As we read in the last post there are several types of Anxiety Disorders. Lets take an overview of some major types of Anxiety Disorders.

types of anxiety

1. Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

People with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) have excessive and exaggerated anxiety and worry about everyday life events with no obvious reasons for worry.

GAD makes people tend to always expect disaster and can’t stop worrying about money,health, family, work, or other day to day issues.

Diagnosis:

GAD is diagnosed when a person finds it difficult to control worry on more days than not for at at least six months and has three of more symptoms.

Symptoms:

  1. individuals find it difficult to control their worry.
  2. restlessness
  3. sweating
  4. irritability or hyper-vigilance
  5. back pain
  6. light headedness
  7. fatigue
  8. lack of concentration
  9. severe anxiety or fear
  10. muscle tension
  11. nausea
  12. need to go to the bathroom frequently
  13. tiredness
  14. insomnia
  15. being easily startled
  16. trembling
  17. addiction (drug or alcohol misuse)
  18. in addition people with GAD often have other anxiety disorders as well
  19. upset stomach

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is a type of anxiety disorder in which people experience sudden episode of intense fear or anxiety and physical symptoms, based on a perceived threat rather than imminent danger.

The repeated attacks of fear that lasts for several minutes or longer.These attacks are known as Panic Attacks. Many people have just one or two panic attacks in their lifetimes ,and the problem goes away ,perhaps when a stressful situation ends.

But if you’ve had recurrent, unexpected panic attacks you may have a condition called panic disorder.

What is panic attack?

A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger. It is a intense wave of fear characterised by it’s unexpectedness and debilitating ,immobilising intensity.

It often strike out of the blue ,without any warning, and sometimes with no clear trigger. They may even occur when you’re relaxed or asleep.

Symptoms of Panic Attack

  1. shortness of breath or hyperventilation
  2. chest pain of discomfort
  3. heart palpitations or racing heart
  4. trembling or shaking
  5. choked feeling
  6. feeling unreal or detached from the surroundings
  7. sweating
  8. nausea or upset stomach
  9. feeling dizzy or light headed
  10. faint
  11. numbness or tingling sensation
  12. hot or cold flashes
  13. fear of dying, losing control or going crazy

Symptoms of Panic Disorder

  1. Experiencing unnecessary frequent panic attacks.
  2. Worrying alot about having another Panic Attack.
  3. Worrying too much about what may have triggered a panic attack and behaving differently because of it, such as avoiding places where you’ve previously panicked.

Your Panic Attack may occur as part of another disorder ,such as panic disorder, social phobia ,or depression.

Phobia

Phobia ,is an extreme ,irrational fear of a specific object or situation that in general is not harmful. A phobia is classified as a type of anxiety disorder ,since anxiety is the chief symptom experienced the sufferer. Phobias are emotional responses. It is generally held that phobias occur when fear produced by an original threatening situation is transferred to other similar situations ,with the original fear often repressed of forgotten.

There are several types of phobia and phobia related disorders namely :

  • Specific (isolated) Phobia: These are highly specific fears of individual situations such as animals,thunder,heights (this being “acrophobia” and not the commonly misused term “vertigo”),darkness ,flying ,closed placed,injury etc. Specific phobias usually rise in childhood or early adulthood and can persist for years if left untreated. The degree of disablement they cause however depends on how easy it is for the person to avoid the object or situation.
  • Agoraphobia : The original meaning of the term was ‘fear of market place’ but this has broadened. It is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed. You fear an actual or anticipated situation, such as using public transportation, being in open or enclosed spaces, standing in line, or being in a crowd.The anxiety is caused by fear that there’s no easy way to escape or get help if the anxiety intensifies. Most people who have agoraphobia develop it after having one or more panic attacks, causing them to worry about having another attack and avoid the places where it may happen again.People with agoraphobia often have a hard time feeling safe in any public place, especially where crowds gather.

Diagnosis:

In order for the diagnosis to be made there must be significant distress caused by the symptoms or there is avoidance of the provoking situation and the individual recognises that the fears are excessive or unreasonable.The symptoms are restricted to feared situation and the distress is manifested by thr presence of at least two symptoms listed below.

Symptoms of Agoraphobia

i) palpitations,sweating, trembling ,dry mouth (one of the situation must be from this category .)

ii) Difficulty in breathing, feeling of chocking , nausea , churning stomach, chest pain or discomfort.

iii) flushes or chills, numbness or tingling sensation.

iv) panic attacks may occur.

  • SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER (SOCIAL PHOBIA): This is the fear of scrutiny by other people leading to avoidance of social situations. It often begins in adolescence and is equally common in both sexes ,usually being associated with low self esteem and fear of criticism.The fears may be restricted to specific situation such as eating in public, encounters with opposite sex, or public speaking or they may be global and involve almost all situation outside the family.

Diagnosis : diagnosis include atleast one symptom leasted below in addition to atleast two symptom of anxiety (discussed in last post). And significant distress caused by the symptoms or there is avoidance of the provoking situation and the individual recognises that the fears are excessive or unreasonable.

Symptoms of social phobia:

i)tremor

ii)blushing

iii)nausea

iv)urgently needing to void urine

  • SEPARATION ANXIETY DISORDER: Separation anxiety is often thought of as something that only children deal with; however ,adults can also be diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder . People have fear about parting from people whom they are attached.They often woorry that some sort of misfortune or harm will happen to their attachment figures to avoid being alone. people may have nightmares about being separated and may experience physical symptoms when separation occurs or anticipate.

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