What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
There is heightened interest in medical somatic specialties to mental disorders. Among them, special place is occupied by generalized anxiety disorder. The main manifestation is a chronic anxiety.
Anxiety – is an emotional experience, in which a person feels uncomfortable with the uncertainty of prospects. Evolutionary importance of anxiety is to mobilize the body in extreme situations.
Some level of anxiety is necessary for normal life and productive person. Normal anxiety helps to adapt to different situations, it grows in conditions of high subjective importance of choice, external threat, the lack of information and time.
Pathological anxiety, although it may result in external circumstances, due to the internal psychological and physiological causes. It is out of proportion to the real threat or not connected with it, and most importantly – is not adequate to the importance of the situation and dramatically reduces the efficiency and the adaptive capabilities.
Clinical manifestations of pathological anxiety are diverse and may be paroxysmal or permanent nature, which manifests itself as mental as well – or even primarily – somatic symptoms. This is particularly important in general practice.
Physical symptoms as disorders of cardiac activity, vascular spasms, respiratory disorders, diarrhoea, tremors, seizures, sweating, hunger, paresthesias, and others accompany the anxiety attack as it equivalents or as a “masked” state of alarm. Often these symptoms are a substitute for patient anxiety as such.
Somatic manifestations of anxiety, as well as acute and chronic stress and depression often occur in such socio-cultural communities, where mental disorders are considered “unacceptable”, “indecent”, and physical disease – “disaster”, “disaster” that could cause sympathy and support of others.
In addition, the “somatisation” anxiety predisposes a number of constitutional, acquired and environmental factors, such as mental storehouse of personality, physical characteristics of sensitivity, prolonged stress, as well as the so-called alexithymia (lack of a person’s ability to recognize and express their feelings).
Somatic manifestations of chronically high levels of anxiety are varied and include following symptoms associated with chronic muscle tension – headaches, malign, back pain and lower back, muscle spasms, etc. Often, the only complaint of patient with generalized anxiety disorder is persistent weakness also due to chronic muscle tension.
In addition, alarms are very common variety of autonomic symptoms: palpitations (up to paroxysmal tachycardia), irregular heart, compression of feeling or pressure in your chest, false angina, a sense of lack of air, raising blood pressure, tremor, abdominal cramping, dry mouth, excessive sweating, nausea, diarrhoea, pallor or redness, “goose” skin “.
Frequent as dizziness, pruritus, urticaria, bronchospasm, violation of sexual function. A doctor should not be misled by the fact that patients often feel anxiety secondary to somatic symptoms (“was afraid that my heart will stop,” “afraid that I lost consciousness”).
The main clinical feature of generalized anxiety disorder is a constant tension, apprehension, fearfulness, undue anxiety for various reasons (e.g., about the delays, the quality of performance, light physical ailments, the safety of children, financial issues, etc.). Recently, it is believed that the cardinal feature of patients with generalized anxiety disorder is that they absolutely cannot tolerate uncertainty situations.
What Is Severe Anxiety Disorder?
The mind is a very complicated and delicate thing, and therefore, there are many different things that can go wrong and many different psychological disorders. These disorders are usually the result of your brain processing exterior events and situations in a way that negatively affects your life but they can also be caused by things going wrong in your brain.
Severe anxiety is a disorder that is the result of your brain not processing information in a normal way. Severe anxiety disorder can cause a variety of symptoms and can negatively affect your life.
Dealing With Acute Anxiety Disorder
We live in a very stressful society and deal with a lot of problems with our families, our jobs, our finances and our health. These all take a toll on us and can cause problems like acute anxiety disorder and other anxiety problems.
Most people try to ignore the stress in their life or deal with it in ways that are less than healthy and this only makes their mental and physical health suffer more. Even people who realize they have a problem with anxiety often do not seek treatment because they don’t think necessary.
What Causes Anxiety Disorder?
There are many different perspectives regarding what causes Anxiety Disorder, some of which you may not agree with. Keep in mind these perspectives may not reflect your specific situation. What is important is your unique experience and what is most relevant to you.
1. Psychodynamic Perspective
This perspective focuses on internal conflicts as the origin of Panic Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. More specifically, repressed sexual and aggressive impulses are seeking expression but this goes against the rules of society (ego), therefore creating an intense anxiety reaction.
