ANXIETY DISORDER - LEARN ABOUT ANXIETY SYMPTOMS, TYPES AND HOW ARE ANXIETY DISORDER TREATED

Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety is a normal response to stress or danger. At times it is helpful because it can help prepare the body for action, and it can improve performance in a range of situations. Anxiety becomes a problem when it is experienced intensely and it persistently interferes with a person's daily life.
Depression and anxiety commonly occur together. Not everybody who is anxious is depressed, but most depressed patients have some symptoms of anxiety.

Anxiety Symptoms

Anxiety can be experienced in a number of different ways.

Physical symptoms

• Racing heart beat (palpitations);
• Chest tightness;
• Breathing fast, feeling short of breath or finding it hard to "get breath";
• Dry mouth, butterflies in the stomach, feeling sick. Sweating;
• Tremor;
• An urge to pass urine.

Psychological symptoms

• Inner tension;
• Fear of losing control;
• Agitation;
• Dread that something catastrophic is going to happen, such as a blackout, seizure, heart attack or death;
• Feelings of detachment, as if being trapped in a bubble separate from the world;
• Irritability.

What types of anxiety disorders

There are a number of "types" of anxiety disorders. They tend to overlap considerably and it is not uncommon for people to have features of several of the disorders.

Panic disorder

In panic disorder, repeated panic attacks occur unpredictably and often without obvious causes. The attacks consist of severe anxiety with physical and psychological symptoms.
Psychological symptoms typically include dread (particularly of extreme events such as dying), having a seizure, losing control or "going mad".
Physical symptoms can include any of the general symptoms of anxiety described above and often the hyperventilation syndrome.
To the sufferer, the attacks feel as if they are going on for a long time, but actually they tend to last only a few minutes, and at their longest they last around an hour. Panic disorder is common in depression, GAD or agoraphobia.

» Learn more: Anxiety Disorder

Written by Dr Hamish McAllister-Williams, MRC clinical scientist, senior lecturer and honorary consultant psychiatrist

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