Everybody at one point or another experiences anxiety when faced with a stressful or worrying situation. Anxiety is the feeling of fear, apprehension, and excessive worry, that may be accompanied by nausea, palpitations, chest pain, and breathlessness. Sometimes this can interfere with normal daily life making it difficult to carry out many of our usual routines. Excessive anxiety can also be linked to other psychiatric conditions, such as depression.
Anxiety can present in many forms and may be caused by a fear of snakes, a fear of heights, or stage fright, or it could also be nonstop worry about your parenting skills. being in social environments, or constant fretting about success at work, etc. In this article, we will look at some ways to help with overcoming anxiety disorders.
Components
Anxiety is said to have four major components including:
Cognitive components: This imposes fear of uncertain danger.
Somatic components: When faced with a frightening situation your blood pressure and heart rate are increased, you tend to sweat, and blood flow to the major muscle groups is increased. The somatic signs of anxiety might include pale skin, sweating, trembling, and pupil dilation.
Emotional components: The emotional components of anxiety cause a sense of dread or panic, nausea, and chills.
Behavioral components: This would lead to both voluntary and involuntary behaviors, and you may be directed at avoiding the source of anxiety which is quite common.
Types of Anxiety and the symptoms:
There are various types of anxiety that I discussed in a previous post, you can find that blog post here. For now, here are some of the different types of anxiety disorders. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Social Anxiety, and specific phobias.
Anxiety Disorders are very common throughout the world. However, when anxiety becomes consistent and long-lasting it can seriously affect your life. People with anxiety disorders feel afraid of something but are unable to articulate the specific fear. If you are constantly worrying, and have a hard time controlling your worries then you might be suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Some of the common symptoms of anxiety disorder are:
• Muscle tension
• Heart palpitations
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Cold hands
• Jumpiness
• Difficulty falling asleep
• Hot flashes or chills
• Diarrhea and irritated bowel syndrome
Anxiety can make you cranky and irritable. You may get tired easily and often suffer from insomnia. It is very important that you seek professional medical help. For the initial diagnosis of this problem, a good assessment is required by taking a standardized interview or questionnaire procedure with expert evaluation. There should be a thorough examination to find out the cause that could have triggered this condition. If the patient has a family history of anxiety disorders then this could be a possibility.
Treatment
You can get help and come out of your fear. There are four types of therapy that have proved to be helpful and they have been used successfully to address the symptoms of anxiety disorders.
Behavior Therapy: Here we are made to face our fears in a planned and therapeutic environment using different relaxation techniques. During Behavior Therapy, you are encouraged to accept and overcome your anxiety, fear, and panic. This helps us become more confident about managing fear and anxiety and also prepares us to face any kind of anxiety-inducing situation.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy: This is said to be the most popular and effective type of psychotherapy to overcome anxiety. The goal is to understand our thinking process which helps to develop coping skills to use when you notice the symptoms of anxiety taking over. This helps us to challenge false or self-defeating beliefs and encourages positive thinking.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy: This therapy helps those who have fear because of unconscious mental conflict. You are made to uncover the conflict as a means to stop the fear-causing anxiety and panic.
Alternative therapies: Different therapies have been developed for treating anxiety, like EMDR – a therapy that utilizes rapid eye movement, repetitive sounds, and tapping to reintegrate an “out of sync” brain. Even acupuncture is being used to treat anxiety.
Let’s Wrap Up
All these therapies depend on various subjective factors, such as therapist competence. It is advisable to go to only a well-known and experienced psychotherapist. Self-help and relaxation techniques also play an important role in relieving anxiety symptoms. Improving your eating habits and reduction in caffeine and sugar intake also helps. Exercise and a relaxation technique such as yoga are also very helpful. Try to reach out to your friends and family and share your troubles; do not let it get accumulated before it hits you hard. Anxiety is very common and you are not the only one, so don’t hesitate to seek help. If you enjoyed reading this post please like, share, and comment. Until next time…….
