Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders take many forms, but the primary presenting symptom is the description of a feeling of fear, dread, or apprehension that seems to arise from nowhere, or is exaggerated in comparison to the trigger. Those with normal anxiety, on the other hand, feel these things in response to an actual threat or danger or the appearance of actual threat or danger.

Anxiety Disorders

Often, anxiety disorders arise from subconscious emotional conflicts. Intense, persistent, or chronic anxiety with no clear cause is defined as a mental disorder. Many other mental disorders present with anxiety disorder as well, including schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive behavior, post traumatic stress disorder, and multiple personality disorder, but there are also pure anxiety disorders, such as phobias.

Symptoms of anxiety may be physical, psychological, and behavioral. The physical signs are a result of overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, the part that is stimulated when you’re frightened, ride a roller coaster, or have a sudden shock. Symptoms include palpitations, dry mouth, pupil dilation, shortness of breath, sweating, abdominal symptoms such as nausea, tight throat, trembling, and dizziness. Psychological symptoms also associated with this overactivity include irritability, difficulty concentrating, and restlessness. And behaviorally, anxiety generally triggers the fight-or-flight impulse – the urge to either beat up the problem or run away from it.

Phobias are pure anxiety disorders, and are marked by intense dread of objects or situations that should not have such an effect. A truly phobic person will do whatever they can to avoid the dreaded object or situation. Only about six in one thousand people suffer from a true phobia – that is, one in which the fear of the object or situation would result in paralysis or flight. Phobic symptoms last for many years unless treated, and, depending on the phobia, the behavior produced may limit the patient in a variety of ways.

In children, anxiety disorders present a little differently. A child generally cannot express himself or herself quite as well about the anxiety or fear, and the anxious feelings may bleed over into other parts of his or her life. For instance, the child may be timid and fearful with other children and clingy with his or her mother. Physical illness may present, and sleep disturbances and nightmares may start happening. Generally, this disorder is not pathologic in children, and they will grow out of it. Somewhat older children may experience eating disorders in response to anxiety. This is a much more serious issue. Children with eating disorders need treatment as soon as possible to address not just the disorder, but the underlying cause of the anxiety.