Everybody has anxiety. Events such as major challenges, separation from loved ones, losses, failures, and others, may cause anxiety for most people. The normal anxiety would not last longer than a few months.
Anxiety disorder on the other hand lasts much longer and it may be present during somebody's whole life. Anxiety disorders are characterized by disproportional reactions to normal life events.
If anxiety is present during normal day to day situations, such as being in a crowded place, going to a grocery store, waiting in a line, talking to authority figures, especially if the anxiety interferes with the person's ability to cope with these situations, this may be a sign of anxiety disorder.
I will describe in this article some different types of anxiety disorders.
Social phobia
Social phobia is characterized by out-of-proportion anxiety in situations that involve other people. These situations may be:
- Talking in public
- Using public washrooms
- Talking to authority figures
- Doing things when somebody is watching - example: writing a cheque in front of a store clerk
- Initiating a conversation with a stranger
- Expressing opinions
- Crowded places
Ordinary people may also have anxiety during social situations or when performing in the presence of others, but their anxiety is not as intense as the fear experienced by those who suffer from social phobia.
Panic Disorder
Panic attacks involve intense fear or worry and happen suddenly without any apparent reason. Panic attacks may last seconds, sometimes hours. Those suffering from panic disorder usually have fear and anxiety about a panic attack happening again.
The symptoms of a panic attack include:
- Quick heart beats
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Dizziness
- Shaking of legs and hands
- Fear of dying
- Fear of losing control
Sometimes panic attack is misdiagnosed as heart attack.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
GAD is characterized by persistent anxiety and worry about life circumstances, such as health, money, school performance, etc, that last at least six months and happen on most of the days.
The anxiety experienced is out of proportion to what is causing it. Those suffering from this disorder have little or no control over their worries.
Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder include fatigue, difficult sleep, problems with concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, and others.
Agoraphobia
This disease is characterized by fear of having panic attacks. The person who suffers from agoraphobia avoids places where escape would be difficult in case a panic attack happens.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
This disorder happens as a result of severe traumatic event(s) in a person's life. The symptoms include nightmares, chronic anxiety and flashbacks about the traumatic event.
It is a common disorder in war veterans. It may also affect victims of rape, accidents and natural disasters.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD involves irrational anxiety, i.e., obsession about a variety of things, such as, getting infected, forgetting the door opened, being involved in a car accident, etc. This disorder greatly interferes with a person's daily life.
The compulsion part of the OCD has to do with the behaviors performed to prevent the source of worry, such as, washing hands hundreds of times a day, checking several times if the door is locked, and avoidance behavior.
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