When the defence to repress impulses are weakened this may trigger a panic attack. Keep in mind the aforementioned conflict is unconscious so the source of the anxiety is unknown to you.
In the case of phobias; your fears, wishes and fantasies that are unacceptable are displaced from inside you to an external object or situation. The external phobia is easier to deal with than the unacceptable internal impulse. For example, a fear of knives (external object) is really a fear of castration from a jealous father (a real internal conflict).
2. Cognitive Behavioural Perspective
The thoughts that you have are in direct response to your bodily sensations and vice versa. For example, you tell yourself, “I feel I may have a heart attack because my heart is beating so fast!”
Therefore, bodily responses are “Catastrophized” wherein, a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath etc. are seen as signs of a heart attack or death.
This can be better understood by looking at the process as a cycle with step one being an internal/external stressor and it continues, sees below:
- Internal/External stressor
- Unpleasant physiological reaction (rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating).
- “Catastrophizing” (“I am dying”, “I am going crazy”).
- Physiological response intensifies
- More “Catastrophizing” thoughts
The cycle repeats itself at step 2 wherein the more catastrophizing thoughts leads to further unpleasant physiological reactions but at a more intense level.
3. Behavioural Perspective
Fear felt during the traumatic event is connected with a place, sound, or feeling; when that place, sound or feeling re-occurs, the traumatic event is relived. Reaction to the association when learned becomes automatic and unconscious. This is called classical conditioning; for example, A car accident = pain/freight Car accident + loud bang = pain/freight
Loud bang alone = pain/freight
4. Biological Perspective
Anxiety Disorders are linked to issues with brain chemistry. In other words, there may be a disruption with the brain’s chemical messengers—neurotransmitters. The ones specific to anxiety include: norepinephrine, serotonin and gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA): This plays a role in relaxation and sleep).
Serotonin regulates pain, aggression, sleep, body temperature, mood, impulses and appetite. Medications that treat anxiety disorder increase the level of Serotonin.
The “fight or flight” response is directly related to the neurotransmitter Norepinephrine which also regulates sleep, blood pressure and mood. The system involved in releasing norepinephrine in individuals with Anxiety Disorders, particularly Panic Disorder may be dysfunctional.
As stated earlier, the perspectives on what causes Anxiety Disorder are wide and may or may not relate to your specific situation. Your experience with anxiety may differ and the causes of your anxiety may very well be unique. Take time out to analyze your specific situation and see if you can pinpoint on your own what may be the source of your anxiety.
Anxiety Disorder Treatment
Depression and anxiety appear to be two different emotional responses humans are capable of having. We do not usually associate these two disorders with each other. But research has shown that depression and anxiety do in fact co-exist, much to the detriment of their sufferers.
When you picture someone with depression you think of all the normal symptoms associated with it: Despair, hopelessness, anger, fatigue, an unwillingness to be a part of society and a feeling of being overwhelmed by everyday life. A depressed person withdraws into themselves and seeks to sever all ties with the outside world.
Anxiety attacks, on the other hand, seem to happen for no reason at all. Feelings of fear and panic happen in situations in which most people would be perfectly calm. These anxiety attacks come on suddenly with no warning and with no outright reason for them to happen. After awhile a sufferer of these attacks begins to live in fear of the attacks themselves, wondering when the next one is going to happen.
Before long, and without treatment, both anxiety attacks and depression can begin to affect the sufferers’ lives in negative ways by not allowing them to hold a job, have a relationship, or even go out into society.
What many sufferers of these two diseases do not realize is that either one can lead to the other. Being depressed can weigh heavily on the mind leading the depressed person through a maze of different emotions. This in itself can lead to anxiety and eventually panic attacks.
Panic attacks signify a loss of control and when this happens more and more often the sufferer can become depressed with their situation of not knowing if and when the next attack will occur.
Why these two disorders seem to occur at the same time is still largely unknown. But many studies show that major depression is often accompanied by an anxiety disorder. Both are likely caused by an imbalance in brain chemistry, but exactly why the two seemingly opposite disorders can coexist in the same person is not completely understood.
What is understood about anxiety disorder is that the fight-or-flight reaction in the brain does not work the way it is supposed to. It can go off at any time, even in seemingly peaceful situations. Those who have anxiety disorder always feel that they are in danger.
