What are the various signs and symptoms of anxiety?
Anxiety disorder is that category of mental disorder which is characterized by the feeling of fear and anxiety. You are more anxious about the future occurrences and dread your reactions to them. The symptoms of panic attack are almost the same as symptoms of lung disease, heart ailment or issues in the nervous system and intestines. In short, anxiety is the kind of panic disorder where a person experiences moments of fear and the heart starts to pound. There can be a shortness of breath due to this. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is that condition which leads to anxiety or extreme fear due to any traumatic life experience. It is normal to feel anxious, but any excessive feeling of anxiety may start to interfere with your daily life or activities. No matter how severe the problem, it is curable. You feel tense, nervous and fearful when you are anxious.
Physical symptoms showing that you are anxious:
Apart from feeling tense, nervous, fearful, you may also notice bodily changes as a result of anxiety. The heartbeat rate, shivering, sweating, palpitations or thumping heart, dry mouth, headache and chest pain will also increase. Physical symptom caused due to anxiety is the result of messages sent by the brain to various parts of the body and organs when you feel tense. It is all due to nerve messages that make your organs like lungs, heart and other parts to work faster. During the process, one also releases stress hormone, namely, adrenaline which triggers stress and anxiety. This hormone may also act on your heart to cause palpitations, shortness of breath and thumping action.
Is it normal to feel anxious?
When the situation is stressful, being anxious is normal. For instance, you may feel scared and anxious when threatened by someone aggressive. On the other hand, you may feel anxious when there is any challenging situation. Anxiety which is brought forth by nervous impulses and a burst of epinephrine can give you more strength to fight out the situation. It may encourage a situation like ‘do or die,’ ‘flight or fight.’ Anxiety is not normal if that leads to a stressful situation for a prolonged period. The condition or your mental state may persist even when the problematic situation has passed by. If your anxious state is due to no probable reason, then perhaps it is abnormal. You must take outside help for the same.
The various conditions resulting from anxiety:
An anxiety disorder may be of several types. They can be a social anxiety disorder, generalized kind of anxiety disorder or panic disorder. In all the referred disorders, anxiety is the main symptom. If your anxious state intervenes with the day-to-day activities, then you are suffering from anxiety disorder. It is seen that 2 out of 20 people suffer from anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder may also be termed as a reaction disorder. Some of the kinds of reaction disorders are given below:
Acute Stress Reaction: This is the sudden stress reaction which results from an unexpected life event or life crisis. If you have an acute stress reaction, you may show symptoms like low mood, acute anxiety, mood swing, and irritability. This may also take place even if the event has not occurred. However, the reaction settles quickly.
Adjustment reaction: Here the reaction takes place after weeks of any crisis. Some of the examples are divorce, the loss of a loved one, home shifting. It is a state of anxiety when you try to adjust after the traumatic incident.
PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the result of a serious accident, assault or any life crisis. Here a person experiences a series of flashbacks of the incident. The person may show emotional outbursts, can feel traumatized or may feel pessimistic about the future.
The various kinds of phobias:
A phobia is a dread or fear of something. A person can experience extreme fear or anxiety about something before the event. When the person comes in contact with the situation or near to the dreaded situation, he feels anxious. At times, even imagining the situation or real event leads to extreme anxiety. There are mainly two kinds of phobias:
Social phobia is that anxiety disorder where an individual becomes anxious to think how he/she is judged by others. Here the person is always worried in the presence of others. Some of the symptoms are fear of performing in front of others, fear of creating embarrassing situations. You think that you may act embarrassingly in front of others and thus avoid meetings.
Agoraphobia is another kind of phobia which is pretty common. It is the fear of open spaces and a dread of public places. The one who has agoraphobia feels scared of some situations and events. The person may fear to enter a public place, entering shops and even traveling in train, bus or an aircraft. Being in the restaurant can also cause fear and anxiety. As per the latest researches, such fears result from feeling that no help will be available if there is any crisis.
Apart from the phobias mentioned above leading to anxiety, there can be several other phobias or fearful situations like fear of staying alone, dreading injections, fear of some animals, and fear of vomiting or feeling sick.
Can alcohol ease anxiety?
There are some who feel that alcohol can ease anxiety. Alcohol eases symptoms only for a short while. Drinking cannot help you cure your fears and anxiety. Depending on intoxicant to calm your nerves might lead to various other problems like depression and health issues. It may make your anxiety even worse.
Antidepressant medicines may be used to address anxiety. Therapy, including energy psychology such as EFT, (emotional freedom technique), can also help if there is any persistent phobia or anxiety disorder. I treat anxiety with a combination of traditional talk therapy and HBLU. With HBLU, your entire thought process will be changed. The therapist will address the cause of anxiety and try to supplant fear from your mind. Anti-depressants along with therapies can help in the treatment of acute anxiety.
