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Types of anxiety and symptoms


Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Medically Reviewed by Dan Brennan, MD on April 24, 2022

In this Article

  • What Are Anxiety Disorders?
  • Types of Anxiety Disorders
  • Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
  • Anxiety Disorder Causes and Risk Factors
  • Causes of Anxiety Disorder
  • Risk Factors for Anxiety Disorder
  • Anxiety Disorder Diagnosis
  • Anxiety Disorder Treatments
  • Managing Anxiety Disorder Symptoms
  • Anxiety Disorder Outlook

What Are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety is a normal emotion. It’s your brain’s way of reacting to stress and alerting you of potential danger ahead. 

Everyone feels anxious now and then. For example, you may worry when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or before making an important decision.

Occasional anxiety is OK. But anxiety disorders are different. They’re a group of mental illnesses that cause constant and overwhelming anxiety and fear.  The excessive anxiety can make you avoid work, school, family get-togethers, and other social situations that might trigger or worsen your symptoms. 

With treatment, many people with anxiety disorders can manage their feelings.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

There are several types of anxiety disorders:

  • Generalized anxiety disorder. You feel excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little or no reason.
  • Panic disorder. You feel sudden, intense fear that brings on a panic attack. During a panic attack you may break out in a sweat, have chest pain, and have a pounding heartbeat (palpitations). Sometimes you may feel like you’re choking or having a heart attack.
  • Social anxiety disorder. Also called social phobia, this is when you feel overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. You obsessively worry about others judging you or being embarrassed or ridiculed.
  • Specific phobias. You feel intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying. The fear goes beyond what’s appropriate and may cause you to avoid ordinary situations.
  • Agoraphobia.You have an intense fear of being in a place where it seems hard to escape or get help if an emergency occurs. For example, you may panic or feel anxious when on an airplane, public transportation, or standing in line with a crowd.  
  • Separation anxiety. Little kids aren’t the only ones who feel scared or anxious when a loved one leaves. Anyone can get separation anxiety disorder. If you do, you’ll feel very anxious or fearful when a person you’re close with leaves your sight. You’ll always worry that something bad may happen to your loved one. 
  • Selective mutism. This is a type of social anxiety in which young kids who talk normally with their family don’t speak in public, like at school.
  • Medication-induced anxiety disorder. Use of certain medications or illegal drugs, or withdrawal from certain drugs, can trigger some symptoms of anxiety disorder.

Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

The main symptom of anxiety disorders is excessive fear or worry. Anxiety disorders can also make it hard to breathe, sleep, stay still, and concentrate.  Your specific symptoms depend on the type of anxiety disorder you have. 

Common symptoms are: 

  • Panic, fear, and uneasiness
  • Feelings of panic, doom, or danger
  • Sleep problems
  • Not being able to stay calm and still
  • Cold, sweaty, numb, or tingling hands or feet
  • Shortness of breath
  • Breathing faster and more quickly than normal (hyperventilation)
  • Heart palpitations
  • Dry mouth
  • Nausea
  • Tense muscles
  • Dizziness
  • Thinking about a problem over and over again and unable to stop (rumination)
  • Inability to concentrate
  • Intensely or obsessively avoiding feared objects or places

Anxiety Disorder Causes and Risk Factors

Researchers don’t know exactly what brings on anxiety disorders. A complex mix of things play a role in who does and doesn’t get one. 

Causes of Anxiety Disorder

Some causes of anxiety disorders are: 

  • Genetics. Anxiety disorders can run in families. 
  • Brain chemistry. Some research suggests anxiety disorders may be linked to faulty circuits in the brain that control fear and emotions. 
  • Environmental stress. This refers to stressful events you have seen or lived through. Life events often linked to anxiety disorders include childhood abuse and neglect, a death of a loved one, or being attacked or seeing violence.  
  • Drug withdrawal or misuse. Certain drugs may be used to hide or decrease certain anxiety symptoms. Anxiety disorder often goes hand in hand with alcohol and substance use.
  • Medical conditions. Some heart, lung, and thyroid conditions can cause symptoms similar to anxiety disorders or make anxiety symptoms worse. It’s important to get a full physical exam to rule out other medical conditions when talking to your doctor about anxiety. 

