Living with Anxiety
Living with Anxiety
by Phil Wiley
Anxiety is a disorder that fills people’s lives with fear and nervousness.
People can have anxiety in a range of forms including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder (also known as social phobia), phobias and generalized anxiety disorder.
Everyone is familiar with the feeling of anxiety – nervousness, a knot of fear or a sinking feeling in your stomach, the feeling of fight or flight. But imagine having to live with that feeling every day?
Quite often people who have anxiety disorders also suffer from depression and this needs to be treated along with their anxiety disorder. Symptoms of depression include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, changes in appetite or sleep, low energy, and difficulty concentrating.
Environmental, psychological, genetic and bodily factors can all contribute to the risk of a person developing an anxiety disorder. Because of this some people are more at risk than others and some anxiety disorders have more of a relation to genetics than others.
There is a four to seven times increased risk of developing panic disorder for close relatives of those who are already sufferers.
Many people who live with anxiety disorders live their lives suffering and remain untreated. However, anxiety is very treatable with a combination of anxiety-reducing drugs and other therapies.
A specific phobia is an intense fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. Common phobias can include spiders, closed-in places, heights, escalators, tunnels, highway driving, water, flying, dogs, and injuries involving blood.
People with panic disorder have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly without warning and are often highly anxious between attacks about where and when the next one will occur.
Social phobia or social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. Sufferers have a persistent, intense, and chronic fear of being watched and judged by others and being embarrassed or humiliated by their own actions.
Those with obsessive-compulsive disorder suffer from anxious thoughts or rituals they feel they can't control. They can be suffer from persistent, unwelcome thoughts or images, or by the urgent need to engage in certain rituals such as washing their hands a certain number of times or getting dressed following a very strict routine.
Post-traumatic stress disorder can develop following a terrifying event. Those with the disorder have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb.
Generalized anxiety disorder goes beyond everyday anxiety. It is a chronic disorder that involves unprovoked exaggerated worry and tension.
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Kate and Phil Wiley run the popular health sites
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