Anxiety Disorder

What is Anxiety Disorder?

Anxiety is a normal part of daily life. However, people suffering from anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. 

When these feelings of anxiety and panic are persistent, it may interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control and are out of proportion to the actual situation and may last for a long time. They may also affect the person's ability to cope with the demands of life and relationship. This may result in the person avoiding places, people or situations to prevent these feelings. Symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years and continue into adulthood. 

Types of Anxiety Disorder

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD): This condition is characterised by excessive, frequent and unrealistic worry about everyday things. It causes fear, worry and a constant feeling of being overwhelmed. 

Agoraphobia: This condition causes a feeling of intense fear of becoming overwhelmed or being unable to escape a place or situation. Hence, people with agoraphobia often avoid new places and unfamiliar situations, such as large, open areas, crowds, or places outside their homes. 

Specific phobias: A phobia is something that causes you to feel extreme fear or anxiety so consistently and overwhelming it disrupts your life. There are many different types of phobias, such as a fear of heights (acrophobia), a fear of the dark (nyctophobia), or a fear of enclosed spaces (claustrophobia). 

Social anxiety disorder: This condition causes intense and ongoing fear of being watched by others and/or being judged negatively while in front of other people. 

Separation anxiety disorder: This condition happens when you feel excessive anxiety when you're separated from a loved one, such as a primary caregiver. 

What are the symptoms of Anxiety Disorder?

Some common symptoms of anxiety disorder include:

• Feeling nervous, restless or tense
• Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
• Having an increased heart rate
• Hyperventilating
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Trouble concentrating on anything other than the present worry
• Having difficulty controlling worry
• Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

What are the risk factors of Anxiety Disorder?

Some factors that may increase your risk of developing an anxiety disorder:

• Trauma: Children who endured trauma or abuse or witnessed traumatic events are at a higher chance of developing an anxiety disorder at some point in life.
• Stress from an illness: Having a health condition or serious illness may cause worry about issues such as your treatment and future.
• Stress buildup: A series of stressful life events or a single big event may trigger excessive anxiety. For example, a death in the family, work or financial stress.
• Personality: Certain personality types are more prone to anxiety disorders than others are.
• Pre-existing mental health conditions: People with other mental health conditions, such as depression, often also have an anxiety disorder.
• Substance abuse: Drug or alcohol use, misuse or withdrawal may cause or worsen anxiety.

How do you prevent Anxiety Disorder?

There is no way to definitively prevent an anxiety disorder from developing, but you can take steps to reduce the impact of symptoms if you are anxious:

• Seek help early: Seeking help as soon as symptoms appear may help decrease the disruptions to your life. Anxiety may be more difficult to treat if you wait.
• Staying active: Participate in activities that you enoy and makes you feel good about yourself.
• Avoiding alcohol or drug use: Alcohol and drug use may cause or worsen anxiety. Trying to quit these substance may cause anxiety from withdrawals. If so, seek help from your doctor or find a support group to help you. 

How is Anxiety Disorder diagnosed?

You may start by seeing your primary care provider to find out if your anxiety could be related to your physical health. If your anxiety persists or gets worse, you may need to see a mental health specialist. 

To diagnose an anxiety disorder, your mental health provider may discuss your thoughts, feelings, behaviours when you feel anxious, as well as other mental health problems which may happen along with anxiety.