Anxiety

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of unease and tension accompanied by persistent worries or fears. Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. Many people worry about things, such as school, career, health, money, or relationship problems. However, anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worries or fears. For people with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can worsen over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as work performance, academics, and relationships.

Signs and symptoms

There are several types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and various phobia-related disorders.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) usually involves a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread, which can interfere with daily life. It is not the same as occasionally worrying about things or experiencing anxiety due to stressful life events. People living with GAD experience frequent anxiety for months, if not years.

Symptoms include:

  • Feeling restless, wound-up, or on-edge

  • Being easily fatigued

  • Having difficulty concentrating

  • Being irritable

  • Having headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains

  • Difficulty controlling feelings of worry

  • Having sleep problems, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep

Panic Disorder

People with panic disorder have frequent and unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear, discomfort, or sense of losing control even when there is no clear danger or trigger. Not everyone who experiences a panic attack will develop panic disorder.

During a panic attack, a person may experience:

  • Pounding or racing heart

  • Sweating

  • Trembling or tingling

  • Chest pain

  • Feelings of impending doom

  • Feelings of being out of control

People with panic disorder often worry about when the next attack will happen and actively try to prevent future attacks by avoiding places, situations, or behaviors they associate with panic attacks. Panic attacks can occur as frequently as several times a day or as rarely as a few times a year.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety disorder is an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. For people with social anxiety disorder, the fear of social situations may feel so intense that it seems beyond their control. For some people, this fear may get in the way of going to work, attending school, or doing everyday things.

People with social anxiety disorder may experience:

  • Blushing, sweating, or trembling

  • Pounding or racing heart

  • Stomachaches

  • Rigid body posture or speaking with an overly soft voice

  • Difficulty making eye contact or being around people they don’t know

  • Feelings of self-consciousness or fear that people will judge them negatively

Phobia-related disorders

A phobia is an intense fear of—or aversion to—specific objects or situations. Although it can be realistic to be anxious in some circumstances, the fear people with phobias feel is out of proportion to the actual danger caused by the situation or object.

People with a phobia:

  • May have an irrational or excessive worry about encountering the feared object or situation

  • Take active steps to avoid the feared object or situation

  • Experience immediate intense anxiety upon encountering the feared object or situation

  • Endure unavoidable objects and situations with intense anxiety

There are several types of phobias and phobia-related disorders:

Specific Phobias (sometimes called simple phobias): As the name suggests, people who have a specific phobia have an intense fear of, or feel intense anxiety about, specific types of objects or situations. Some examples of specific phobias include the fear of:

  • Flying

  • Heights

  • Specific animals, such as spiders, dogs, or snakes

  • Receiving injections

  • Blood

Agoraphobia: People with agoraphobia have an intense fear of two or more of the following situations:

  • Using public transportation

  • Being in open spaces

  • Being in enclosed spaces

  • Standing in line or being in a crowd

  • Being outside of the home alone

People with agoraphobia often avoid these situations, in part, because they think being able to leave might be difficult or impossible in the event they have panic-like reactions or other embarrassing symptoms. In the most severe form of agoraphobia, an individual can become homebound.

Separation anxiety disorder: Separation anxiety is often thought of as something that only children deal with; however, adults can also be diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder. People who have separation anxiety disorder have fears about being parted from people to whom they are attached. They often worry that some sort of harm or something untoward will happen to their attachment figures while they are separated. This fear leads them to avoid being separated from their attachment figures and to avoid being alone. People with separation anxiety may have nightmares about being separated from attachment figures or experience physical symptoms when separation occurs or is anticipated.

What causes anxiety?

Research findings reveal that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the risk of developing an anxiety disorder.

The risk factors for each type of anxiety disorder vary. However, some general risk factors include:

  • Shyness or feeling distressed or nervous in new situations in childhood

  • Exposure to stressful and negative life or environmental events

  • A history of anxiety or other mental disorders in biological relatives

Anxiety symptoms can be produced or aggravated by:

  • Some physical health conditions, such as thyroid problems or heart arrhythmia

  • Caffeine or other substances/medications

If you think you may have an anxiety disorder, it is essential to get a physical examination from a health care provider first, as there may be underlying medical issues that may be causing symptoms of anxiety.

How can CogniThrive help?

Through individual psychotherapy, we can help people with anxiety by:

  • Identifying internal and external triggers

  • Reframing unhelpful thought patterns, which is a component of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

  • Exploring underlying contributors to the anxiety

  • Exposure therapy, which focuses on confronting the fears that drive the anxiety disorder, which can help people engage in activities they have been avoiding

  • Mindfulness, grounding, and other relaxation techniques

Other treatment options

Medications

Although medications do not cure anxiety disorders, they can help alleviate symptoms. Some common medications used to treat anxiety disorders are antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications (such as benzodiazepines), and beta-blockers.