What Is Anxiety Disorder?
Your Questions Answered: What Is Anxiety Disorder?
The term anxiety disorder actually refers to a collection of conditions that affect around 40 million people in the US alone. This group of conditions includes the following: obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobias.
Let’s take a closer look: What is anxiety disorder unravelled…
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) refers to persistent worry about the occurrence of unrealistic problems or situations. Typical areas of concern are those surrounding money, employment and health. The sufferer will tend to assume the worst case scenario with no real reason to do so. Displaying worry such as this for a period of 6 months or more is when someone is said to have GAD which effects 6.8 million of the US population.
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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition where the sufferer experiences non-stop persistent and intrusive thoughts that are obsessive in nature and are seemingly impossible for them to remove from their head. These thoughts can compel them to perform all manner of ritualistic types of behaviour which the sufferer may acknowledge are pointless but they simply can’t cope without doing them, senseless counting and checking are common. These tasks may take hours and interfere with all areas of their life.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition endured by approximately 7.7million Americans which usually is caused by the witnessing of some form of horrific event such as: a natural disaster, terrorist incident, serious accident, unexpected death of a loved one, war, violent personal assault, or some other type of life-threatening event.
The common characteristics of PTSD are depression, flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbness, avoidance of certain people and places, insomnia, irritability and difficulty in concentrating. The condition is normally accepted as being PTSD if these symptoms persists for one month or more following such an event.
Social anxiety disorder is suffered by around 15 million Americans and is typified by symptoms such as feelings of extreme discomfort in social settings whereby they feel that all of their actions are being scrutinised and they are terrified of making a mistake and embarrassing themselves. This fear is excessive and unreasonable and interferes greatly with the everyday lives of sufferers who may endure this condition for years without ever seeking help.
Panic disorder refers to the condition whereby the sufferer experiences a panic attack (Anxiety attack) completely out of the blue. These can vary in frequency and severity from a mild attack every month or so, to severe panic attacks which occur daily. The usual symptoms of a panic attack include feelings of dread and fear of heart attack, palpitations, raised heart rate, sweating, shaking, extreme worry and so on. Effective treatment is available via medication or psychotherapy.
Specific phobias, these are when an individual had a strong irrational fear for certain specific things. A few of the more common phobias are a fear of animals, insects, flying, dental procedures, heights, thunder, driving, public transportation or medical procedures and elevators. Even the thought of these can cause a feeling of dread even though they may know the fear is completely irrational.
The above six definitions effectively answer the question ‘what is anxiety disorder?’ but it should be noted that much research has been done into each of these conditions and effective treatment is almost always available in some form or other. Consulting your doctor is of course the best place to start.