Anxiety disorders are various types of neurotic disorders. Panic attacks, generalized or social anxiety, phobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder - these are anxiety disorders that can and must be treated. If you notice any of their symptoms, see a specialist to help you deal with them.

Anxiety disorderstake many forms: they can be panic attacks, generalized or social anxiety, phobia or obsessive compulsive disorder. They are the result of stress or anxiety that we are unable to control. Let me help you. Check the symptoms of neurotic disorders and start treating anxiety disorders.

Contents:

  1. What are anxiety disorders?
  2. Generalized anxiety
  3. Panic attacks
  4. Phobia
  5. Social anxiety
  6. OCD
  7. Treatment of anxiety disorders

What are anxiety disorders?

Most people with anxiety disorders are unable to put a long time to pinpoint the cause of their fear and behavior. These types ofanxiety disordersmake life very difficult and worsen its quality. A symptom of anxiety disorders can be various symptoms.

Research by specialists Anke Ehlers and Jurgen Margraf shows that 7% to 28% of people, mostly young people, suffer from anxiety disorders. They can be aggravated by stress, hormonal disorders (anxiety disorders often occur, for example, during the menopause) or even caffeine.

It's good to know that anxiety disorders often coexist with depression and related disorders. This situation is more serious and requires more complex treatment.

Generalized anxiety

Many of us have a person around us who constantly worries about something, creates catastrophic scenarios. Family he alth and one's own he alth are the most common concerns, but not when someone is really sick, but just imagining what will happen when they get sick. This is Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Some people worry about financial matters. They construct a sequence of events like: if I am fired from my job, I will not get another one, I will not pay off my loan, I will end up under a bridge. Small everyday matters are also a subject of concern.

This accompanies this:

  • constant agitation,
  • irritability,
  • sleep disorders,
  • painsbelly,
  • muscle tension felt as a pain in the head, spine, neck, not related to specific situations.

Calming down in one thing doesn't help because a new worry appears.

Panic attacks

A panic attack is a sudden, for no apparent reason, violent fear that grips the throat. The patient (the disease affects 3-5% of people) feels:

  • shortness of breath (gasping),
  • palpitations and chest pain
  • numbness in the hands or loss of sensation,
  • headache,
  • cold sweat,
  • nausea.

The patient thinks he is about to die, calls an ambulance, goes to the hospital for the emergency room. The seizure lasts a short time - a few or several minutes - and stops. Over time, it appears more and more often, even several times a day. During breaks, the patient anxiously waits for the next one.

Phobia

It is an excessive inexplicable fear of various objects, animals, situations. You can be afraid of spiders, thirteen, dentist …

Phobias are classified on the borderline of the norm - many people experience them and do not disturb everyday functioning. A special type of phobia is the fear of closed space (claustrophobia) and open space (agoraphobia). People get phobic attacks when they are afraid that if something happens to them, nobody will help them when they are alone at home.

A person who has a phobia at some point:

  • uses the so-called avoidance reactions: avoids situations, animals, activities in which he feels anxious,
  • feels cold sweat during the attack,
  • palpitations,
  • dry mouth.

Social anxiety

It applies to up to 13 percent people, and like most anxiety syndromes, it happens more often to women. People with social anxiety disorder are afraid of speaking in public, eating in company and all the situations in which they can be judged.

They then experience symptoms similar to those of a panic attack:

  • red,
  • sweat,
  • their mouth is dry.

The diagnosis is made not so much by the symptoms themselves as by avoiding them. An intelligent person will arrange his life so that he will never take the elevator if he is afraid.

A patient with social phobia poses as an introvert who hates large meetings, so he avoids them, although he would really like to participate in them.

OCD

The main symptoms of OCD are intrusive thoughts (obsessions). The obsessive person realizes that these are sick thoughts, does not want to have them, but is unable to control them. From intrusive thoughtsintrusive activities (compulsions) can result. A person who is afraid of getting dirty, washes their hands often and thoroughly.

Everyone has some obsessive features. How many times have we come back from the elevator to the door several times and nervously jerk the door handle, even though we have already checked that the door is closed?

The border of the disease is determined by social nuisance. Washing your hands is necessary, but if someone spends half a day on it, it is pathological.

Treatment of anxiety disorders

Psychotherapy is an effective way to overcome anxiety disorders. As patients are often unable to determine the cause of their anxiety, cognitive behavioral treatment is based on recognizing and taming the causes of anxiety.

Through the conversation of experiences, the patient learns how to react to given situations, analyzes the previous behavior and observes himself to help him understand what is happening to him during an anxiety attack.

"Zdrowie" monthly

Category:

Psychiatry