Risk Factors for Anxiety Disorder

Some things also make you more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. These are called risk factors. Some risk factors you can’t change, but others you can. 

Risk factors for anxiety disorders include: 

  • History of mental health disorder. Having another mental health disorder, like depression, raises your risk for anxiety disorder. 
  • Childhood sexual abuse. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect during childhood is linked to anxiety disorders later in life. 
  • Trauma. Living through a traumatic event increases the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can cause panic attacks.
  • Negative life events. Stressful or negative life events, like losing a parent in early childhood, increase your risk for anxiety disorder.   
  • Severe illness or chronic health condition. Constant worry about your health or the health of a loved one, or caring for someone who is sick, can cause you to feel overwhelmed and anxious. 
  • Substance abuse. The use of alcohol and illegal drugs makes you more likely to get an anxiety disorder. Some people also use these substances to hide or ease anxiety symptoms.
  • Being shy as a child. Shyness and withdrawal from unfamiliar people and places during childhood is linked to social anxiety in teens and adults. 
  • Low self-esteem. Negative perceptions about yourself may lead to social anxiety disorder.

Anxiety Disorder Diagnosis

If you have symptoms, your doctor will examine you and ask questions about your medical history. They may run tests to rule out other health conditions that might be causing your symptoms. No lab tests can specifically diagnose anxiety disorders.

If your doctor doesn’t find any physical reason for how you’re feeling, they may send you to a psychiatrist, psychologist, or another mental health specialist. Those doctors will ask you questions and use tools and testing to find out if you may have an anxiety disorder.

Your doctors will consider how long you’ve had symptoms and how intense they are  when diagnosing you. It’s important to let your doctors or counselors know if your anxiety makes it hard to enjoy or complete everyday tasks at home, work, or school. 

The United States Preventive Service Task Force recommends screening for anxiety in children and adolescents ages 8 to 18 years and screening for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adolescents ages 12 to 18 years.

Anxiety Disorder Treatments

There are many treatments to reduce and manage symptoms of anxiety disorder. Usually, people with anxiety disorder take medicine and go to counseling. 

Treatments for anxiety disorder include: 

Medication. Several types of drugs are used to treat anxiety disorders. Talk to your doctor or psychiatrist about the pros and cons of each medicine to decide which one is best for you.  

  •  Antidepressants. Modern antidepressants (SSRIs and SNRIs) are typically the first drugs prescribed to someone with an anxiety disorder.  Examples of SSRIs are escitalopram (Lexapro) and fluoxetine (Prozac). SNRIs include duloxetine (Cymbalta)and venlafaxine (Effexor).
  • Bupropion. This is another type of antidepressant commonly used to treat chronic anxiety. It works differently than SSRIs and SNRIs.
  • Other antidepressants. These include tricyclics and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). They are less commonly used because side effects, like drops in blood pressure, dry mouth, blurry vision, and urinary retention, can be unpleasant or unsafe for some people.  
  • Benzodiazepines. Your doctor may prescribe one of these drugs if you’re having persistent panicky feelings or anxiety. They help lower anxiety. Examples are alprazolam (Xanax) and clonazepam (Klonopin). They work quickly, but you can become dependent on them. Usually, they’re meant to be an add-on to your anxiety disorder treatment and you shouldn’t take them for a long time. 
  • Beta-blockers. This type of high blood pressure drug can help you feel better if you’re having physical symptoms of anxiety, such as a racing heart, trembling, or shaking.  A beta-blocker may help you relax during an acute anxiety attack.
  • Anticonvulsants. Used to prevent seizures in people with epilepsy, these drugs also can relieve certain anxiety disorder symptoms. 
  • Antipsychotics. Low doses of these drugs can be added to help make other treatments work better. 
  • Buspirone (BuSpar). This anti-anxiety drug is sometimes used to treat chronic anxiety. You’ll need to take it for a few weeks before seeing full symptom relief. 

