Anxiety
Anxiety can lead one to excessively worry or stress about future events or “what if” scenarios and the level of worry is often seen by others as disproportioned to realistic expectations. The anxiety often interferes with the individual’s ability to concentrate on or perform important tasks. Adults living with a significant level of anxiety often spend hours a day worrying about their job performance, their health, their family (without a realistic reason) or even simple things like house chores. Children often focus their anxiety on performance and doing the things expected of them by parents or teachers.
The distinction between normal anxiety and a clinical level of anxiety is that a clinical level of anxiety is coupled with excessive worry, physical symptoms related to the stress and worry, interference with work, family or social life, and the worry is present almost every day nearly all day.
There are several clinical diagnoses in the category of anxiety which include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Specific Phobia, and Agoraphobia.
If you think you are suffering from a severe level of anxiety in one form or another and are interested in managing and treating your symptoms, you can contact me here to make an appointment or schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive worry occurring more days than not for a period of 6 months. The individual finds it difficult to control the worry and is also experiencing at least three of the following symptoms:
- Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge
- Being easily fatigued
- Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
- Irritability
- Muscle Tension
- Sleep disturbance
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is characterized by anxiety or fear of social situations in which the individual could be embarrassed, shamed, or criticized by others. The individual often wonders if others are thinking about her or looking at her and is afraid they will perceive her as stupid, weak, anxious, boring, dirty or unlikeable. The individual is afraid she will demonstrate anxious behavior by sweating, blushing, stumbling over words, not having anything to say, looking and feeling awkward, and will be judged negatively because of it. The anxiety is present for nearly every social gathering and the individual may begin to feel anxious days or weeks before an event.
Panic Disorder
Panic Disorder is a diagnosis reserved for individuals experiencing unexpected and recurrent panic attacks. A panic attack is a surge of intense fear and discomfort which hits a peak within minutes and is accompanied by four or more of the following physical and cognitive symptoms:
- Accelerated heart rate
- Sweating
- Trembling or shaking
- Shortness of breath
- Feelings of choking
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Nausea or abdominal distress
- Feeling dizzy, light headed or faint
- Chills or heat sensations
- Numbness or tingling sensations
- Feeling out of reality or detached from oneself
- Feeling a loss of control or “going crazy”
- Fear of dying
Panic attacks can occur with other anxiety related diagnoses such as from this list or from PTSD. Panic attacks associated with Panic Disorder are not associated with a specific trigger and happen far more frequently.
Specific Phobia
Most people have things that scare them or that they perceive as gross or creepy. A specific phobia applies when there is a particular phobic stimulus that creates excessive and intense feelings of anxiety and possibly induces panic attacks in the individual. Examples of phobic stimuli include things such as heights, spiders, flying, needles, and blood.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is characterized by an intense fear or anxiety that occurs in specific situational settings where the individual fears she might be trapped or isolated from help and anticipates bad things happening (such as a panic attack or life threatening danger). The individual will generally avoid being in these situations, will almost always experience the anxiety while in them, and the avoidant behavior persists for at least 6 months and the fear is out of proportion with the situation. The triggering situations must include at least two of the following: 1) Using public transportation, 2) Being in open spaces, 3) Being in enclosed spaces, 4) Standing in line or in a crowd, 5) Being outside of the home alone.
Treatment
Research has demonstrated that one of the most effective forms of treatment for anxiety is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which you can learn more about here.
In addition to CBT, I also incorporate Mindfulness breathing and meditation which you can read about here.
Sometimes medication is necessary in combination with therapy to reduce and manage symptoms of anxiety, and you can read more about my procedure with medication use here.