What are anxiety disorders?
A person who has anxiety 24 * 7 which gets worse with time is affected by an anxiety disorder. The condition manifests itself in the patient so much that it becomes hard for the person to keep up normal performance at studies, jobs, and relationships.Anxiety Disorders Treatment is possible by approaching the right medical professional.Anxiety Disorders Therapy is used by doctors to treat these conditions.
Types of anxiety disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
People who are affected by a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) show excessive anxiety or worry, which stretch as far as 6 months. The cause of worry could range over many areas like personal health, social interactions, work, and daily circumstances. The extent and duration of anxiety are so high that it causes significant problems in various areas of life-work, family social life, etc.
Panic Disorder
Patients of this condition are struck with recurrent and unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are characterized by sudden periods of intense fear that come very quickly and reach extreme proportions within a matter of a few minutes. Attacks might occur unexpectedly or could be triggered by an object or a situation. Sweating, Trembling or choking could be experienced during this kind of attack.
Phobia-related disorders
A phobia signifies an intense fear or hatred for specific objects or situations. The fear felt by people with phobias is out of proportion in comparison to the actual probability of danger due to the situation or object.
Types of phobias-
Some examples of specific phobias include the fear of:
- Heights
- Specific animals, such as dogs, spiders or snakes
- Flying
- Receiving injections
- Blood
All the above phobias have specific terms to identify the cause of the phobia.
Social anxiety disorder: As the name suggests, people with social anxiety disorder fear social interactions and avoid situations that require social skills or performance situations. They often worry that their anxious behavior will have negative repercussions among their social contacts and cause them embarrassment. Thus people with this disorder avoid social situations. Social anxiety disorder can influence the way a person behaves in the workplace or with acquaintances.
Agoraphobia:People affected by agoraphobia have an intense fear of the following situations:
- Being in open spaces
- Using public transportation
- Being in enclosed spaces
- Being outside the home alone
- Standing in line or being in a crowd
People with agoraphobia are seen avoiding the above-mentioned situations as they believe that leaving the situation might be difficult if they panic or show other embarrassing symptoms. Patients of severe agoraphobia, are seen becoming housebound due to the same reason.
Risk Factors for anxiety disorders
According to researchers, both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the risk of the development of an anxiety disorder in a person. Risk factors for each type of anxiety disorder may be different, but some general risk factors of anxiety disorders can be seen as follows:
- Having an extremely shy temperament or behavioral inhibition in the childhood years
- Exposure to highly stressful and negative life in the early years. A negative environment or sad events in early childhood or adulthood may also attribute to this condition.
- Family history of anxiety in biological relatives or cases of mental illnesses in immediate biological relatives
- Certain physical health conditions, like the malfunctioning of thyroid, heart arrhythmia, or overuse of caffeine or some medications can also lead to anxiety symptoms. Such conditions require a physical health examination to evaluate the possibility of an anxiety disorder.
