Anxiety is normal — part and parcel in the wide spectrum of human emotions. Feelings of worry, or sometimes fear, are a natural part of our response to stressful events. And since those disorders are broadly named “Anxiety Disorders,” there’s a general misconception that having anxiety IS the disorder, which, of course, isn’t the case.
Living with anxiety is only considered a disorder in one of both cases:
- The initiating stimulus is very minimal and unreasonable for triggering an anxious reaction .
- The response to a normally slightly anxiety-inducing event is exaggerated, as in the development of panic attacks or even some types of associated phobias.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
GAD is the presence of persistent, long-term anxiety with no specific cause, generally presenting with concern over everyday matters. This constant state of worry and irrational fear causes mental and physical fatigue, restlessness, insomnia and irritability. In most cases, a person is diagnosed with GAD if they present with a history of living with inexplicable anxiety for a period around six months.
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
Probably the most well-known form of anxiety — and generally perceived as the only form of anxiety — social anxiety disorder is one of the most common forms of anxiety today. It’s by far the most well-represented in popular media, usually linked in our minds with a stereotypical image of the stuttering, sweaty guy who can’t form an intelligible sentence in front of a pretty girl.
But there is more to living with social anxiety than that. Severity of anxiety-induced symptoms can vary from mild sweating and nervousness all the way to having actual physical symptoms such as:
- Trembling
- Severe sweating
- Nausea and disrupted bowel movements
- Trouble catching your breath
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
- Mind block (a sudden halt in the train of thought)
- Muscle tension
The extreme form of social anxiety is known as Social Phobia.
Panic Disorder
This is the body’s extreme response to anxiety, commonly known as panic attacks.
Panic attacks are brief, intense episodes of physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, increased heart rate and body temperature, dizziness and abdominal irritation. The trigger for those episodes is mostly unclear and cannot be foreseen, meaning a person is always anticipating any imminent attacks.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD is the type of anxiety where there are persistent, intrusive and usually intimidating thoughts — obsessions — and an extremely demanding set of actions or compulsions that the person cannot resist or dismiss. Living with the combination of obsessive thoughts and compulsions of this anxiety disorder can be crippling, as the person can waste a decent amount of time merely attending to those compulsions or trying to drive their mind away from entertaining said thoughts.
Examples: Someone who washes their hands twenty times per hour because he believes that everything has fatal micro-organisms on them, waiting for the exact second that he forgets to apply hand sanitizer to attack and kill him for good, or someone trying to focus at work while trying to dismiss an intrusive, obsessive belief that she left her apartment door unlocked and now is probably robbed to the floor.
Separation Anxiety Disorder (SepAD)
This type of anxiety is the irrational, excessive fear of separation from a person or place. It’s a part of normal child development due to high dependence on the parents but is also considered a disorder when it either manifests excessively in children or happens with adults.
Living Well While Having Anxiety Disorder
Psychotherapy:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), one of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders, is a short-term psychotherapy treatment that works on two axes:
The cognitive axis, where a logical aspect is incorporated into your normal pattern of thinking instead of the irrational patterns that are noticed in people with anxiety. In other words, when your brain tries to convince you that you’re failing or that you’re in a stressful situation when you’re actually not, trying to logically understand the situation helps to prevent any associated anxious reactions. It’s more of a logical way of interpreting situations rather than an unrealistically positive outlook, Cognitive thinking helps you view things exactly as they are.
The behavioral axis of CBT focuses more on the actions concomitant with anxiety, analyzing patterns and relationships between emotions, feelings, and behaviors.
Therefore, CBT is very effective because it works as a personalized treatment, tailored to suit every person and character to help them manage their specific condition. Also, it is the single most useful treatment to anxiety disorders since it helps train the person to treat their own anxiety instead of relying on medications or therapy sessions to cope with it.
Applied relaxation is an alternative form of psychotherapy where the main focus is teaching the person how to manage their own attacks. A trained psychotherapist instructs and tutors an individual by giving weekly sessions on how to induce the body to relax by relaxing the muscles on command, quickly and in response to a trigger, such as the word “relax.” Being trained to relax your muscles in situations that make you anxious is extremely useful in stopping a precipitated panic attack or unwanted physical symptoms.
Medications:
As a second line of treatment for living with anxiety disorder, some anti-depressants may be prescribed to ease up the condition, such as:
- Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) work by increasing the level of a chemical called serotonin in your brain.
- Serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors (SNRIs) increase the amount of the chemicals serotonin and noradrenaline in your brain, however, they can also increase your blood pressure, so your blood pressure will be monitored regularly during treatment.
- Benzodiazepines are a type of sedative that may sometimes be used as a short-term treatment during a particularly severe period of anxiety. They help ease the symptoms within 30 to 90 minutes of taking the medication.
Self-Care:
- Breathe. No, really, b r e a t h e. Anxiety is all caused by our brain. Calm, rhythmic, deep breaths send signals to your brain to activate the relaxation mode in your nervous system. This also improves your oxygenation and helps you think clearly and view things in a more rational, non-impulsive and calm manner.
- Set a routine for your day. Waking up with a well-planned schedule for how you want your day to go — when will you work/study, when will you do chores and when will you unwind and have time for yourself — makes life seem under control and greatly eliminates the overwhelming feeling that unfinished tasks tend to give us. It helps make us feel calm because it makes our life rhythm more stable and less hectic.
- Exercise. Exercise is not a luxury as some people tend to believe, but an absolutely essential and integral part of any healthy person’s day. Exercise releases endorphins, which are chemical substances that have an analgesic (painkilling) effect and promotes the feeling of wellbeing. It also is a major stress reliever, helping treat anxiety at its root cause. Furthermore, exercise allows you to have a good night’s sleep, which is most needed in case of a stressful, exhausting day.
- Try to love what you hate about yourself. This works specifically well with social anxiety, but has also a great effect with all other forms. Try to see more into people. When you get to know people, try to go deeper than merely scratching the surface; only then will you begin to see how truly similar we all are. Coming to terms with what you might perceive as a catastrophic characteristic of yourself might actually be very common among people. If they aren’t really bothered with it that much, seeing what you hate about yourself being embraced by others will help you embrace it too, accepting your own self in the process.