Psychotherapy: This is a type of counseling that helps you learn how your emotions affect your behaviors. It’s sometimes called talk therapy. A trained mental health specialist listens and talks to you about your thoughts and feelings and suggests ways to understand and manage them and your anxiety disorder.

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This common type of psychotherapy teaches you how to turn negative, or panic-causing, thoughts and behaviors into positive ones. You’ll learn ways to carefully approach and manage fearful or worrisome situations without anxiety. Some places offer family CBT sessions.

Managing Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

These tips may help you control or lessen your symptoms:

  • Learn about your disorder. The more you know, the better prepared you will be to manage symptoms and roadblocks along the way. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor any questions you might have. Remember, you are a key part of your health care team. 
  • Stick to your treatment plan. Suddenly stopping your meds can cause unpleasant side effects and can even trigger anxiety symptoms.  
  • Cut down on foods and drinks that have caffeine, such as coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, and chocolate. Caffeine is a mood-altering drug, and it may make symptoms of anxiety disorders worse.
  • Don’t use alcohol and recreational street drugs. Substance abuse increases your risk of anxiety disorders.
  • Eat right and exercise. Brisk aerobic exercises like jogging and biking help release brain chemicals that cut stress and improve your mood.
  • Get better sleep. Sleep problems and anxiety disorder often go hand in hand. Make getting good rest a priority. Follow a relaxing bedtime routine. Talk to your doctor if you still have trouble sleeping.
  • Learn to relax. Stress management is an important part of your anxiety disorder treatment plan. Things like meditation, or mindfulness, can help you unwind after a stressful day and may make your treatment work better.
  • Keep a journal. Writing down your thoughts before the day is down may help you relax so you’re not tossing and turning with anxious thoughts all night. 
  • Manage your negative thoughts. Thinking positive thoughts instead of worrisome ones can help reduce anxiety. This can be challenging if you have certain types of anxiety, however. Cognitive behavioral therapy can teach you how to redirect your thoughts. 
  • Get together with friends. Whether it’s in person, on the phone, or the computer, social connections help people thrive and stay healthy. People who have a close group of friends that support and chat with them have lower levels of social anxiety. 
  • Seek support. Some people find it helpful and uplifting to talk to others who are experiencing the same symptoms and emotions. Self-help or support groups let you share your concerns and achievements with others who are or who have been there.  
  • Ask your doctor or pharmacist before taking any over-the-counter meds or herbal remedies. Many have chemicals that can make anxiety symptoms worse.

Anxiety Disorder Outlook

It can be challenging and frustrating to live with an anxiety disorder. The constant worry and fear can make you feel tired and scared. If you’ve talked to a doctor about your symptoms, then you’ve taken the first step toward letting go of the worry. 

It can take some time to find the right treatment that works for you. If you have more than one anxiety disorder, you may need several kinds of treatment. For most people with anxiety disorders, a combination of medicine and counseling is best. With proper care and treatment, you can learn how to manage your symptoms and thrive.  

Anxiety & Panic Disorders Guide

  1. Overview
  2. Symptoms & Types
  3. Treatment & Care
  4. Living & Managing

Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks

Written by Christine Richmond

In this Article

  • What Is Panic Disorder?
  • What Are Panic Disorder Symptoms?
  • What Causes Panic Disorder?
  • How Is Panic Disorder Diagnosed?
  • How Is Panic Disorder Treated?

What Is Panic Disorder?

 

 

Panic disorder is when you’ve had at least two panic attacks (you feel terrified and overwhelmed, even though you’re not in any danger) and constantly worry and change your routine to keep from having another one. It’s a type of anxiety disorder.

One in 10 adults in the U.S. have a panic attack each year and they usually begin between the ages of 15 and 25. About a third of people have one in their lifetime. But most of them don’t have panic disorder. Only about 3% of adults have it, and it’s more common in women than in men.

What Are Panic Disorder Symptoms?

