Overcoming Anxiety

Types of Anxiety Disorders

We all become anxious or experience anxiety at some point of time or the other. It is very normal for a human being to get anxious for things which might be of an atom of relevance or the topic of issue could be of very high priority. anxiety to an extent is good for the simple reason that it would make one focused towards his or her work but when anxiety becomes a disorder it should be dealt with professionally. There are many types of anxiety disorders depending on the extent and the causes of anxiety. These disorders have been classified by many people including many top notch medical professionals.

Here is a more generalized classification of the types of anxiety disorders.

1. GAD:-This is the generalized anxiety disorder. In this type of the anxiety disorder the individual is always anxious without any serious reason. This disorder makes an individual to deviate from normal functioning and is usually accompanied with physical fatigue, headache or may be a stomach upset.
2. PHOBIAS:-phobias are fear related to a specific object or a thing. This fear is usually exaggerated and could be to the extent that the individual tries to ignore or completely avoid the thing he or she is scared of. The social phobias are also included in this category. social phobia is also called social anxiety disorder in this disorder the person is over concerned or excessively self-conscious about the things he/she does in everyday social situations .people with social phobia are always have a feeling of someone watching them and doing things that might embarrass them. people with this disorder worry beforehand about any particular situation ,become intensely anxious during the actual happening of the situation and think about how other people would have judged them after the happening of the situation. The physical symptoms related to this phobia are blushing, sweating heavily, talking difficulty.
3. PANIC:-the panic disorders are accompanied with intense feelings of fear or terror including physical symptoms of chest pain, abdominal stress, dizziness, shortness of breath.
4. OBSESSIVE CUMPULSIVE DISORDER. (Cod).people with this disorder has continuous upsetting thoughts and use rituals to control their feelings
5. POST TRAUMATIC DISORDER stress disorder involves a terrifying incident that may involve some physical harm.

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Add comment September 27th, 2007

The Main Causes of Anxiety

There are many causes and reasons for people to get anxious, some of the reasons might be general whereas some reasons may be technical and could be because of medical reasons. Anxiety becomes a disorder when in excess

People get anxious when there happens to be a high valued material loss, loss of life or a major accident of some one very close, problems in personal relationships, as these are not daily life occurrences they momentarily make a person anxious and may be make some people anxious for some more time depending on the individual.

Anxiety disorders like many other diseases which are hereditary can be a family trait. These disorders might occur very frequently to people who are suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure. In addition to many of the reasons specified above anxiety disorders may also result from an unhealthy lifestyle and from one or many of the phobias that have been identified in the world. Phobias are completely dependent on a particular individual. Some of the phobias are aerophobia -the fear of air, zoophobia -the fear of animals, call phobia -fear of beauty. The causes may vary completely but the disorders share a few things in common continued and overwhelming fear and worry.

Anxiety not only leads to a person not functioning normally, it can also make a person go low on self esteem, alcoholism and depression…

Some other phenomenon such as an anxiety attack is also a commonly heard these days. An anxiety attack is a sudden and unexpected arousal of fear or intense terror. This type of an attack strikes without warning. There are many physical and mental symptoms of the anxiety attack.

Mental symptoms:-

1. Nausea
2. Fear of going crazy or loosing control
3. Shortness of breath
4. A pounding heart

Physical symptoms:-

1. Fatigue
2. Insomnia
3. Sweating
4. Dizziness

There are many kinds of anxiety disorders. Most of the people who suffer from one type of disorder also might suffer from other types of disorders related to anxiety.

Substance abuse is closely related to anxiety. The causes and symptoms should be looked upon carefully by people and proper treatment must be taken.

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Add comment September 23rd, 2007

Stress, Anxiety and Their Causes in Children and Teens

Anxiety and stress in children and teens is as prevalent as it is in the case of adults. the high stress modern lifestyle and work culture of today force parents to neglect their children and parents are not emotionally available to their offspring’s which spurs stress and anxiety disorders in their children. One of the reasons could also be parents not able to cope up with the stress of daily life and they themselves could be suffering from some sort of an anxiety disorder. Stressed children often are found to be emotionally unstable, aggressive in nature are very shy and do not enjoy most of the times the activities which are otherwise enjoyable. Anxiety disorders and excessive levels of stress often affect a child’s performance.

