Anxiety Symptoms: What Anxiety Is And What Its Symptoms Are.
Anxiety is a condition characterized by excessive worry and fear that disrupts daily life, causing panic attacks, depression, trouble sleeping, restlessness, muscle tension and fatigue. These symptoms may be lessened or eliminated with treatment and self-help techniques.
Anxiety disorders are chronic mental conditions that cause persistent and overwhelming anxiety to the point where it becomes difficult for sufferers to function in their day-to-day lives.
The most common type of anxiety disorder is Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), which affects approximately 3% of the US population each year. Other common forms of anxiety disorder include:
People with anxiety disorders may feel that they have to stay in complete control and constantly watch out for danger. They may become overly preoccupied with details, imposing excessive standards and rigid rules on themselves, others and their environment. People with GAD typically believe there is no way for them to face challenges without getting anxious about it. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 15% of the population develops an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives; 6.8% develop an anxiety disorder over a 12-month period; and 40% have had an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives. GAD is the most common anxiety disorder and often begins during adolescence.
Once the symptoms start, they can be extremely difficult to stop or control. They can also be mistaken for many other disorders at first, like panic disorder and clinical depression. In fact, it was only in 1980 that GAD was specifically included as a category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).
According to the First Step text by Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), approximately 10 million adults in US have severe GAD and between 6 million and 12 million children suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder. About 40% of those with an anxiety disorder develop it before age 14.
To diagnose anxiety, a mental health professional will look at the frequency and severity of the symptoms, their impact on your life and relationships, and your ability to function normally.
The anxiety-related disorders are treated in several different ways. Psychotherapy is a common treatment for many emotional disorders. It involves psychotherapists treating patients by talking about their problems with them in order to understand their condition and help them change negative patterns or reactions. Patients also can be treated by medication alone or medication combined with psychotherapy. Medications usually used include antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs (benzodiazepines) or beta blockers if there are physical symptoms like racing heart or chest pains that go along with the anxiety disorder.
Many people with anxiety disorders have found that there are many ways of coping with the condition. Some may use distraction techniques (staying busy and taking your mind off it), others may seek out a support network, and some take medication to prevent onset of attacks. It is important to know that these techniques are not mutually exclusive and can be used in conjunction with one another to lessen severity and frequency of attacks.
It is crucial that you first receive a diagnosis from a medical professional before pursuing treatment, as many medical conditions may present similar symptoms. As anxiety disorder is so commonly experienced by people, many mistakenly believe they are suffering from an anxiety disorder when in fact they suffer from another condition or disorder entirely. This can lead to further problems if the person assumes they are suffering from an anxiety disorder and seeks treatment for the wrong disorder.
People that have anxiety disorders need to learn to observe their own thoughts and feelings. The best-known cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy created by psychologist Aaron T. Beck in the 1960s that focuses on identifying, understanding, and changing maladaptive thinking patterns through a variety of goal-oriented exercises, typically thought of as "homework." The goal of CBT is not to diagnose or label a person with an anxiety disorder, but rather teach them how to identify and correct unhelpful thinking patterns that may be contributing to the development or exacerbation of symptoms. In addition to a combination of CBT and psychotherapy for anxiety disorders, certain medications may also be recommended to treat specific symptoms, such as insomnia or adrenaline surges (see "Anxiolytic" medications listed below).
CBT for the treatment of anxiety disorders can be delivered via the internet or in person. There are several programs that provide online CBT, including websites that deliver interventions like exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. Research has demonstrated the efficacy of ERP therapy in controlling anxiety disorders. A meta-analytic review published in 2016 found that ERP was effective in the rapid reduction of panic disorder symptoms and also beneficial in reducing agoraphobia symptoms.
Self-help resources are also commonly used to support the management of anxiety. Relaxation techniques and self-hypnosis can be used with patience and persistence by those with anxiety to decrease feelings of anxiety and its impact on one's ability to function effectively. Relaxation techniques include deep breathing, yoga, massage, guided imagery (imagine a pleasant place such as a beach or walking through the woods), visualization (imagine stepping into
a warm bath), and progressive muscle relaxation (like physical yoga).
The technique of progressive muscle relaxation includes long, slow, specific muscle contractions intended to produce relaxation.
Conclusioning and the use of breathing techniques by a person experiencing an anxiety attack can lead to a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure, less muscle tension, and lower levels of cortisol and adrenaline. Despite these benefits, breathing techniques are not a substitute for more traditional forms of treatment and will not work in every anxiety attack.
Hypnotherapy is another tool which "has been used successfully for GAD". A 2012 review found that there was insufficient evidence to make any conclusion about the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for GAD. In general, there is little evidence supporting the idea that hypnosis is effective in treating GAD though it may be helpful as an adjunct to other forms of therapy or treatment.