A panic attack is a sudden strong feeling of fear that can happen anywhere, at any time. You’ll have four or more of these signs:

  • A sense of approaching danger
  • Pounding or fast heartbeat
  • Sweating
  • Trembling or shaking
  • Shortness of breath or a feeling of being smothered
  • Throat tightness
  • Cramps in your belly
  • Headache
  • A choking feeling
  • Chest pain
  • Nausea or stomach pains
  • Feeling dizzy or faint
  • Chills or hot flashes
  • Numbness or tingling
  • Feeling unreal or detached
  • A fear of losing control or going crazy
  • A fear of dying

An attack usually passes in 5 to 10 minutes, but it can linger for hours. It can feel like you’re having a heart attack or a stroke. So people with panic attacks often wind up in the emergency room for evaluation.

Many people with panic disorder relate an attack to what they were doing when it happened. They may think the restaurant, elevator, or classroom caused the attack. Then they'll avoid those places. That may lead to something called agoraphobia, the fear of leaving home or being in public places.

If you feel like you're having a panic attack, see your doctor right away. They aren’t dangerous, but they can get worse without treatment.

Also keep in mind that symptoms of a panic attack are similar to those for more serious conditions. If you're not sure if what you're having is a panic attack, call your doctor, just to be safe.

What Causes Panic Disorder?

Doctors don’t know exactly what causes panic disorder, but one possibility is that the brains of people who have it may be especially sensitive in responding to fear. There's a link between panic attacks and phobias, like school phobia or claustrophobia. There’s also a theory that panic disorder may come from an oversensitivity to carbon dioxide, which makes your brain think you're suffocating.

A few things can make you more likely to have panic disorder:

  • Someone in your family has it (though it’s not clear how much of that is because of your genes or the environment you grew up in)
  • High levels of stress
  • Frequent negative feelings or trouble dealing with negative emotions

Some believe there are ties between panic attacks and:

  • Depression
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Cigarette smoking
  • Suicide risk
  • Seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that happens in winter

Most often, panic attacks come "out of the blue." One may even begin while you're sleeping. Using drugs or alcohol to try to deal with panic disorder can make the symptoms worse. Attacks may come after the use of mind-altering drugs. And some medications can cause panic attacks, including some antidepressants.

Panic disorder may start after:

  • A serious illness or accident
  • The death of a close friend
  • Separation from family
  • The birth of a baby

People with this disorder often also have major depression, although  there is no evidence that one condition causes the other. If you're 40 or older and have panic disorder, you may have depression or another hidden medical condition. Talk to your doctor to find out what's going on.

How Is Panic Disorder Diagnosed?

There isn't a lab test specifically for panic disorder. Because the symptoms can feel a lot like those of a heart attack, your doctor probably will start by examining you and ruling out other health issues. If no other condition is causing your symptoms and you’ve had two or more random panic attacks and live in fear of a repeat episode, you probably have panic disorder.

How Is Panic Disorder Treated?

Your doctor may refer you to a specialist called a psychotherapist. They might recommend:

  • A type of talk therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy that helps you learn how to change unhealthy thoughts and behaviors that bring on panic attacks
  • Antidepressants, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
  • Benzodiazepines, which are sedatives that affect your central nervous system (These aren’t used for long because you can get dependent on them.)
  • Anti-anxiety medications (Like benzodiazepines, these work better in the short term.)
  • Cutting back on caffeine
  • Regular exercise
  • Limiting alcohol
  • Deep breathing exercises

Anxiety & Panic Disorders Guide

  1. Overview
  2. Symptoms & Types
  3. Treatment & Care
  4. Living & Managing

treatment, how to get rid of anxiety, how to deal with anxiety for no reason

Anxiety is a negatively colored mood with feelings of worry, tension, and fear. In moderation, such emotions are useful: they help to mobilize forces and find a way out of extreme situations. But there must be grounds for concern, and normally it lasts a limited period of time.

If a person constantly experiences a feeling of anxiety and anxiety for no reason, this may indicate the presence of a mental disorder. In the absence of help, constant tension wears out the nervous system and the body as a whole, which leads to a breakdown in adaptation mechanisms and the development of chronic diseases.

If you notice that you cannot relax for a long time, then you should think about visiting a specialist.

In pathological cases, the state of anxiety and restlessness without a cause manifests itself both mentally and physically.

