Tag: obsessive-compulsive disorder

Understanding Anxiety and Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety is a normal, healthy feeling that is experienced by everyone. It is the body’s way of reacting to stimulus that pushes us to either “fight” or “flight” over a situation. However, when anxiety attacks are chronic, severe, and irrational, and begin to affect the health of a person (physically, psychologically and emotionally), it already becomes a problem that must be addressed immediately. There is a thick line between healthy and unhealthy anxiety attacks. Unfortunately, the demarcation line is almost ignored that normal anxiety crosses into the territory of anxiety disorders.

Types of Anxiety Disorder

There are six different types of anxiety disorder, each has its own characteristics: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic worry or fear over almost everything without even knowing why. They feel anxious from day to day activities and are troubled that bad things will happen. People with GAD show symptoms such as stomach upset, fatigue, restlessness, and insomnia.

Panic disorder is repeated, unexpected panic attacks, and fears that panic episodes will likely to happen. People with panic disorder are likely to have agoraphobia, or fear of being in places where help or escape will be difficult in case of another panic attack. People with agoraphobia are also afraid of being trapped in confined places such as an airplane or crowded areas such as a shopping mall.

Phobia is excessive, irrational, and exaggerated fear over simple things that generally present little or no danger. Common phobias are heights, snakes, spiders, dark, and flying. People with phobias tend to avoid the things they are afraid of in order to escape anxiety attacks. However, avoidance only strengthens the phobia.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that happens after a life-threatening or a traumatic event. People with PTSD show symptoms such as hyper-vigilance, avoiding situations or places that remind them about the event, nightmares and flashbacks about the things that happened, startling easily, and isolation.

Social anxiety disorder or social phobia is fear of being seen negatively by others or fear of getting humiliated in public by other people. Social anxiety is often mistaken as an ordinary extreme shyness. People with this kind of disorder usually isolate themselves from others or event and places where crowd usually gathers. Stage fright is the most common type of social anxiety.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD is a condition where a person has unwanted behavior or thoughts which appear to be impossible to control. People with OCD can have certain obsession such as worries that they might hurt someone or that they have forgotten to turn the lights off. They can also have uncontrollable compulsion. The most common is washing of hands repeatedly.

Do you experience anxiety attacks?

Are you always worried, tense, and on the edge?

Do you feel like you are in danger whenever you are in confined places?

Are you afraid of mingling with strangers, meeting new friends or even meeting relatives?

Do you feel that something bad or catastrophic will happen if certain things are not done according to plan?

Do you experience worry, fear and anxiousness that affect your relationship, work, healthy, and other responsibilities?

Do you feel irrational fear but couldn’t shake it?

Does your anxiety force you to avoid everyday situations and activities?

Triggers and Causes of Panic Attacks

Here are the common triggers and causes of panic attacks:

Phobia People who are exposed to certain situation or objects they are afraid of will often experience a panic attack.

Passiveness Many think that excessive politeness, shyness, and respectfulness are a positive thing and it is normal for someone to possess these characteristics. Be that as it may, a growing number of evidence supports the idea that passiveness as a result of fear (sometimes unexplained), low self-esteem and self-confidence is consistent with a person experiencing episodes of panic attack.

Hyperventilation syndrome Mouth breathing and over-breathing or exhaling more carbon dioxide with respect to the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream can result to symptoms including dizziness, lightheadedness, and rapid heartbeat. These symptoms, in turn trigger panic attacks.

Benzodiazepines Drugs such as benzodiazepines are prescribed to treat the symptoms of panic attacks. These drugs have a very quick to take effect. Usually, the patient finds relief within 30 minutes. However, benzodiazepines are highly addictive and rebound effect is common (a panic attack triggered by withdrawing from the drug).

Medications There are certain drugs such as fluoroquinolone type antibiotics and Ritalin (methylphenidate) with panic attacks listed as a side effect. Attacks may be temporary, usually occurring when a patient begins medication but may continue occurring even if the patient is already accustomed to the drug. When this happens, change of dosage or type of drug is usually warranted. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs boost the level of serotonin in the brain which regulates and normalizes emotions. However, intake of SSRIs can increase anxiety at the beginning of use. Panic attacks may even be more frequent to patients who wean on and off the medications

Biological causes post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, Wilson’s disease, pheochromocytoma, hypoglycemia, mitral valve prolapse and labyrinthitis (inner ear disturbances) can manifest through panic attack. Vitamin B deficiency from periodic depletion because of parasitic infection from tapeworm or due to inadequate diet can trigger panic attacks.

Heredity Children, whose parents have been found to suffer from panic disorder, are likely to experience or have panic attacks as well. In other words, inheritance plays an important role in determining who gets it. However, people with no family history can still develop panic disorder.

Environment factors and upbringing People who grew up overly cautious about their life and actions, and those who live in a very stressful environment, plus different traumatic experiences from the past are likely to have panic attacks.

Short-term triggering causes Significant life changes, emotional trauma from a failed relationship, life transition, stimulants such as nicotine and caffeine, psilocybin, marijuana, and drugs can trigger panic attacks.

