An Introduction to Anxiety
Everyone feels and experiences anxiety at some point of time in their lives. To some extent anxiety will help you to react to a situation the way it demands. But when it crosses the limits, anxiety can become a mental disorder that demands medical attention and treatment. Anxiety is a health disorder that consists of somatic, cognitive, emotional and behavioral components. When these components combined, people start experiencing a sort of unpleasant feeling and uneasiness followed by unexplained fear and worry.
Signs and symptoms of anxiety expressed by an individual can vary in combination and severity. Most commonly expressed symptoms and signs of anxiety by the patients include heart palpitations, fatigue, restlessness, feeling of lump in the throat, chest pain, breathing troubles, stomach ache, head ache, nausea, irritability, impatience, lack of concentration or distraction, muscle pain, excessive sweating, diarrhea and a feeling of being cornered by others.
The external signs of anxiety that one can see in an individual includes the paleness of the skin, sweating, papillary dilation and trembling. People who feel anxiety need not suffer panic attacks and it cannot be called a common symptom of anxiety. The person who experiences panic attacks of anxiety starts developing a feeling that he/she is about to die or like they may pass out. The symptoms shown by such a person can be misunderstood as the symptoms of heart failure by others who watch the changes in the person.
The exact cause of anxiety that makes someone react to situations in an abnormal way is not fully understood by the medical world as in the case of many other mental illnesses. Clinical and animal studies conducted in this field indicate that the malfunction of neurotransmitters are present in the brain that can cause anxiety in people.
Most of the people who suffer from anxiety disorders believe that the problem they suffer date back to their childhood. This condition can also develop into adulthood. When compared to men, women are found to be affected more by an anxiety disorder.
Certain factors that increase the chances of anxiety in an individual include childhood experiences, illness, stress, personality disorders and genetics.
Different types of anxiety disorder include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder and separation anxiety.
The different types of treatments adopted by doctors who deal with anxiety cases include psychotherapy, life style changes and medications. Anti-depressant medications used by doctors include anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants.
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