Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is part of life; everyone feels it to one degree or another during their lives. However, when that feeling of anxiety starts to take over your life, or is persistent beyond a certain time in our lives (e.g. a speech in class) then a person may have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders are characterized by extreme distress, persistent anxiety, or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety.

The Problems of Anxiety Disorders Anxiety is a normal reaction to a threatening situation and results from an increase in the amount of adrenaline from the sympathetic nervous system. This increased adrenaline speeds the heart and respiration rate, raises blood pressure, and diverts blood flow to the muscles. These physical reactions are appropriate for escaping from danger but when they cause anxiety in many situations throughout the day, they may be detrimental to a normal lifestyle. An anxiety disorder is a disorder where feelings of fear, apprehension, or anxiety are disruptive or cause distortions in behavior, (Coon, 526); they are psychiatric illnesses that are not useful for normal functioning. At times, an underlying illness or disease can cause persistent anxiety.

Anxiety Disorder What is Anxiety? As defined by Understanding Psychology by Glencoe, Anxiety is a general state of dread or uneasiness that a person feels in response to a real or imagined danger. Anxiety affects 19 million Americans annually and anxiety disorder happens to be the most common mental illness in America. There are many different types of anxiety disorder such as: Panic Disorder, Obsessive – Compulsion Disorder, Phobias, and a few more.

Anxiety is defined as a diffuse, internal, loose floating tension that doesn’t have a real danger or an external object. There is also a significant difference from the notion of fear. Fear usually has an outer object (a real fear of a snake, height or an unreal fear, when the danger is just imagined). Anxiety does not have an external object or external danger but has an internal danger. Internal danger can be some intrapsychic conflict, impulse unacceptable to the ego, suppressed thoughts, etc.

To some people, anxiety is just considered a reaction to stress. Anxiety helps an individual handle an uptight and stressful situation. It is the body’s way of helping a person handle and respond to stress. However, when anxiety becomes excessive and irrational, it is considered a disorder. Anxiety usually takes place when spending an excessive amount of time feeling wanted, nervous, or even having difficulty sleeping. “Anxiety is an alarm system that is activated whenever a person perceives danger or threat” (“What is Anxiety” 1). Recent studies show that when reacting to danger the mind and body feel things like: fast heartbeat, tense muscles, sweaty palms, a queasy stomach, and trembling hands or legs. Anxiety is a disease that has many different types of disorders and can be treated in several different ways, it is caused by multiple factors and affects people of all ages. The different anxiety disorders include: post-traumatic stress (PTSD), social anxiety, generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and panic disorder. Each disorder has their effect on the cardiovascular, nervous, and respiratory system. Some anxiety disorders have permanent effects mentally, physically, and the way they behave. Substance use and abuse; medical issues; or environmental and external factors can cause anxiety. Also there are several treatments, but only three well-known for anxiety which include: self treatment, counseling, and medication.

This paper is going to be about anxiety disorders. I am going to explain what anxiety is and the different types of anxiety disorders. The types of anxiety I am going to talk about are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress, Panic Disorder and Social Phobia.

Anxiety. What is anxiety? Anxiety is described as a normal emotion every person runs into at times. What is an anxiety disorder? “Anxiety disorders are characterized by symptoms of thoughts that are intrusive and/or disturbing, intense psychological arousal, and highly negative appraisals of past experiences” (Jessica Swan 2013). Disorders in the processing of fear-related information are likely to be the underlying cause of some anxiety disorders in humans such as posttraumatic stress. An anxiety disorder is a much more severe problem. Anxiety disorders are caused by many symptoms and are frequently linked with depressing trends. Anxiety can be either genetically inherited or come from the brain itself. Based on (P. SAH 2013) “The amygdaloid complex is where the emotion of anxiety comes from the amygdaloid complex is a group of more than 10 nuclei that are located in the mid-temporal lobe of the brain”. It is believed that a slight amount of anxiety is regular in a human being and that a mild amount of anxiety is necessary to change and progress with new ways of handling stress. Anxiety disorders can also be caused by everyday life factors. What is considered an anxiety disorder? Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Phobias, and Panic Disorders. All which are very serious and when things get serve treatment and medication may have to be taken. “Anxiety disorders affect an approximate of 17% of the community” (Jessica Swan 2013)

Anxiety is defined as a diffuse, internal, loose floating tension that doesn’t have a real danger or an external object. There is also a significant difference from the notion of fear. Fear usually has an outer object (a real fear of a snake, height or an unreal fear, when the danger is just imagined). Anxiety does not have an external object or external danger, but have an internal danger. Internal danger can be some intrapsychic conflict, impulse unacceptable to the ego, suppressed thoughts, etc.

Anxiety is indescribable and inexplicable in the way that it can creep up from out of nowhere without a trigger as well as its ability to be triggered by a thought, word, person, place, or object. It is often a silent terror that works itself around in the conscious and subconscious mind that can begin to manifest itself physically by ways of body tremors, uncontrollable crying, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, and fatigue. Anxiety, as a whole, can be broken down into several categories: what it is biologically, psychologically, and genetically; where it stems from in both environmental and biological facets; who can develop the disorder; when it can occur at each age stage; why it occurs and what can trigger it; and how it can be

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychological disorders in the United States. There are four different types of anxiety disorders: phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension.