Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is defined as nervousness, apprehension, and self-doubt that may or may not be associated with real-life stressors. Everyone experiences some level of anxiety periodically, but when feelings of dread and worry are unfocused, overwhelming, recurring, and not directly linked to stressful events, anxiety may leave a person severely impaired. When anxiety interferes with daily function, the support of a qualified mental health professional can often be helpful.
Symptoms, Signs, and Related Conditions
Anxiety symptoms include obtrusive, obsessive, worried thoughts, confusion and difficulty concentrating, pacing or restlessness, irritability, frustration, and despair. A person with anxiety may feel tense, with uncomfortable physical sensations such as trembling, sweating, a racing heartbeat, nausea, and difficulty breathing. The severe and sudden onset of such symptoms is often indicative of a panic attack. Anxiety can also lead to headaches, insomnia, digestive problems, and lightheadedness.
Anxiety is at the root of many mental health conditions, including panic attacks and phobias, and it is often directly correlated with other conditions, such as obsessions and compulsions, post-traumatic stress, and depression. These are the five major categories of anxiety disorders.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Panic Disorder
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder)
How Does Anxiety Develop?
Anxiety, not unlike the fight, flight, or freeze response, is a survival mechanism that allows people to protect themselves in order to avoid suffering, but sometimes a person repeatedly and unnecessarily experiences extreme levels of the fear and worry associated with anxiety and feels helpless to alleviate the symptoms.
A person’s predisposition toward anxiety is based both in biology and environment. In other words, anxious behaviors may be inherited, learned, or both. For example, research demonstrates that anxious children are likely born to anxious parents, but those parents may also model anxious tendencies, such as avoiding or fearing potential threats, that then instill the same fear and avoidant behaviors in their children. Growing up in a stressful environment may also predispose someone to anxiety because anxiety becomes a way to anticipate danger and ensure safety.
Anxiety can also develop as a result of unresolved trauma that leaves a person in a heightened physiological state of arousal; when this is the case, certain experiences may reactivate the old trauma, as is common for people experiencing posttraumatic stress (PTSD).
Generalized or Free-Floating Anxiety
Free-floating anxiety, also known as generalized anxiety, is characterized by a chronic sense of unease, doom, and worry that is not directed toward any one thing in particular. Many people often feel anxiety about specific future events such as job interviews, dates, or financial concerns, but people experiencing flee-floating anxiety feel generalized anxiety about any number of issues or concerns for no obvious reason. In other words, the anxiety experienced may not be in proportion to the actual impact of a particular event.
People may experience some or all of the following symptoms:
- Frequent feelings of fatigue
- Restlessness, feeling tense or on edge
- Irritability
- Difficulty focusing, drawing a blank
- Sleep problems
- Muscle tension
There are many factors that can contribute to the development of free-floating anxiety. Living in stressful or abusive environments may produce chronic anxiety, and sometimes anxiety becomes a habit. When someone is accustomed to feeling anxiety about a specific event, they may continue feeling anxiety even after the event has occurred. Additionally, some psychologists have argued that the character of modern life subjects people to free-floating anxiety. Constant deadlines, the need for everything to occur quickly, and the ability to compare oneself to others via social networking, or otherwise, can cause chronic anxiety.
When a person cannot identify the source of anxiety, therapy can help that person develop coping skills for mitigating symptoms. Deep breathing techniques, meditation, exercise, effective planning, and assertive communication may each help some people cope with chronic anxiety.
Therapy for Anxiety
Because anxiety can interfere with relationships, sleeping patterns, eating habits, work, school, and routine activities, anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy, and effective therapy can significantly reduce or eliminate symptoms associated with anxiety in a relatively short time, allowing a person to resume regular activities and regain a sense of control. Although people may not be able to identify the cause of their anxiety, after attending a few therapy sessions, many people are able to pinpoint the source and a therapist can help a person work on those deeper concerns.
The type of therapy that is most often recommended for the treatment of anxiety due to its demonstrated effectiveness is cognitive behavioral therapy, although most forms of therapy are well suited to addressing anxiety. Rather than treating symptoms alone, as medications do, psychotherapy aims to identify and address the source of the anxiety. The self-reflective process of therapy helps people to understand, unravel, and transform anxiety and learn self-soothing techniques to use if anxiety flares up again.
The therapist and client will collaborate on a treatment plan, which may include other therapy treatments and lifestyle adjustments to help relieve anxiety such as meditation, group therapy, stress-management and relaxation techniques, self-care, exercise, family therapy, and eliminating or reducing intake of stimulative substances like caffeine.