One thing that psychologist agree on is that having a combination depression and anxiety is much more debilitating than having just one or the other. It can take patients with both disorders a much longer amount of time to resolve their depression which makes treating them much harder. It has also been shown that people who suffer from anxiety and depression both have a much higher suicide rate.
While this sounds bad there are options for treating both these conditions. Anti-depressant medications can be used to treat both depression and anxiety. When these medications are used in conjunction with behavioural therapy there is a high success rate of treating depression accompanied by anxiety.
Social Anxiety Disorder
We all experience social situations where we may feel fear and apprehension. It’s absolutely normal to feel nervous about speaking in front of a large group, or even in front of a small group. And many of us feel shy or awkward when placed in unfamiliar social circumstances.
However, for some people, these mildly nerve-wracking moments become debilitating episodes, resulting in extreme anxiety, panic attacks, or even avoidance of the event. In these cases, the anxiety is so overwhelming that it can interfere with the normal functioning of one’s life.
People who suffer from a debilitating level of anxiety in social situations are said to suffer from social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety disorder is the third largest mental health care issue in the world. In the US, it affects roughly seven percent of the population at any given time.
Social anxiety disorder may be triggered by such events as meeting new people, public speaking, being observed while performing a task, being the centre of attention, or being teased or criticized. This illness is equally common in both men and women.
People who suffer from social anxiety disorder are terrified of being ridiculed or causing themselves embarrassment. Physical symptoms associated with this disorder include heart palpitations, faintness, blushing and profuse sweating. These symptoms often lead the sufferer to avoid social situations.
Symptoms Of Social Anxiety Disorder
The symptoms of social anxiety disorder include heart palpitations, shaking, profuse sweating, diarrhoea, confusion, and nausea, stuttering, and blushing. Blushing is a common reaction for many people when they are startled or embarrassed.
But for people who suffer from social anxiety disorder, blushing is a further source of humiliation. This condition is also linked to low self-esteem, as people who suffer from it tend to be very sensitive to criticism and rejection and have difficulty asserting them.
Anxiety is a normal physical reaction to stress. However, a person with social anxiety disorder generally experiences chronic and recurrent episodes of anxiety whenever a social situation arises. In most cases, the sufferer is well aware of the intensity and over reaction of his or her symptoms, and feels that others will ridicule or judge her because of them. This only makes them more terrified of the social occasion. Most people who suffer from social anxiety disorder will go to extremes to avoid social situations.
Do I Have Social Anxiety Disorder?
The most common fears associated with social anxiety disorder include the fear of public speaking, the fear of meeting new people, and the fear of talking to strangers. People who suffer from social anxiety disorder may feel anxiety when performing in social settings, such as eating or drinking in public. Sufferers may fear more than one type of social setting.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you think you may suffer from social anxiety disorder:
- Do you avoid doing things with other people because you are afraid of embarrassing yourself or people judging you?
- Are you terrified of being the centre of attention?
- Do you avoid or become anxious in social situations where you may have to meet and/or speak with strangers?
What Can I Do About Social Anxiety Disorder?
It’s so difficult for a person with social anxiety disorder to reach out for help, but even making a small effort, like reaching out to a trusted friend or family member can start you on the road to recovery. Next follow these steps to help you reclaim your life: Learn everything you can about social anxiety disorder. There is a ton of information in the library and online to help you better understand your symptoms and the situations that trigger anxiety. The more you know about the condition, the more you will be able to understand and control your symptoms.
Don’t be discouraged. Some people may try to tell you to get over it and get on with your life. But social anxiety disorder is not something you can just put behind you. It will take effort and persistence on your part to make progress.
Consider joining a support group for people with social anxiety disorders. It may be difficult to envision yourself in this social situation but you will gain positive enforcement and support from other people who are experiencing the same feelings that you are.
Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder Therapy: Behaviour therapy may help sufferers learn to control their anxiety in social situations and reduce their anxiety that leads up to a frightening event. This type of therapy is very effective in alleviating the symptoms of social anxiety disorder although it is quite time consuming and requires significant effort from the patient.
