Occasional anxiety is part of life and a normal condition. However, if you have a frequent anxiety disorder such as being persistently worried, intense, and excessively worried about everyday happenings, you need medical assistance. Most Irvine anxiety experts advise that you should manage your anxiety early before it interferes with your daily life or causes panic. Often anxiety comes with repeated feelings of intense terror, or fear which can result in panic attacks.
When your anxiety gets out of control, you can be in actual danger. Symptoms can start in your childhood and persist to adulthood.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorder is basically a collection of different other disorders such as:
Panic disorder – feelings of terror that come randomly. During a panic attack, you can have chest pain, sweat, or feel irregular and unusually strong heartbeats. Sometimes you feel like you have a heart attack or are choking.
Social anxiety disorder – it’s a social phobia that comes with overwhelming self-consciousness and worries concerning your everyday social situations. You can fixate about being ridiculed, embarrassed, or being judged by others.
Specific phobias – intense fear regarding a situation or object like flying, or heights. This phobia makes you avoid certain situations.
Generalized anxiety disorder – feeling unrealistic worry, excessive tension with no reason, or little reason.
Separation anxiety disorder – characterized by developmental level problems in childhood because of divorce or parents separating.
Substance-induced anxiety disorder – characterized by panic or intense anxiety due to misuse of drugs, drug withdrawal effects, exposure to toxic substances, or medications you are taking.
Causes of Anxiety:
Causes are not fully known. Some anxiety is due to life experiences like traumatic events or inherited traits. An underlying medical condition can cause anxiety. For instance, an illness such as diabetes, heart disease, thyroid problem, a rare tumor, chronic pain, drug withdrawal or misuse, withdrawal from anti-anxiety medications, and respiratory disorders like asthma. Sometimes it can be due to medication side effects.
Symptoms of Anxiety:
All types of anxiety disorders have these general symptoms:
1. Sleep problems
2. Short of breath
3. Fear, panic, and uneasiness
4. Inability to stay still or calm
5. Nausea
6. Sweaty, cold, tingling and numb hands
7. Irregular heartbeats
8. Dizziness
9. Nervousness, tense or restlessness
10. Trouble thinking or concentrating on anything other than your worry
11. Gastrointestinal problems
12. Feeling tired or weak
13. Anxiety Risk Factors
Risk factors can increase your chances of suffering from an anxiety disorder. These risk factors include:
Stress buildup – something that happened in your life that triggers stress of excessive anxiety like work stress, worry about finances, or death in your family.
Personality – certain personality types are prone to experience anxiety disorders.
Trauma – enduring abuse in childhood or witnessing a traumatic event puts at risk.
Stress caused by an illness – a health condition or a serious illness leads to excessive worry about your situation like what the future holds and treatment.
Mental health disorders – mental disorders like depression often lead to anxiety disorders.
Alcohol and drugs – misuse of drugs or alcohol leading to withdrawal symptoms cause or worsens anxiety.
Hereditary – having family members suffering from anxiety means you can suffer from anxiety risk factors if it runs in your family.
Prevention of Anxiety
It’s difficult to predict what will cause you to have an anxiety disorder. However, you can take steps to lower the impact of the symptoms when you feel anxious. The steps include:
Staying Active
Take part in activities that give you joy and make you happy. Cultivate caring relationships and enjoy social interaction to lessen your worry.
Get Help Early
Anxiety is difficult to treat if you delay. So, like mental health conditions, you should get help early. By consulting a specialist doctor.
Avoid Drug or Alcohol Abuse
Abusing drugs and alcohol will worsen your anxiety disorder. Quit addictive substances that make you anxious. You can seek professional help like joining a support group or consulting your doctor.
Conclusion
Anxiety can be managed if detected early. Watch out for the symptoms and risk factors. Manage your life situations more effectively. Consult your doctor for advice on how to overcome your anxiety.