Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a natural feeling experienced by nearly everyone at some time in their lives. Different situations at home, at leisure and at work can trigger feelings of nervousness and apprehension, but the feeling usually passes quickly.
But for some people, the anxiety is so intense and persistent that it affects their everyday life, stopping them from doing things that they once did without concern or hesitation, even preventing them from functioning effectively at work.
It is important to distinguish between normal feelings of nervousness - about something like a job interview or meeting your future mother-in-law - and anxiety that prevents one from leading a normal life. When one has ‘natural’ nervousness, life isn’t affected in a bad way. In fact, a little adrenalin can have a positive effect.
Because anxiety disorders are so common, everyone will know someone in their family, at work, or in their circle of friends, who has or will develop an anxiety disorder. It is therefore something that affects or impacts all of us.
How ‘DepNet’ Can Help You
Anxiety disorders are characterised by constant worrying and nervousness. It is so prominent and problematic that you may have to change and restrict your lifestyle. There are things you may be unable to do and places you are unable to go because of your anxiety.
This section is designed to help you understand:
- different types of anxiety disorder and the symptoms that accompany them;
- what triggers anxiety disorders and how doctors distinguish between them;
- when and why you should seek professional help;
- the treatments that are available and how to access them;
- the people who can help you;
- strategies for dealing with anxiety;
- information for your family and friends, and
- how to find support from the ‘DepNet’ community.
If you are experiencing severe anxiety you can be helped and supported by medical professionals as well as your family and friends. This means that, often, you may need to speak to others about your problems in order to get better.
What Are Anxiety Disorders?
The experience of an anxiety reaction is common to all anxiety disorders. This may vary in a number of ways such as how intense it is, how frequently it is experienced, and how persistent it is. It may also be triggered by different situations, be more or less in severity and have different consequences.
There are a large number of anxiety disorders, with substantial overlap between them. This means that people can be diagnosed with more than one of them at the same time. This is called ‘comorbidity’. It is quite unusual for someone to suffer from only one phobia, and many people have several other fears as well as the one they are seeking treatment for.
‘DepNet’ will give you detailed information about:
Who Suffers From Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety symptoms are common and may be mild, causing little or no impairment in social and occupational function. But many people are troubled by severe and persistent symptoms that cause significant personal distress, impair function and reduce quality of life.
Anxiety disorders can occur at any time from childhood through to old age. They can affect boys and girls, men and women.
The age and gender distribution of individual disorders varies. For example, specific phobias are more common in women than in men across all age groups, whereas panic disorder is almost as frequent in men and women aged 51-65. Nevertheless the pattern for all disorders taken together if fairly constant with an overall female:male ratio of about 2:1.
People who are suffering from depression may also experience anxiety symptoms because anxiety and depression are closely linked. And if you are suffering from an anxiety disorder, you may be depressed as well.
Anxiety Disorder Diagnosis
A diagnosis is a tool that doctors use when they have to find out which disease you are suffering from. For example, if you present with symptoms that could indicate signs of an anxiety disorder, the doctor will use his or her examination, together with your description of your symptoms, in order to make a diagnosis.
Making a diagnosis will help find the answers to the following questions:
- Are you suffering from an anxiety disorder or not?
- If the answer is yes, what type of anxiety disorder?
- Are you suffering from anything else?
- What will be the likely course of the disease?
- Which treatment is the best in your particular case? This might be some form of medication or cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).
- What side-effects or complications might occur?
To meet the diagnosis of an anxiety disorder, patients have to experience a certain number of symptoms for more than a minimum specified period. The symptoms must cause significant distress and be associated with impairment in everyday function.