Social Anxiety Disorder Help
Anxiety is a problem for many people, some of whom do not even know they suffer from anxiety. There are two ways to treat anxiety: anxiety pills and certain types of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is generally used along with anxiety pills to treat anxiety. By using a combination of pills and psychotherapy, the results can increase your quality of life.
Types Of Anxiety Pill
There are basically two types of anxiety pills: MAOIs or monoamine oxidise inhibitors and SSRIs or serotonin reuptake inhibitors. There are a couple of other types that are not used quite as often: benzodiazepines and beta-blockers MAOIs are classified as an antidepressant but are often prescribed for anxiety disorders. These anxiety pills work by not allowing your body to break down your body’s monoamine neurotransmitters. This helps increase the levels of serotonin, melatonin and adrenaline, which helps with both depression and anxiety.
Certain research has shown that those who suffer from anxiety and depression also often have low levels of serotonin. Anxiety pills such as MAOIs help treat anxiety by increasing the levels of certain naturally occurring compounds in your body, which in turn helps level out the effects of anxiety and depression.
Anxiety pills usually do not have many, if any, side effects. For most anxiety sufferers, pills can help quite a bit. The effectiveness of anxiety pills will differ from person to person; this is why it is important to discuss treatment options with your doctor. You may have to try a couple of different varieties of anxiety pills before you find the right one for you specific condition.
SSRIs specifically work with your body to increase the levels of serotonin. Serotonin is required to metabolize stress hormones. This basically means that your body needs certain levels of serotonin to get rid of the hormones that are produced by anxiety and stress. Low levels of serotonin have been shown to be present in those who suffer from anxiety and depression.
Many pills contain SSRIs as a method of increasing the levels of serotonin in the body. There has been a gradual introduction to the world of social anxiety disorder help projected in this article. We had done this so that the actual meaning of the article will sink within you.
Hopefully, by working with your physician, you can find the right pills for your specific situation. Along with behavioural therapy, anxiety pills can be of great benefit to someone suffering from anxiety.
Today, there are better anxiety pills available than even five years ago. Working with your doctor of therapist to determine the best course of treatment is the first step to ridding yourself of the worst effects of anxiety.
How To Combat Social Anxiety Disorder
Experts in the field of social anxiety disorder recommend taking a gradual approach to facing up to and overcoming your fears. By confronting the problem rather than running away from it you will stand a chance of kicking back and becoming progressively more confident.
Taking evasive action and avoiding the social circumstances that cause you anxiety will not make the situation better, rather, the condition will deepen and your problems get worse. It is important to understand that you do not need to deal with all of the social anxiety issues you are facing at once, but rather take a phased approach.
Consider that you have created a ladder to get you out of the deep well of social anxiety disorder; you will use this ladder to move step by step towards the surface and daylight. Each small step will take you higher.
First of all, you should list the social situations in which you are comfortable. Having done this, consider the ones that make you a bit nervous but you feel that you can cope with them.
Try, whenever possible, to return to those situations, for example, going out to eat in a restaurant or getting together with a group of friends. By taking a positive approach that these situations will go well, it is most probable that they will and your confidence begins to grow again.
If you find the idea of going to a party where you may not know any one apart from the host, who will be too busy to talk to you all the time, take a friend with you. Having someone to talk to allows you to relax and will give you the confidence to meet new people who can become your friends.
The important approach is to take a step-by-step approach, don’t try to deal with your biggest fear caused by social anxiety disorder head on. You should bear in mind as you move on up your ladder that some things may go wrong, this is natural, so, don’t be too concerned.
Post-Traumatic Anxiety Disorder Causes And Help To Overcome
Anxiety disorders encompass a number of medical conditions deal with anxiety, and one of these conditions in particular is post-traumatic stress disorder. Unlike other mental illnesses, post-traumatic stress disorder has nothing to do with genetics. It is purely derived from your experiences in the past.
Millions of people deal with post-traumatic stress disorder every year, and if you know someone who has had one of the following experiences, you should keep a watchful eye in order to be sure that post-traumatic stress disorder does not develop.
The largest group of people dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder is veterans. While at war, veterans are exposed to a number of horrible things, including death, destruction, injury too horrible to imagine, famine, abandonment of children, and rage.
