Facts About Anxiety Disorders

It's common to experience feelings of anxiety before an important event such as a move, business presentation, or a visit to the doctor. These days, too, given recent events, everyone is somewhat on edge. What turns feelings of anxiety into a disorder is degree. When anxiety becomes overwhelming, filling a person's life with fear that is chronic and unremitting, it becomes a disorder. Symptoms include panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, or even frightening physical symptoms such as trembling or dizziness. Here, some facts about anxiety disorders and their treatments.

How Common Are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America: More than 19 million Americans are affected each year.

What Are the Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders?
Panic Disorder: Repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning. Physical symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal distress, feelings of unreality, and fear of dying.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem impossible to stop or control.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing a traumatic event such as rape or other criminal assault, war, child abuse, natural disasters, or crashes. Common symptoms include: nightmares; flashbacks; numbing of emotions; depression; feeling angry, irritable or distracted; being easily startled.

Phobias: There are many types of phobias. Two big ones: social and specific. People with social phobia have an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in social situations, which leads to avoidance of many potentially pleasurable and meaningful activities. People with specific phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoidance of objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Constant, exaggerated worrisome thoughts and tension about everyday routine life events and activities, lasting at least six months. Almost always anticipating the worst even though there is little reason to expect it, accompanied by physical symptoms, such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headache, or nausea.

What Are Effective Treatments for Anxiety Disorders?
A combination of medication and specific types of psychotherapy is often recommended. More medications are available than ever before. These include groups of drugs called antidepressants and benzodiazepines. If one medication is not effective, others can be tried. New medications are always in development.

Two clinically proven forms of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety disorders are behavioral therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing specific actions and unwanted behaviors. Cognitive-behavioral therapy goes a step further, teaching patients to understand and change their thinking patterns so they can react differently when they find themselves in situations that cause them anxiety.

Do Anxiety Disorders Coexist With Other Physical or Mental Disorders?
Often, anxiety disorders aren't an isolated problem. It is common for an anxiety disorder to accompany depression, eating disorders or substance abuse. Anxiety disorders can also coexist with physical disorders. In such instances, the accompanying disorders will also need to be treated. Before beginning any treatment, however, it is important to have a thorough medical examination to rule out other possible causes of symptoms. If you're experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, see your doctor.