About Anxiety
Everyone can feel anxious from time to time. But when anxiety starts to interfere with your everyday life, you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder. Recovery is possible through a range of effective anxiety treatments.
Anxiety disorders, and anxiety combined with depression, are common forms of mental illness.
Anxiety is a natural reaction that everyone experiences in certain life situations. It is the physiological response that people feel when faced with a threat, a potentially dangerous situation, or intense or prolonged periods of stress. Because feelings of anxiety are very common, it can be hard to determine when anxiety has become a problem.
The causes of anxiety disorders are not fully known. Research suggests that the risk of developing the disorders can be heightened by several factors including genetics, personal characteristics such as low self-esteem and poor coping skills, or due to biochemistry - the way the neurotransmitters in one’s brain function.
When is anxiety a problem?
People are generally diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when their feelings of anxiety become so regular and extreme that it interferes significantly with their day to day lives. Anxiety disorders are characterised by persistent levels of high anxiety, tension and excessive worry about everyday life events.
Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness, affecting one in 20 people at any given time. If left untreated, anxiety disorders may lead to significant distress and disruption to everyday life and can lead to depression.
Click the following link for more information about depression.
Symptoms of anxiety
In addition to anxiety affecting the way you think, it can also trigger physical responses. Symptoms may include:
- Feelings of helplessness
- Confusion
- Faintness/ dizziness
- Pounding heartbeat
- Breathing difficulties
- Nausea/ stomach ache
- Restlessness
- Increased blood pressure
- Muscle tension
- Hot and cold sweats
- Irritability
Types of disorders
Some of the more common anxiety disorders are:
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD affects around 5% of the population in Australia. People with this condition experience excessive worry or irrational fears about everyday events and find it hard to “turn off” this worry and even fall asleep at night.
Social Anxiety Disorder affects around 3 to 13% of the population. It includes overwhelming and persistent feelings of anxiety when faced with social interactions, including performance situations, where the person fears intense scrutiny, negativity, humiliation and embarrassment, whilst being judged by others.
Panic Disorder with/without Agoraphobia affects 2% of the population, although 30% of the population experience a panic attack during a given year. Panic disorder is characterised by recurrent panic attacks with a constant fear of experiencing another attack. Agoraphobia may develop, where a person begins to avoid places and situations usually outside of the home, where they fear having another panic attack.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Around 5% of the population experience PTSD at some point in their lives and more than one-quarter of a million Australians experience PTSD in any one year. People may experience a range of symptoms following a traumatic event. When these symptoms persist over a prolonged period of time without a person returning to their usual sense of self, PTSD can develop. Symptoms can include constantly re-living the event through memories, dreams, flashbacks, images, etc. The person may avoid places or people that remind them of the event and are extremely sensitive to normal life experiences which bring back memories of the event.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects about 2 to 3% of the population. It involves obsessions, which are overwhelming thoughts/images or impulses, where a person feels compelled to carry out ritualistic behavioural and mental acts (compulsions).
Anxiety Treatment
There are a number of effective treatments for anxiety and anxiety disorders. Psychologists may use a combination of the following for anxiety treatment:
- Psychological treatments. For the majority of anxiety disorders, psychological treatments are the most successful forms of treatment. These treatments aim to change patterns of behaviour, thoughts and beliefs which may trigger anxiety. Common treatments include cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, solution-focussed therapy, behaviour therapy and/ or graded exposure therapy. Psychologists may also use desensitisation, which is a slow and gradual process of exposing a person to the trigger which causes anxiety in order to desensitise the person to the point where the fear no longer poses a threat.
- Education about anxiety and about the specific anxiety disorder is an important step in the treatment of anxiety disorders. This will involve talking about the disorder and dispelling fears and myths that people commonly have about the disorder.
- Anxiety management techniques are used to help treat anxiety and include challenging unhelpful thoughts, learning new coping strategies, controlled breathing exercises and relaxation training.
- Medication, if agreed by a medical practitioner, may also be used. Medication alone will not cure an anxiety disorder but can assist to keep symptoms under control whilst receiving psychological care.
For more information about anxiety, visit the following websites:
www.beyondblue.org.au
www.sane.org/information/factsheets/anxiety_disorders.html
http://www.crufad.com/selfhelp/generalAnxiety
How Life Resolutions can help
Life Resolutions has a network of qualified psychologists who are experienced in diagnosing and treating anxiety. We can provide anxiety depression support for people who may be also suffering from depression.
Visit the Contact Us page to make an appointment.