Take note that these triggers and causes may have different effects to different people. One may only need one trigger to have an episode of panic attacks. Others may require several triggers in order to break down. Also, by simply being exposed to any of these triggers do not automatically result to panic attacks because some are emotionally stronger than others.

It is also important to note that some symptoms of panic attacks may also be a sign of other medical condition. Hence, it is important to precisely pinpoint the cause of the symptoms in order know what type of treatment is necessary.

Escalating Symptoms Of Anxiety

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The Impact of the Escalating Symptoms of Anxiety

Escalating symptoms of anxiety impact up to 40 million adults in the US per year. While it’s perfectly expected to feel nervous or anxious in certain periods of your life ( graduating from school, first-hand a new job, losing a loved one, etc., individuals with anxiety disorders feel often and excessively worried for no apparent basis. The symptoms of anxiety can start innocently enough with just a worrying thought but often they progress fast to more physical discomforts such as a pounding heart, heavy chest pain, lump in the throat, weakness, and dizziness.

Often referred to for panic attacks, escalating symptoms of anxiety may be diagnosed as a phobia, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder ( GAD ), obsessive compulsive disorder or other types of anxiety disorders. While each of these conditions are characterized by otherwise symptoms, all of them are marked by an irrational and unwarrented dread and / or fear that usually worsens very quickly and leads to more severe physical symptoms.

The symptoms of anxiety can make you feel like you are completely losing control or ” going crazy “. Those who have suffered these symptoms will relate them as feeling like world is coming to an spire, he / she is having a heart attack, or that he / maiden is going to die. What’s even more unfortunate, is that once you existence a panic attack in this magnitude, it can very easily become part of a viscious circuit which consists of the panic attacks themselves and the very – present fear of having major panic attack.

These anxiety symptoms can also lead to a multitude of phobias which render some individuals nearly totally disabled. One such phobia is agoraphobia, the fear of being trapped in a setting that makes the implement feel extremely ill – at – ease and unable to escape. For this reason, the concept may not even venture outside of his / her home. Because this type of anxiety can lead to such utmost disability, it is relevant to treat anxiety symptoms before they are allowed to climb the ladder to another disorder.

The causes of anxiety are still not pleasant. But professionals do swallow that it is likely that many factors contribute to a persons chances of developing the condition. Scientists have broken down the potential causes into three groups, genetics and early learning, brain biochemistry, and the fight or flight mechanism.
Sometimes the cause is a chemical imbalance in the accomplishment which impairs the way messages are sent. Two of the primary neurotransmitters that affect a persons feelings are serotonin and dopamine. When there is an imbalance of these chemicals, a person can feel depressed or anxious.

Anxiety disorders also tend to run in families, so if a persons mom, dad, or other suffocating relative has anxiety, they have a higher occure of developing anxiety themselves both because of genetic factors and learned environmental factors.

The above information about the escalating symptoms of anxiety does not act for medical advice given by a health professional.

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How to Fight Off Anxiety and Nervous Breakdown

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How do anxiety and nervous breakdown tie in? The term anxiety is an umbrella term which encompasses panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder. The term nervous breakdown is no longer used by the medical profession. It is now referred to as situational depression or anxiety disorder.

While clinical depression and anxiety disorders can be triggered by something that happens in your life, their causes can often be linked to something biological, genetic, neurological, or that occurred in your childhood. In contrast, a nervous breakdown could describe the sudden onset of a mental illness, or it may just be your way to process something that happened in your life. The term nervous breakdown conjures up terrible, scary images. But while it is upsetting, it’s important to keep in mind that this anxiety disorder is just your body’s plan of recital ” Hey, you’re ignoring some heart here that need to be dealt with. ” Panicking in the face of anxiety and nervous breakdown only makes matters worse.

One key to getting through a nervous breakdown ( or preventing one ) is to stop fighting it off. If you’re starting to feel that everything is tried getting to be too much, righteous try to ascertain some areas in your life where you can reduce some of your stress and causes of anxiety. The typical reaction when you feel like your are losing control is to get it back again. But getting it back by ignoring what you are feeling is not the way to go about it. In the case of a nervous breakdown, taking back power means actively inquiry out rest and peace. If you try to just push through and force yourself to continue beyond what you can mentally or physically take, you actually give your anxiety more power. If you can allow yourself a little patience and space to actually feel what you need to feel, you countervail the reasons your mind and body brought you to the point of a nervous breakdown in the first place.

Seek help. Many people look at getting help as a sign that they have lost the stab with their anxiety and nervous breakdown. It is actually the opposite. The fact that you are seeking help means that you are taking a step to being able to take solicitude of yourself and others if necessary. Glom at it this way: if you were physically hurt one day and bleeding profusely, you would run straight to the emergency room. It’s the equivalent with whatever anxiety you’re going through. Professional help and therapy does not have to be a lifelong commitment. Once you have worked out the cause for your pain and suffering and keep the utensils to prevent it from happening again, you no longer need the help of professionals. But if you avoid seeking them out in the first place, the anxiety and nervous breakdown may have already caused permanent damage.

This information should not be used or interpreted as medical advice, nor does it come next rasher medical advice given by a health professional.

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