Everyone has anxiety, but not for anxiety disorder! The normal anxiety is normal expression or normal emotion of the body at times, like nervous before doing a test or interview of job, nervous when making a crucial decision, or nervous when having a date with someone you love for the first time, etc. So, what is anxiety disorder? It is very different, even it can lead to distress that eventually will influence the ability of an individual to have a normal life.
You might also like to read more detailed information about treatment options and physical symptoms of anxiety, before continuing!
It can be categorized into one of serious & severe mental illness! Patients with this disorder usually have more feelings of fear and worry, and these can be overwhelming & constant, or even can be crippling!
Anxiety disorder types
There are some types of this disorder, according to a published article on WebMD, below are some of them:
- Panic disorder! For this type, the symptoms (like feelings of terror) can attack in rapid progression or strike suddenly. These can strike in repeatedly condition without any warning.
- OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)! This kind of anxiety disorder usually will make patient experience constant fear or thoughts (disturbing thoughts or familiar called obsessions) and then these can encourage the patient to perform routines or rituals (familiar called as compulsions). For instance, individuals with unknown reasons too fear of germs that constantly wash their hands.
- PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)! It is a kind of anxiety disorder that is usually caused by certain terrifying and/or traumatic event (like loss of parent, physical assault, sexual assault, tragic disaster, etc).
- Phobia! It is a kind of social anxiety disorder and usually can cause overwhelming self-consciousness and worry, particularly feelings of worry associated with social situations.
- Specific phobia! You might know it! As the name suggests, specific phobia is a kind of anxiety disorder that describers an intense fear or worry of a certain situation or object, like phobia to heights, phobia to snacks, phobia to certain foods, etc.
- GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder)! It is characterized by exaggerated anxiety and excessive worry about many events in daily life without unknown reason or reasonable reasons for worry!
Causes of anxiety disorders
Like other mental illness, anxiety disorder is not the result of poor upbringing, a character flaw, or personal weakness! Unfortunately, the exact factors or causes of this disorder are still not known! But many experts believe that it is triggered or caused by a lot of factors or a combination of many factors, including environmental stress and changes in the patient’s brain!
Furthermore, there is also another theory that suspects the chemical imbalances could be one of the reasons that may cause anxiety disorders.
Prevention
Another big question -- can anxiety disorder be prevented? Unfortunately, there is also no clearly way to prevent it! In other words, it cannot be prevented!
But if you are diagnosed with this disorder, there are some ways that may be helpful to control or minimize your anxiety disorder symptoms, which may include:
- Limit the intake of caffeine, or avoid consuming caffeine-foods (like chocolate, coffee, cola, etc) if necessary!
- After experiencing disturbing or traumatic experience -- find help, counseling or other appropriately supports!
- There are many supplements or herbal remedies that are claimed to be helpful to treat anxiety disorder! If you interest to use these options, make sure you consult and discuss first with your pharmacist or doctor!
You may also like to read about can depression be cured?
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Reference: WebMD
Image credit to ‘shutterstock’ for illustration
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Reference: WebMD
Image credit to ‘shutterstock’ for illustration
