What is Anxiety?
Welcome to Arch Psychological’s blog series on anxiety. In this series, I will discuss techniques to effectively manage anxiety. I hope you find it helpful.
What is anxiety?
Simply put, anxiety is a persistent, excessive fear or worry in situations that are not actually threatening. Emotionally, individuals may feel apprehensive, tense, jumpy, restless, or irritable, and they may anticipate the worst happening. Physically, individuals may experience a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, tremors, headaches, fatigue, insomnia, or gastrointestinal concerns. Anxiety can be triggered by life stressors or events. It can also be caused by changes in brain chemicals such as serotonin.
Anxiety begins with an anxiety-producing situation that leads to uncomfortable feelings such as worry, fear, an increased heart rate, or racing thoughts. Typically, when something makes us uncomfortable, we avoid it. An example of avoidance is procrastinating on difficult tasks or using drugs or alcohol to numb feelings. Avoidance may help reduce the symptoms of anxiety in the short term. Unfortunately, the long-term impact is that this cycle of anxiety followed by avoidance will continue to repeat, and symptoms of anxiety will worsen over time.
Anxiety-related disorders include:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Severe ongoing anxiety that interferes with daily living.
Panic Disorder: Unexpected and frequent panic attacks.
Social Anxiety Disorder: A chronic condition where social interactions cause irrational anxiety.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Characterized by excessive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Specific Phobias: Anxiety disorders characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific thing (e.g., elevators, dogs, driving).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A disorder that develops after an individual experiences or witnesses a traumatic event.
In both adults and children, anxiety disorders can also co-occur with other psychiatric disorders such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, and sleep disorders, to name a few.
When anxiety and other related disorders start to get in the way of an individual’s overall ability to function, there are many steps that can be taken to help improve symptoms. It can even be helpful to know and practice some of these techniques before the anxiety gets to that point. Speaking to a professional will help you decide what is best for you. In the next blogs, I will give you some of the tips and tools that I give my clients. You will even see some of the tools they have taught me.