There are some general [points that both parents and a child can go through to cope with stress and anxiety

1. There has to be a good level of communication between the child and his parents about the happenings of life. the child should be free in expressing his thoughts and parents must try to give out some possible solutions to the child’s problem and make him note it down somewhere so that the child can develop and apply these strategies to cope with similar sort of situations some time later.
2. It is very important to encourage a child so that he develops a positive attitude towards things and is confident about the things he does.
3. Parents should never overburden their children and let the child cope with the pace of life in a natural way and not expect the child to come first in all the aspects of life.
4. Parents should set good examples of conduct and behavior for their children.

Adolescence Stress

Children in their adolescence period grow up physically very fast but their mental growth is not in proportion to their physical growth and hence they have many problems such as an identity crisis, to make choices about the good and bad things of life, choices about drinking, sex, smoking etc. children are often ill equipped to handle these situations of life.

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Add comment September 19th, 2007

Stress and Causes of Anxiety in Student Life

Students are the ones who are acted upon by so many factors of life at such a small age which can lead to a lot of stress and may cause anxiety disorders. The main reasons for using students as a point of discussion regarding stress and anxiety, is the fact that a student’s life coincides with many stages of life. a student is in adolescence stage and an adolescent is acted upon by so many factors such as rapid physical changes, mental growth which is not proportionate to the rapid physical growth, a desire to create an own identity and in addition to this a student has to deal with the changes in life and not to forget the academic pressures. All these factors create a lot of stress in students; some cope with it whereas some are subject to yield under stress and may get an anxiety disorder. These factors are so dominating that they deviate a student from academics and from the daily normal happenings of life.

Some of the reasons that cause anxiety in students are:-

1. Students who don’t perform unto the level often develop some negative attributes such as shyness, jealosy, unfriendliness and might become loners in life.
2. Stress is created by parents on their children when they put pressure on the child to perform beyond ones own capability and force them to do things or make them study forcibly.
3. Parents put pressure by scolding the child for underperforming or even for not performing unto their expectations.
4. It is often seen that a child is made to attend so many classes for dance, music, drawing after school hours. These classes are good but there has to be a balance in timing of these classes so that the child is not overburdened. Doing so might also lead to a loss of interest in the activity.
5. Parents usually don’t understand the interests of their child and make the child attend classes which the parents actually did not attend in their childhood. That is they try living their dreams through their children instead of letting the child live his/her own dreams.

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Add comment September 15th, 2007

How is Anxiety Treated?

Anxiety as we all know is a normal phenomenon to any human being. Anxiety is of many types and forms and it becomes a disorder when a person gets excessively anxious it might become a disorder.

Anxiety when becomes a disorder should be treated properly and professionally. There are many treatments to cure any anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are mostly misunderstood by people as they think of it just merely as a simple psychological phenomenon which can be overcome by sheer willpower. Most of the people are not even aware about how anxiety could become a disorder and hence are completely unaware of how it could or makes one deviate from normal functioning .the good thing is that anxiety disorders can be treated with methods that have been developed and proved clinically over a period of time. The anxiety disorders are treated mainly by two methods one is by using medicines, that is, by medication and the other involves dealing with the psyche of a person that is by psychotherapy. Both these methods for the treatment of the anxiety disorders could be used simultaneously or even one of them could be used to treat the disorders .many drugs have been found useful in treating the anxiety disorders.

