What are the five major types of anxiety disorders?
Anxiety is a normal human emotion and is part of life. Anxiety is only considered a disorder if it causes significant distress and/or keeps a person from keeping up with at least one part their life, including school, work, relationships, responsibilities or enjoyable activities.
Anxiety disorders often persist over time and generally do not go away on their own. When anxiety disorders are left untreated, many people develop depression because of the toll that the anxiety has taken on their life.
Anxiety is treatable by a mental health professional with short-term therapy if there are no other challenges or concerns.
The five major types of anxiety disorders are:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Panic Disorder
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder)
1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety is when someone worries about a range of different topics, which may include school or job performance, finances, world events, natural disasters, relationships with others, and other topics.
These worries are hard to control and keep popping up, making it hard for people to focus on their activities.
Worries happen often and intensely enough that they make it difficult to concentrate and may cause or worsen headaches, stomach aches, muscle tension, and irritability.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder, GAD, is an anxiety disorder characterized by chronic anxiety, exaggerated worry and tension, even when there is little or nothing to provoke it.
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) usually involves a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread, which can interfere with daily life.
It is not the same as occasionally worrying about things or experiencing anxiety due to stressful life events.
People living with GAD experience frequent anxiety for months, if not years.
Symptoms of GAD include:
- Feeling restless, wound-up, or on-edge
- Being easily fatigued
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Being irritable
- Having headaches, muscle aches, stomachaches, or unexplained pains
- Difficulty controlling feelings of worry
- Having sleep problems, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep
2. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, is an anxiety disorder and is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Repetitive behaviors such as hand washing, counting, checking, or cleaning are often performed with the hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away.
Performing these so-called “rituals,” however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety.
Signs and Symptoms
Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. Common symptoms include:
- Fear of germs or contamination
- Unwanted forbidden or taboo thoughts involving sex, religion, or harm
- Aggressive thoughts towards others or self
- Having things symmetrical or in a perfect order
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that a person with OCD feels the urge to do in response to an obsessive thought. Common compulsions include:
- Excessive cleaning and/or handwashing
- Ordering and arranging things in a particular, precise way
- Repeatedly checking on things, such as repeatedly checking to see if the door is locked or that the oven is off
- Compulsive counting
Not all rituals or habits are compulsions. Everyone double checks things sometimes. But a person with OCD generally:
- Can’t control his or her thoughts or behaviors, even when those thoughts or behaviors are recognized as excessive
- Spends at least 1 hour a day on these thoughts or behaviors
- Doesn’t get pleasure when performing the behaviors or rituals, but may feel brief relief from the anxiety the thoughts cause
- Experiences significant problems in their daily life due to these thoughts or behaviors
Some individuals with OCD also have a tic disorder. Motor tics are sudden, brief, repetitive movements, such as eye blinking and other eye movements, facial grimacing, shoulder shrugging, and head or shoulder jerking. Common vocal tics include repetitive throat-clearing, sniffing, or grunting sounds.
Symptoms may come and go, ease over time, or worsen. People with OCD may try to help themselves by avoiding situations that trigger their obsessions, or they may use alcohol or drugs to calm themselves.
Although most adults with OCD recognize that what they are doing doesn’t make sense, some adults and most children may not realize that their behavior is out of the ordinary. Parents or teachers typically recognize OCD symptoms in children.
If you think you have OCD, talk to your doctor about your symptoms. If left untreated, OCD can interfere in all aspects of life.
3. Panic Disorder
Panic disorder is when someone experiences panic attacks that get in the way of their life in some way.
Panic attacks can include any combination of sensations, including racing heart, rapid breathing, chest pain, dizziness, nausea or abdominal pain, blurred vision, sweating, shaking, feelings of doom, feeling like the world isn’t real (as though you are in a dream or a movie), or experiencing the moment as though you are outside of yourself.
The person may also experience fear of losing control, or fear of dying or going crazy.Panic attacks can be triggered by something specific, or they can occur seemingly out of the blue.They usually reach their peak intensity within 15 minutes.
It is important to note that someone can have panic attacks without having panic disorder.
When someone has panic disorder, they either avoid situations that they think will cause a panic attack (such as going to the mall, going to the movie theater, or driving), or they experience ongoing worry that they will experience another attack. In the case of panic disorder, panic attacks should not be better explained by a specific phobia or by social anxiety.
Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder and is characterized by unexpected and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms that may include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, or abdominal distress. click here : Prugo 10
People with panic disorder have frequent and unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear, discomfort, or sense of losing control even when there is no clear danger or trigger. Not everyone who experiences a panic attack will develop panic disorder.
During a panic attack, a person may experience:
- Pounding or racing heart
- Sweating
- Trembling or tingling
- Chest pain
- Feelings of impending doom
- Feelings of being out of control
People with panic disorder often worry about when the next attack will happen and actively try to prevent future attacks by avoiding places, situations, or behaviors they associate with panic attacks. Panic attacks can occur as frequently as several times a day or as rarely as a few times a year.
4. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened.
Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. Click here : Hilerin 25
Signs and Symptoms
While most but not all traumatized people experience short term symptoms, the majority do not develop ongoing (chronic) PTSD. Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event.
Some experiences, like the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD. Symptoms usually begin early, within 3 months of the traumatic incident, but sometimes they begin years afterward.
Symptoms must last more than a month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work to be considered PTSD.
The course of the illness varies. Some people recover within 6 months, while others have symptoms that last much longer. In some people, the condition becomes chronic.
A doctor who has experience helping people with mental illnesses, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, can diagnose PTSD.
To be diagnosed with PTSD, an adult must have all of the following for at least 1 month:
- At least one re-experiencing symptom
- At least one avoidance symptom
- At least two arousal and reactivity symptoms
- At least two cognition and mood symptoms
Re-experiencing symptoms include:
- Flashbacks—reliving the trauma over and over, including physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweating
- Bad dreams
- Frightening thoughts
Re-experiencing symptoms may cause problems in a person’s everyday routine.
The symptoms can start from the person’s own thoughts and feelings.
Words, objects, or situations that are reminders of the event can also trigger re-experiencing symptoms.
Avoidance symptoms include:
- Staying away from places, events, or objects that are reminders of the traumatic experience
- Avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event
Things that remind a person of the traumatic event can trigger avoidance symptoms. These symptoms may cause a person to change his or her personal routine. For example, after a bad car accident, a person who usually drives may avoid driving or riding in a car.
Arousal and reactivity symptoms include:
- Being easily startled
- Feeling tense or “on edge”
- Having difficulty sleeping
- Having angry outbursts
Arousal symptoms are usually constant, instead of being triggered by things that remind one of the traumatic events. These symptoms can make the person feel stressed and angry.
They may make it hard to do daily tasks, such as sleeping, eating, or concentrating.
Cognition and mood symptoms include:
- Trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event
- Negative thoughts about oneself or the world
- Distorted feelings like guilt or blame
- Loss of interest in enjoyable activities
Cognition and mood symptoms can begin or worsen after the traumatic event, but are not due to injury or substance use. These symptoms can make the person feel alienated or detached from friends or family members.
It is natural to have some of these symptoms for a few weeks after a dangerous event.
When the symptoms last more than a month, seriously affect one’s ability to function, and are not due to substance use, medical illness, or anything except the event itself, they might be PTSD.
Some people with PTSD don’t show any symptoms for weeks or months.
PTSD is often accompanied by depression, substance abuse, or one or more of the other anxiety disorders.
Do children react differently than adults?
Children and teens can have extreme reactions to trauma, but some of their symptoms may not be the same as adults. Symptoms sometimes seen in very young children (less than 6 years old), these symptoms can include:
- Wetting the bed after having learned to use the toilet
- Forgetting how to or being unable to talk
- Acting out the scary event during playtime
- Being unusually clingy with a parent or other adult
Older children and teens are more likely to show symptoms similar to those seen in adults.
They may also develop disruptive, disrespectful, or destructive behaviors.
Older children and teens may feel guilty for not preventing injury or deaths. They may also have thoughts of revenge. Click Here : Buspin 5
5. Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder)
Phobias are intense fears of specific animals, objects or situations. This would include a fear of dogs, spiders, heights, blood draws, the dentist, or anything else.
A person with a phobia either goes out of their way to avoid the feared objected or situation, or they face it, but they experience extreme distress.
The fear has to last at least six months before it is considered a phobia. Children with age-appropriate fears are not the same as phobias; e.g., a 3-year-old who is afraid of the dark.
Social anxiety disorder (previously called social phobia): People with social anxiety disorder have a general intense fear of, or anxiety toward, social or performance situations.
They worry that actions or behaviors associated with their anxiety will be negatively evaluated by others, leading them to feel embarrassed.
This worry often causes people with social anxiety to avoid social situations. Social anxiety disorder can manifest in a range of situations, such as within the workplace or the school environment.
Agoraphobia: People with agoraphobia have an intense fear of two or more of the following situations:
- Using public transportation
- Being in open spaces
- Being in enclosed spaces
- Standing in line or being in a crowd
- Being outside of the home alone
People with agoraphobia often avoid these situations, in part, because they think being able to leave might be difficult or impossible in the event they have panic-like reactions or other embarrassing symptoms.
In the most severe form of agoraphobia, an individual can become housebound.
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 who have separation anxiety disorder have fears about being parted from people to whom they are attached.
They often worry that some sort of harm or something untoward will happen to their attachment figures while they are separated.
This fear leads them to avoid being separated from their attachment figures and to avoid being alone.
People with separation anxiety may have nightmares about being separated from attachment figures or experience physical symptoms when separation occurs or is anticipated.
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