Tag: Experience Anxiety

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale

People experience anxiety in different ways. Some tend to eat to much, while others let this off through smoking and drinking. Unfortunately, not everybody takes this the same way. When a person feels unhappy or loses the appetite to eat, there is a chance that the individual is suffering from depression.

Doctors have not yet been able to measure the degree into how bad depression can get. This is the reason that some scientists have made a self report scale called a depression anxiety stress scale. The objective of the study is to provide scientists and researchers better information to treat this problem.

The scale is divided into three sets. The first is the depression scale which will assess the person’s perception in life and interest in certain things.

The second is the anxiety scale which looks into situational anxiety, autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects and subjective experience of anxious effect.

The third is the stress scale which will look into how long before the person feels stressed. This will look into things that will arouse or upset the individual. This also includes what things makes one nervous or causes difficulty in relaxing.

Each of these are composed of 14 items that is subdivided again into 2 to 5 items which just goes to show how long and extensive the test can be. The person answers each question by answering on a scale of 1 to 4 which will assess how stressed the individual is for the week.

If the person has a hard time answering these questions, there is a shorter version that can be used. Doctors don’t only administer this with people who have anxiety disorders. The test is also given to regular people as part of the comparative report.

The questionnaires to be given out can be done individually or in groups. This is sometimes used in children as early as 12 years of age to determine if stress is caused by work or when this occurs as the individual is growing up.

Large companies who are concerned about the employees sometimes employ the help of social workers to administer the depression anxiety stress scale or DASS on people. These firms should remember that the results of these tests can only be translated by those in the medical field so that recommendations and treatment can take place.

There are two main differences between this test and those used in the past.

The first is that the DASS is that it is based on a dimensional rather than a categorical conception of what the patient may be experiencing.

The second is that it separates the categories into three namely depression, anxiety and stress and treating this separately to give a bigger picture of what is happening to the patient.

This means that classifying a person on the degree of help is far different and that this is often regarded as normal, moderate or severe as written in the DASS manual.

The DASS questionnaire can be downloaded for free from the internet. The person will have to pay $55 or more for the manual to be able to understand the findings of anyone who has taken the test.

The individual can learn more about this by surfing the web or reading up on this in some medical journals to get a better understanding of how this can help treat a patient.

Anxiety Attacks: You Could be a Victim

Anxiety is a normal reaction to situations that cause unrest and disquiet. Most life experiences evoke differing amounts of anxiety. However, what if anxiety becomes for you a chronic and even uncontrollable experience? And worse, what if you suddenly experience feeling terribly anxious for no reason at all?

If this is so, then you are probably experiencing a panic attack a chronic, pathological experience of unwarranted anxiety. In the USA alone, close to three million people suffer from this kind of illness. Anxiety attacks could happen in any place, at any time and any situation making it a very unpredictable and worrying illness.

Anxiety attacks differ from other disorders by the simple fact that they happen almost instantaneously and without provocation. It can occur even in the most inauspicious of places. Be it a trivial gathering or an important performance.

Most that suffer from this sort of disorder are often amazed and bewildered at how unpredictable an attack may be. The severity of such can range from mild discomfort to a nervous condition that effectively disables a person.

Panic attacks are so unpredictable; they can even bother one in their sleep. This can cause a major inconvenience and can seriously affect ones lifestyle. Those that do not understand the illness might make fun of or think that the person suffering from such an illness are overreacting or are doing things of their own accord to make things worse.

They do not understand that this condition is truly an illness that should be remedied and given attention as soon as possible. This is because this condition steadily increases in duration and intensity. Those that experience anxiety attacks for the first time typically suffer through the condition for ten minutes at a time.

As the condition progresses, this number steadily increases, and along with this increase in duration can come an increase in intensity.

Unfortunately, this type of disorder gets worse without treatment. Whenever one experiences a panic attack during any activity, the persons tendency is to associate that activity with the fear. This could cause trauma for many different activities, ultimately causing one to avoid performing these activities.

Symptoms
1. Sudden Fear As mentioned earlier, those that suffer from anxiety attacks encounter them suddenly, unexpectedly and without provocation. They also experience nausea and stomach maladies at the same time.

2. Sudden Change of Demeanor During a panic attack one may become either suddenly inactive effectively paralyzed by fear or on the far end of the spectrum, suddenly hysteric. The patient may or may not have control of the faculties during such an episode.

3. Chest Pain and Dizziness Chest pains and dizziness often accompany such attacks. These symptoms are usually company to nervous-related disorders. Some patients have also described being in a dream-like state; feeling chills, terror, sudden thanatophobia (fear of dying), palpitation, and other symptoms.

The causes of panic attack syndromes are quite hazy; it could be a deeply-rooted emotional problem, a trauma, or a nervous physiological condition. Some people are even genetically predisposed to such illnesses, having a marked imbalance of chemicals in the brain.

Most patients admitted with panic/anxiety disorders are treated with a mix of medication and psychiatric therapy. This mix addresses both the physical and mental faculties affected by the illness. The prognosis for such illnesses is good as long as it is treated early and consistently.