The category of the antidepressants helps cure the disorders. Some anti anxiety drugs have also been developed. Maoist (mono amine oxidize inhibitors are used with other medicines such as the serotonin reuptake inhibitors. some of the anti anxiety drugs are beta-blockers and benzodiapines. The phychotherapy is categorized broadly into two techniques namely the CBT (the cognitive therapy and the behavioral therapy) usually these two techniques work together and are hence called the cognitive-behavioral therapy. In CBT the aim is to bring about as much change as possible in the thinking of the person which makes them anxious and also there is an effort to bring about a change in the reaction of the person. The behavioral technique just involves a methodology to bring about a change in the way a person reacts to the situation which causes anxiety. It is not absolutely sure that all the methods would work on every individual but yes it is proved that some method would definitely work.

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Add comment September 10th, 2007

Effects of Anxiety

Anxiety is normal but when it gets severe it becomes a disorder. Anxiety disorders are accompanied with many mental and physical effects.

The various physical effects of anxiety are:-

1. Nurological effects of Anxiety Disorders

When some kind of a danger is perceived by the brain, the brain sends signals to the ANS (autonomous nervous system).the autonomous nervous system has two subcomponents namely the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system .the sympathetic nervous system releases energy sand is responsible for making the body ready for action on the other hand the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for restoring the system to a normal state.

2. Resdpiratory effects of Anxiety Disorders

As the sympathetic nervous system of the autonomous nervous system is responsible for the action of the body to any danger it is associated with an increase in the breathing rate and depth of breathing. This is an obvious phenomenon as the tissues and muscles require more energy and hence oxygen to prepare for the action. This increase in the rate of breathing g leads to breathless ness, chest pain, smothering feelings. The increased rate of breathing without has some side effects especially when there is no actual occurrence of activity. These side effects are not very dangerous but it leads to some unpleasant feelings such as blurred vision, confusion, and dizziness.

3. Cardio vascular effects of Anxiety Disorders.

The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for action, when this happens there is a an increase in the rate of blood flow to the muscles which in turn enriches the muscles and tissues with more oxygen and takes away carbon dioxide and waste products at a faster rate

4. Sweat gland effects of Anxiety Disorders.

Sweating increases as the heart beat increases which again are due to the sympathetic nervous system.

5. Effects on the Behavior

Anxiety often leads to a deviation from the normal behavior of a person. Feelings such as being trapped and wanting to escape are encountered. Improper speaking, shivering, feelings of guilt are also experienced.

6. Effects on the Mental System

The brain starts thinking about the matter of concern which causes anxiety, which leads to a shift in attention from the normal daily thinking about the various general aspects of life.

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Add comment September 6th, 2007

All About Anxiety

Anxiety is such a general feeling that one doesn’t even know when it becomes a disorder. People should be made aware about anxiety and anxiety disorders so that they are able to distinguish and are in a position to draw a line between anxiety and anxiety disorders. Once people are aware of the various symptoms of anxiety and anxiety disorders it would be helpful for them to judge upon themselves when to consult the doctor about the problem.

What should be done if a person feels that he/she is suffering from anxiety disorder?

If someone feels that he is suffering from anxiety disorder the first and foremost step should be that of visiting a doctor. The doctor would examine and conclude whether the cause of the symptoms is an anxiety disorder. Once the doctor examines, his next step would be to find out the type of anxiety and also to check for any other problems present. Next the doctor might suggest visiting a professional who deals with mental health who could be a psychiatrist psychologist or it could be even a counselor. It is always better to go to a professional who is familiar with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and/or behavioral therapy and it would be better if the person is open to the use of medicines also.

The medicines do not start working immediately but takes some time to show its effects, so one must be patient when dealing with anxiety disorders. Once started with medication it should be carefully monitored by the doctor and the medicines should not be stopped suddenly. The drugs dealing with anxiety disorders must be weirder off slowly under the guidance of the medical practitioner. The need for a medical professional is the most important thing but a very major role is to be played by the friends and family of the person suffering from anxiety disorder. There are many social web communities and gatherings where one can find people suffering from a similar situation, a discussion or sharing ones own feelings with others might help in a very significant scale. Many researchers are working on this issue to find out whether there are any genetic links to these disorders.

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Add comment September 2nd, 2007