Anxiety disorders are collectively the most common mental disorder affecting children and adults. Roughly 40 million American adults over the age of 18 suffer with at least one form of anxiety. These disorders tend to run in families and have a biological basis, but may develop due to brain chemistry, personality, or life events. Despite being highly treatable issues, only one-third of adults receive treatment. The commonly used term “anxiety disorders” exemplifies generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder and panic attacks, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, selective mutism, separation anxiety, and specific phobias. (“Understanding the Facts”) Generalized anxiety disorder develops slowly over time, typically starting in teens …show more content…
It is still uncertain how this disorder is caused, but it tends to appear during the teen years or early adulthood. There seems to be a connection between panic disorder and significant life events. If another family member suffered, relatives are at an increased risk of suffering. Immediate dangers associated with panic disorders are phobias, a person may avoid a place with all their power with the thought that it will prevent another attack from happening. This is labeled as “situational avoidance.” People who suffer from panic disorder have a greater risk of attempting suicide, spend more time in emergency rooms, spend less time on what they typically enjoy, are financially dependent on others, are afraid of driving away from home, and they report feeling less healthy than others who don't suffer. (“Answers to Your Questions About Panic Disorder”) People often don't know that their disorder is highly treatable and treatments include therapy and medication, often used hand in hand. Specialized therapists will individualize treatments for each patient. They are afraid telling anyone, including their doctor, due to a fear of being seen as a hypochondriac. This often occurs in accompany with other anxiety disorders, depression, medical complications, and substance abuse. (“Panic Disorder &
Generalized Anxiety Disorder, also known as (GAD) is one of the several types of anxiety disorders. GAD according to our textbook (Lahey) is an uneasy sense of general tension and apprehension for no apparent reason that makes the individual highly uncomfortable because of its prolonged presence. GAD is much more than the normal anxiety people experience day to day. Without provoking, it is chronic and exaggerated worry and tension. This disorder can involve anticipating disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family or work. Sometimes, though, just the thought of getting through the day brings anxiety.
Since one of the prominent concerns she has is related to health, she needs to be reassured by a physician that these symptoms are not dangerous, along with being aware about the fact that she misinterprets these symptoms and these symptoms can be created if she persistently focus on the certain parts of her body.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic and often disabling condition that is associated with uncontrollable worry and tension. The vicious cycle of anxiety and worry interferes with relationships, careers, and education, and often leads to depression. This disorder is much more than the normal anxiety that everyone experiences from time to time, and can be crippling in its severity. GAD is unlikely to disappear without proper treatment, and often worsens over time.
Bearing in mind that an anxiety response is a result of various factors, there are different types of anxiety disorders. The most common type of anxiety disorders as described as specific phobias, social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder (PD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) (2016), specific phobias affect about 19 million adults in the U.S, while SAD affects 15 million, PD affects 6 million, GAD affects about 6.8 million, OCD affects about 2.2 million and PTSD affects 7.7 million adults respectively. Considering that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S, yet only about one-third of those suffering receive treatment (ADAA, 2016).
Social anxiety disorder is the third largest psychological problem in the United States. It affects approximately 15 million Americans every year. It is a widely misunderstood disorder, where nearly 90% of people with social anxiety disorder are misdiagnosed. They are often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, manic-depression, clinical depression, panic disorder, and or personality disorder (Richards 1-3). Misdiagnosis and undertreatment of anxiety disorders, according to "The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders," a study commissioned by the ADAA, costs the United States more than $42 billion a year and more than $22.84 billion is linked to the repeated use of healthcare services for symptoms that mimic physical illness. In addition, people with anxiety disorder are three-to-five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders when compared to those who do not suffer from anxiety disorders ("Brief Overview of Anxiety Disorders" 2) (3).
Severe anxiety, which can be described as an episode of terror, is referred to as a panic attack. Panic attacks can be extremely frightening. People who experience panic attacks over a prolonged time period may become victims of agoraphobia, which is a psychiatric disorder that is closely associated with the panic disorder. Patients with Agoraphobia avoid certain places or situations such as airplanes, crowded theaters, a grocery store or anyplace from which escape might be difficult. It is said that Agoraphobia can be so severe that it has made certain individuals housebound.