Mental symptoms:

  • constant feeling of fear and excitement for no reason,
  • poor concentration and attention,
  • sleep disorders,
  • emotional lability, irritability, tearfulness,
  • inability to relax and fully engage in daily activities or communication,
  • the need to reassure others that everything is okay. At the same time, words of support do not bring relief.

Physical symptoms:

  • rapid breathing and heartbeat,
  • headaches, pain in the abdomen and in the region of the heart,
  • excessive sweating,
  • eating disorders: increased or loss of appetite,
  • weakness,
  • shivering, chills,
  • stool disorders: frequent urge, constipation,
  • feeling short of breath,
  • nausea,
  • muscle spasms and pain.

Unreasonable anxiety and anxiety increase or smooth out from time to time. Exacerbations often accompany stress: conflicts, important events, illness. Normally, a person recovers quickly after the situation is resolved, but when upset, negative emotions do not go away.

The intensity of anxiety varies from mild to severe. The extreme is panic. If you ignore an anxiety state for a long time for no reason, then panic attacks can join it. They overtake unexpectedly and sometimes without a good enough reason, but after this episode, a person begins to avoid situations similar to the one in which it happened: public transport, an elevator, or just a crowd of people. This greatly reduces the quality of life and can lead to social isolation.

Causes of causeless anxiety and anxiety

The occurrence of anxiety disorder is influenced by heredity. It has been found that certain brain structures and features of biological processes play an important role in the emergence of fear and anxiety. Personal characteristics, somatic health problems, lifestyle and various types of addictions also matter. Sometimes there is no cause for causeless anxiety and worry. Negative feelings usually have a trigger - an event or thought that causes an anxious response. However, most people are not aware of their triggers and believe that their emotions are groundless. In this case, only a specialist will help to understand why excitement arises for no reason.

There are a number of diseases, the symptoms of which are constant anxiety. With causeless fear and anxiety, the reasons may be as follows:

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Persistent nervousness and worry over small things that are usually visible to others and last 6 or more months. It starts in adolescence and intensifies with age.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder: obsessive thoughts and fears that are accompanied by obsessive actions that do not bring relief. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is distinguished - a person is indomitably haunted by memories that reproduce a traumatic situation.
  • Phobias: irrational fear of any, even mundane, things. Accompanied by uncontrolled panic and physical manifestations.
  • Panic attack - an excruciating and sudden attack of panic, which is accompanied by a fear of death and vivid somatic symptoms. The regular occurrence of panic attacks means the development of a panic disorder.
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder: occurs after a severe traumatic situation and is accompanied by high levels of anxiety, avoidance and flashbacks.

These are the most common examples, but pathological anxiety can be a symptom of other disorders or the result of a failed stress management. If you want to understand why there is a feeling of anxiety for no reason, you should consult a doctor. Without clarifying the main factor and working on it, it is impossible to restore health and peace of mind.

What to do with causeless anxiety and anxiety

It is difficult to live in constant stress. If you experience causeless anxiety and fear of what to do, the following list will tell you:

  1. Talk to someone you trust. This could be a relative, a close friend, a therapist, or a helpline employee. People are social creatures, so communication is a good way to relieve internal tension.
  2. Find a way to calm down quickly. There is not always a person with whom you can share. Therefore, it is important to find a suitable method that will help you relax: breathing techniques, soothing music, aromatherapy, self-massage, and more. If you cannot independently choose a technique that quickly helps with anxiety for no reason, a specialist will tell you what to do.
  3. Add physical activity to your life. It is a natural and effective remedy for anxiety. Moderate sport relieves stress, lowers stress hormones, and strengthens the nervous system. Get at least 30 minutes of physical exercise a day.
  4. Normalization of lifestyle. Get enough sleep, eat well, give up bad habits. This stabilizes physical performance and neurotransmitter levels, which helps maintain emotional balance.
  5. Start keeping a diary. Notes help identify patterns of anxiety flare-ups, understand the causes, and notice early signs of their occurrence. Also, thanks to this, you will begin to focus more on positive events that you might not have noticed before.