Often war is a time of terror, and this takes a toll on mental health. When these military personnel return home, there is often an inability to mesh back into normal society, which is why you’ll see a number of homeless veterans still today.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is common, and many veterans experience dreams of their times in the service. The United States government allocates money to help these victims, so, if you are a veteran and worried that the things you’ve experienced while at war could be disrupting your life, see a doctor, even if you do not have health insurance to cover treatment costs.
Victims of horrible crimes, especially rape, may also experience post-traumatic stress disorder. This medical condition often shows itself when a person is experiencing something reminiscent of the time when the crime happened.
For example, a woman who was raped in the past may not be able to be intimate with another person for a long time. This extends to other crime victims as well. Dreams may occur, or a person may start avoiding certain activities or areas because of fear, even if these places and situations are very safe in rational thought.
Accidents can also cause post-traumatic stress disorder. You may find that you cannot remember a car accident if you suddenly wake up in the hospital. This may not be due to brain injuries, but rather to your brain blocking these memories because they are too difficult to bear to remember. You may also experience other symptoms typical of post-traumatic stress disorder and may form phobias of the things that caused your accident.
Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect anyone, regardless of how strong of a person you may be. When you go through a horrifying event, it is hard to remove yourself from the scare of that situation. Everyone surviving something terrible will have a period of time where they feel fear or nausea when remember the event, but if you find that these thoughts are disrupting your daily life, you should see a doctor for treatment right away.
Physical Consequences Of Not Finding An Anxiety Disorder Cure
Anxiety is hardly an uncommon event. Odds are that you, like me and almost everyone else has gone through periods in which you were worried or nervous about a situation. This might have been during the preparation for an exam or the warm up to a romantic a date.
During this period, you would have noticed the emergence of several physical symptoms such as rapid heart rate, sweaty palms, a sensation of dizziness and irregular breathing. These are just a few of the many symptoms of anxiety.
In more severe cases, many of these symptoms are so intense in occurrence that most people reach the wrong conclusion that they are having a heart attack and they are about to die, which is not true. This may be an extreme example but if left unchecked the most minor panic attacks can turn into something more severe; so it is important to find an effective anxiety disorder cure before more extreme symptoms appears.
Prevent the further harm to your body and find an anxiety cure for you. Check out PanicAway to see if this treatment system will work for you.
When a person experiences moments of nervousness, tension or panic, the body responds by flooding its circulatory system with a shower of hormone and stimulants such as epinephrine, glycogen and adrenalin. This drastic change in the body‘s metabolism results in the development of several symptoms such as hyperventilation, dyspnoea and muscle fatigue.
People also can experience dizziness caused by a reduction of the blood flow to the head as well as changed ph levels. The deprivation of oxygen and increased sugar levels can sometimes result in muscular trembling amongst other symptoms.
For most people, experiencing the discomfort of an anxiety attack occurs rarely. These physical events therefore do not have any visible effect on the body. Amongst suffers of anxiety disorders however, these attacks occur a lot more frequently.
The bodies of such people are therefore made to experience all these symptoms with some degree of regularity. As time goes by the long term effects of this constant exposure can eventually begin to take a toll sufferers and an anxiety disorder cure is imperative.
Cardiac conditions are common amongst sufferers of anxiety. The risk of people developing permanent heart or respiratory problems is very high. This is because of the incessant and intense changes which their heart is constantly made to experience. Examples of the possible conditions which might arise include hypertension, depression, heart arrhythmia and angina.
Other physical ailments such as asthma, vertigo and colitis can also become more permanent occurrences. Depending on the age of a person, it is possible for individuals to suffer from strokes caused by the persistent build up of high pressure in the circulatory system. The need for an anxiety disorder cure in these instances is required to prevent permanent physical and mental damage.
Outwardly, people who suffer from anxiety depressions tend to age more rapidly as a result of the strain on their body. Occasionally, people might suffer from a hormonal imbalance which has been caused by the persistent fluctuations during attacks. This can result in the early growth of grey hair and severe mood swings.
The depression and high irritability also increases the presence of physical features such as wrinkles, making them appear older than they actually are. To prevent the physical and emotional impacts an anxiety disorder cure is very important to you, your family and friends.
There are many other physical consequences of prolonged attacks of anxiety; none of these are good. It is therefore important that you seek an anxiety disorder cure as soon as you can if you are suffering from this problem.