Fear and Anxiety are essential functions that occur in the brain that allow people to respond to stimuli appropriately. These feelings as normal as they are can cause problems and in 3.1 percent of adult Americans approximately 6.8 million people it does cause problems (“Generalized anxiety disorder”, 2014). A problem can arise when people have too much fear and anxiety; a problem is evident when it interferes with their life and their ability to do things. This is known as general anxiety disorder (GAD). When someone is suffering from generalized anxiety disorder they normally experience excessive exaggerated anxiety and worry about normal life events that give no clear reason for worry (“Generalized anxiety disorder”, 2014). This disorder can be debilitating and rule over people’s lives if it is severe and a better understanding of the disorder can be gained by looking at historical views, current views, causes and symptoms, case studies, differential diagnosis considerations, and treatment.
The condition of Donald can be described as a long term, constant and at times disabling conditions; that can be described as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the anxiety disorder that has affected about 3.1 % of American adults that are age from 18 to older (2013, National Institute of Mental Health).
It should be noted that while agoraphobia and panic attacks are closely related conditions, on rare occasions one can occur without the other. According to published reports nearly 95% of agoraphobia sufferers will experience panic attacks at some time along with other agoraphobia symptoms. Conversely, roughly 1/3 of people with diagnosed panic attacks have an accompanying agoraphobia diagnosis.
My chosen topic is anxiety disorders. Why anxiety? It is an epidemic affecting many people I know. It is understandable that we all need a little bit of it to keep us motivated, but too much of it could be detrimental. Anxiety is the apprehension, uneasiness, and excessive worry and fear about the future, often accompanied by compulsive disorders (Townsend, Mary, and Karyn, 2018). Anxiety is very common in our society today. While mild anxiety is motivational, moderate, severe, and panic anxiety disorders could negatively impact our perception of reality and general wellbeing. My purpose for writing this paper is to explain the concept of anxiety and suggest
There are many different perceptions about people with social anxiety. People who do have it are often seen by others as just being shy, aloof, constrained, unfriendly, uneasy, quiet, indifferent, or diffident. The people who are afflicted with social anxiety may be clouded by these perceptions as well, so they may fail to seek treatment. Because the problem is generally unheard of, they may think that they are the only ones who suffer from it. People who do seek treatment are misdiagnosed 90% of the time, often labeled as "personality disorder", "manic depressive", or "schizophrenic", among other things. This is because social anxiety is not well understood by the general public, or medical or health care professionals. They are not even sure of the real cause of it or what it stems from.
of the disbelief that they are legitimate illnesses and not just made up for attention or
Today we have learned about anxiety disorders. We’ve discussed what they are, ways to treat them, and lastly the problems they create. We have learned that the different types of anxiety disorders range from mild to severe. There are several ways to treat it such as medication and psychotherapy and finally, that depression and anxiety can sometimes go hand in hand. Someone sitting in this very room could be currently battling
The difference between normal worrying and generalized anxiety disorder are the accompanying symptoms as well as the length of time the worrying persists. To occasionally torment oneself with or suffer from distressing thoughts is classified as normal worrying. The symptoms of worrying may vary, but most people experience disturbed feelings and the mental fatigue of being overly concerned with a circumstance. On the other hand, with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) one experiences excessive anxiety under most circumstances, expecting the worst even when there is no obvious or visible reason for concern. The symptoms are being agitated, on edge, easily tired, having difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, and issues with sleep. GAD usually develops during childhood or the adolescent years and the symptoms last as long as six months as opposed to normal worrying which dissipates in a much shorter length of time. (Word count: 141)
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. Every person experiences some form of anxiety in his or her lifetime. Anxiety helps us deal with tense situations like using our flight or fight reaction, study harder for an exam, or keep focus on important deadlines. Anxiety can be useful until it gets to the point of interfering with everyday life. Some people explain it as not being able to shut the anxiety off. When anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it becomes a disabling disorder (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Each year, anxiety disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). There are five major Anxiety Disorders they include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Phobias.