With excitement for no reason, everyone who regularly encounters this wants to know what to do. There is no universal method, however, the 5 steps listed above are recommended for every person with increased anxiety. This may be enough to alleviate symptoms. But if self-help techniques do not give the desired effect, then with a regularly occurring feeling of anxiety for no reason, you need to find out from a specialist what to do.

Treatment of causeless feelings of anxiety and restlessness

Regardless of the cause of pathological anxiety, professional help is the only complete method to eliminate the problem. If you have constant excitement and anxiety for no reason, you can quickly and effectively learn from a psychiatrist or psychotherapist how to get rid of this condition.

Due to the diversity of anxiety disorders, their therapy must be adapted to the individual clinical picture and diagnosis. Therefore, only a highly qualified specialist who has experience working with different types of anxiety conditions can tell you how to get rid of an anxiety state for no reason. For example, the therapy algorithm for a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is different from the help for panic attacks.

For a state of anxiety and anxiety without a cause, treatment includes the following approaches:

  1. Psychotherapy. The most promising direction, which not only eliminates the symptom, but identifies the cause and fights it. Therapy teaches when feeling anxiety for no reason, how to get rid of acute attacks of anxiety, relax, look at life situations differently. The doctor will help to uncover the main causes of your fears and work them out. The patient receives the tools to overcome anxiety and uses them successfully. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is usually used: in the course of treatment, the patient encounters an object of concern and gradually gains confidence that he can control the situation.

  2. Medical therapy. Depending on the type of anxiety and the presence of associated mental or physical health problems, antidepressants, sedatives, sleeping pills, and other drugs may be prescribed. When anxiety is felt without a cause, drug treatment will alleviate the symptoms and improve the quality of life of the patient during his psychotherapeutic work on the underlying cause. Uncontrolled medication leads to dangerous side effects and withdrawal syndrome, so they can only be used according to the individual course prescribed by the doctor.

It is recommended to use a combination of psychotherapeutic and drug treatment, but sometimes only the first one is enough.

You should not put off visiting a doctor if you feel that experiences are preventing you from living. Over time, the symptoms worsen and other severe mental illnesses join: depression, neurotic disorders, and more. If the normalization of lifestyle does not help, it means that you will understand how to get rid of unreasonable anxiety only from a psychotherapist. With a timely appeal to a competent specialist, only a few sessions of psychotherapy may be enough for recovery.

Thanks to modern psychotherapeutic approaches, hundreds of people are making great strides every day in the fight against anxiety disorders. There is no need to endure the painful burden of fear and anxiety, because timely assistance allows you to achieve excellent results: the patient will fully recover and return to a full life, and the improvement will be noticeable after the first session.

12 signs of an anxiety disorder - Lifehacker

September 20, 2017 Health

Some mental disturbances pretend to be normal. An anxiety disorder is one of those, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be treated.

Anxiety is an emotion that all people experience when they are nervous or afraid of something. It’s unpleasant to be “on your nerves” all the time, but what can you do if life is like this: there will always be a reason for anxiety and fear, you need to learn to keep your emotions under control, and everything will be fine. In most cases, this is exactly the case.

It's okay to be anxious. Sometimes it’s even helpful: when we worry about something, we pay more attention to it, work harder, and generally achieve better results.

But sometimes anxiety goes beyond reasonable limits and interferes with life. And this is already an anxiety disorder - a condition that can ruin everything and which requires special treatment.

Why anxiety disorders appear

As with most mental disorders, no one can say for sure why anxiety clings to us: so far, too little is known about the brain to speak with confidence about the causes. Several factors are most likely to blame, from ubiquitous genetics to traumatic experiences.

For some, anxiety appears due to the excitation of certain parts of the brain, for some, the hormones - serotonin and norepinephrine are acting up, and for some, the disorder occurs as a load of other diseases, and not necessarily mental ones.

What is an anxiety disorder

Anxiety disorders include several groups of diseases at once.

