation of fear, their anxiety is aggravated and they could experience panic symptoms.

Separation anxiety disorder is often thought of as something that only children deal with. However, adults also suffer from it. This is a result of fears about being separated from individuals that they feel attached to. People with separation anxiety are concerned about something negative happening to individuals that they have formed an attachment to. Individuals with separation anxiety sometimes get nightmares about being separated. The fear of losing their attachment and being left alone can be so intense that they experience physical symptoms when separation is realized or anticipated.

Final Thoughts

With more than 40 million people in the US over the age of 18 suffering from anxiety disorders, we need to take a good look at ourselves and those around us. Chances are, some reading this article may identify with one or more of the anxiety disorders personally. It’s important for us to learn more in an effort to recognize symptoms, and begin to help ourselves and our loved ones. Many people earn the reputation of having bad behaviors because their anxiety disorder has gone undiagnosed. Think about it…

References:

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse/what-are-the-five-major-types-of-anxiety-disorders/index.html

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anxiety

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/panic-attacks/symptoms-causes/syc-20376021