Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state in which individuals become fearful of mostly the unknown mostly about the future. Anxiety is usually accompanied by an emotional feeling of impending doom, including death, and is associated with some bodily discomfort.
What are the signs and symptoms of Anxiety?
Restlessness, irritability, and increased startle response
Fearfulness, apprehension and exaggerated worry or unrealistic appraisal of danger to self or others (e.g., fear of an impending death, being humiliated, having serious physical disease, heart attack or going crazy).
Avoidance of situations that increase anxiety or insecurity and restricted involvement in activities due to excessive worries about what could happen.
Bodily sensations such as hyperventilation, faintness, numbness of the extremities, muscle tension, fatigue, pain, stiffness, and tremor.
Increased heart rate, hot and cold flushes, visiting the bathroom frequently, sweating
Difficulty initiating sleep or tossing and turning whilst sleeping
Feeling unreal or feeling the environment is unreal.
The symptoms usually impair the personal, occupational, and social functioning of the individual.
What are the types of Anxiety?
Panic Disorder – Repeated discreate periods of intense fear and discomfort which develop rapidly, reach a peak of intensity in about 10 minutes, and generally do not last longer than 30 minutes during which the individual develops chest tightness, shortness of breath, palpitations, fear of loosing control, having a heart attack, going crazy or dying.
Agoraphobia - Anxiety and panic symptoms associated with places or situations where escape may be difficult or embarrassing (E.g., public places, travelling alone, crowds), leading to avoidance.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder - Excessive worry about most things and most situations, accompanied by most of the symptoms listed above, and lasting at least six months with significant impairment of work and social functioning
Social Phobias - Symptoms of incapacitating anxiety are restricted to certain social situations, leading to an intense desire to escape or avoid the social situation.
Specific Phobias - Recurring excessive and unreasonable symptoms of anxiety in the presence or anticipated presence of specific feared objects or situations, leading when ever possible to avoidance of the feared object (E.g., fear of animals, heights, injection, exams)
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Chronic condition associated with unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and associated excessive and unreasonable compulsive behaviours (compulsions) which cause marked distress and interferes with social and individual functioning.
How common is Anxiety:
Over the lifetime, about one in five individuals would suffer from an anxiety disorder.
Twice as many women as men suffer from anxiety.
What causes Anxiety?
Anxiety is caused by a combination of genetic, psychological, social and environmental factors.
How is Anxiety treated?
If you feel you are having any of the signs and symptoms of anxiety listed above, the first thing to do is to consider visiting your Family Doctor or talk to a healthcare professional.
Your doctor will take a history from you, do a mental state examination, perform a physical examination, and may order some blood tests before confirming you have anxiety and the type of anxiety disorder.
Some physical health conditions such as overactive thyroid, high blood calcium or potassium levels, low blood sodium or glucose, asthma, heart disease, epilepsy, or tumour, as well as abuse of some drugs and alcohol can present with some of the symptoms of anxiety and so it is important that your doctor perform investigations to eliminate these possibilities.
Once it is confirmed you have anxiety, your doctor may prescribe you some medication called anxiolytics or antidepressants, and in some cases, your doctor may refer you to see a psychiatrist, who is a doctor who is an expert in treating individuals with mental health difficulties.
Your doctor may also refer you to a clinical psychologist or mental health therapist or counsellor to receive psychological treatment referred to commonly as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
CBT is a form of counselling in which the therapist helps an individual change the negative patterns of thinking which affects the individual’s behaviour and attitudes and are commonly associated with anxiety.
Your doctor or mental health therapist may also refer you to a social worker, government agency or other organization to get help with social issues which may be contributing to your anxiety.
Other self-help treatments include eating healthy balanced food and physical exercise.
References