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder . This is the case when anxiety does not appear because of exams or the upcoming acquaintance with the parents of a loved one. Anxiety comes by itself, it does not need a reason, and the experiences are so strong that they do not allow a person to perform even simple daily activities.
  • Social anxiety disorder . Fear that prevents being among people. Someone is afraid of other people's assessments, someone is afraid of other people's actions. Be that as it may, it interferes with studying, working, even going to the store and saying hello to neighbors.
  • Panic disorder . People with this disease experience panic attacks: they are so scared that sometimes they cannot take a step. The heart beats at a frantic speed, it gets dark in the eyes, there is not enough air. These attacks can come at the most unexpected moment, and sometimes because of them a person is afraid to leave the house.
  • Phobias . When a person is afraid of something specific.

In addition, anxiety disorder often occurs in combination with other problems: bipolar or obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression.

How to understand that this is a disorder

The main symptom is a constant feeling of anxiety, which lasts for at least six months, provided that there are no reasons to be nervous or they are insignificant, and emotional reactions are disproportionately strong. This means that anxiety changes life: you refuse work, projects, walks, meetings or acquaintances, some activity just because you worry too much.

Other symptoms that hint that something is wrong:

  • constant fatigue;
  • insomnia;
  • constant fear;
  • inability to concentrate;
  • inability to relax;
  • trembling in the hands;
  • irritability;
  • dizziness;
  • palpitations, although there are no cardiac abnormalities;
  • excessive sweating;
  • pain in the head, stomach, muscles - despite the fact that doctors do not find any violations.

There is no exact test or analysis by which to identify an anxiety disorder, because anxiety cannot be measured or touched. The decision on the diagnosis is made by a specialist who looks at all the symptoms and complaints.

Because of this, there is a temptation to go to extremes: either to diagnose yourself with a disorder when a black streak just began in life, or not to pay attention to your condition and scold your weak-willed character, when, due to fear, an attempt to go out into the street turns into feat.

Don't get carried away and confuse constant stress with constant anxiety.

Stress is a response to a stimulus. For example, on a call from a dissatisfied customer. When the situation changes, the stress goes away. And anxiety can remain - this is a reaction of the body that occurs even if there is no direct effect. For example, when an incoming call comes from a regular customer who is happy with everything, but picking up the phone is still scary. If the anxiety is so strong that any phone call is torture, then this is already a disorder.

No need to hide your head in the sand and pretend that everything is fine when constant stress interferes with life.

It is not customary to go to the doctor with such problems, and anxiety is often confused with suspiciousness and even cowardice, and being a coward in society is a shame.

If a person shares his fears, he is more likely to receive advice to pull himself together and not become limp than an offer to find a good doctor. The trouble is that it will not be possible to overcome the disorder with a powerful effort of will, just as it will not be possible to cure tuberculosis by meditation.

How to treat anxiety

Chronic anxiety is treated like other mental disorders. For this, there are psychotherapists who, contrary to popular myths, do not just talk to patients about a difficult childhood, but help to find such techniques and techniques that really improve the condition.

Someone will feel better after a few conversations, someone will be helped by pharmacology. The doctor will help you review your lifestyle, find the reasons why you are nervous a lot, assess how severe the symptoms are and whether you need to take medication.

If you still think you don't need a therapist, try taming your anxiety yourself.

1. Find the cause

Analyze what you worry about most and most often, and try to eliminate this factor from your life. Anxiety is a natural mechanism that is needed for our own safety. We are afraid of something dangerous that can harm us.

Maybe if you are constantly shaking with fear of the authorities, it is better to change jobs and relax? If you succeed, then your anxiety is not caused by a disorder, you don’t need to treat anything - live and enjoy life. But if it is not possible to isolate the cause of anxiety, then it is better to seek help.

2. Exercise regularly

There are many blind spots in the treatment of mental disorders, but researchers agree on one thing: regular exercise really helps keep the mind in order.

3. Let the brain rest

The best thing is to sleep. Only in a dream does the brain overloaded with fears relax, and you get a break.

4. Learn to slow down the imagination with work

Anxiety is a reaction to something that hasn't happened. It is the fear of what might happen. In fact, anxiety is only in our head and is completely irrational. Why is it important? Because counteracting anxiety is not peace, but reality.

Learn more