Anxiety Disorders

What are Anxiety Disorders?

Occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. You might feel anxious when faced with a problem at work, before taking a test, or making an important decision. But anxiety disorders involve more than temporary worry or fear. For a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and can get worse over time. The feelings can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, school work, and relationships.

What are the types of anxiety disorders?

Anxiety disorder is an umbrella term that includes different conditions:

Panic disorder. You feel terror that strikes at random. During a panic attack, you may also sweat, have chest pain, and feel palpitations (unusually strong or irregular heartbeats). Sometimes you may feel like you’re choking or having a heart attack.

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Social anxiety disorder. Also called social phobia, this is when you feel overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. You fixate about others judging you or on being embarrassed or ridiculed.

Specific phobias. You feel intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as heights or flying. The fear goes beyond what’s appropriate and may cause you to avoid ordinary situations.

Generalized anxiety disorder. You feel excessive, unrealistic worry and tension with little or no reason.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a diagnosis you might be given if your anxiety leads you to experience:

obsessions – unwelcome thoughts, images, urges or doubts that repeatedly appear in your mind
compulsions – repetitive activities that you feel you have to do

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What are the symptoms of anxiety disorders?

All anxiety disorders share some general symptoms:

  • Panic, fear, and uneasiness
  • Sleep problems
  • Not being able to stay calm and still
  • Cold, sweaty, numb or tingling hands or feet
  • Shortness of breath
  • Heart palpitations
  • Dry mouth
  • Nausea
  • Tense muscles
  • Dizziness

What are the causes of anxiety disorders?

Researchers don’t know exactly what brings on anxiety disorders. Like other forms of mental illness, they stem from a combination of things, including changes in your brain and environmental stress, and even your genes. The disorders can run in families and could be linked to faulty circuits in the brain that control fear and other emotions.

How anxiety disorders are diagnosed and treated?

The first step is to see your doctor to make sure there is no physical problem causing the symptoms. If an anxiety disorder is diagnosed, a mental health professional can work with you on the best treatment. Unfortunately, many people with anxiety disorders don’t seek help. They don’t realize that they have an illness that has effective treatments.

Although each anxiety disorder has unique characteristics, most respond well to two types of treatment: psychotherapy, or “talk therapy,” and medications. These treatments can be given alone or in combination. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), a type of talk therapy, can help a person learn a different way of thinking, reacting and behaving to help feel less anxious. Medications will not cure anxiety disorders, but can give significant relief from symptoms. The most commonly used medications are anti-anxiety medications (generally prescribed only for a short period of time) and antidepressants. Beta-blockers, used for heart conditions, are sometimes used to control physical symptoms of anxiety.

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Dr Somanath CP
Psychiatrist

Dr Somanath is a leading and eminent psychiatrist based in Kochi. He did his MBBS at Medical College Kottayam and post graduation in psychiatry from NIMHANS Bangalore. He has 20 years of experience in the field of psychiatry and worked as faculty in NIMHANS, SH Hospital Painkulam, Thodupuzha, Child Care Centre Gandhinagar and Lakeshore hospital Kochi. His current research interests are Genetics of Psychiatric disorders, Developmental disorders in children, psychosomatic medicine, Health education & Public awareness programme.

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