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Anxiety is a normal feeling that we all experience at some point in our lives. Anxiety can alert us to danger and can encourage us to take actions. However, for some people, anxiety is something that penetrates their everyday lives and prevents them from going about there day as normal.
What is an Anxiety Disorder?
If you are scared of flying, you may start to feel your heart beat a little faster as you get onto the aeroplane. Your mouth may become dry and you might start sweating, even if it is not hot. This feeling of unease, insecurity and stress, is described as anxiety. You may experience the same symptoms when going to an interview, having an exam or when you have to cope with something stressful, like a disease. These feelings are completely normal and in fact, can have a positive affect on the way you go about your life.
Anxiety, for some people, is not simply a feeling that occurs in times of genuine stress but in fact penetrates their everyday lives. People with an anxiety disorder experience the symptoms of anxiety on a regular basis and in situations which may not usually be considered as stressful. These situations could be anything from having a drink in the pub to walking down the high-street. Anxiety becomes a disorder when it begins to interfere with everyday life - stopping the person going to work or school or interacting with other people.
Anxiety disorders can exist in many different forms. Below are a few examples:
Phobias: Most people have a mild phobia of something, which could be anything from flying, spiders or speaking in public. A phobia is a fear of something that in normal situations, does not pose a risk or a threat. Most people who experience phobias are aware that it may not be rational to experience the fear but still find it difficult to overcome. However, phobias can become extreme and can be debilitating for the person experiencing them. In some people, a phobia can prevent them from going about their life in a normal way and may even keep them in the house.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): This is caused when someone feels they must repeat an action or thought to ease the feeling of anxiety. For example, someone with OCD may feel they have to follow a precise routine to keep a loved-one from harm. This is usually irrational and can be very debilitating for the person experiencing the OCD.
Panic Disorder: People who suffer from a panic disorder will experience sudden and unanticipated panic attacks.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD): This is a long-term feeling of anxiety that may interfere with the sufferer's everyday life. A person experiencing GAD will feel worried and anxious a lot of the time about general aspects of their life - money, work, family etc. The anxiety often occurs in situations that do not warrant stress and where there is no obvious problem, for example, if a person's finances are fine, they may still experience anxiety.
How do I know if I have an Anxiety Disorder?
Anxiety is common and usually affects most people at some point in their lives. Going on a first date, flying in a plane or making a public speech are all common causes of anxiety. However, when a person's anxiety begins to affect their daily life and prevents them from doing what they usually do, this becomes an anxiety disorder. Below are some symptoms of an anxiety disorder:
- Aches and tension in your body.
- Sweating (perhaps when it is not necessarily warm)
- Shaking or trembling.
- Diarrhoea.
- Felling of 'butterflies' in your stomach.
- Tiredness
- Shortness of breath.
- Increased heartbeat.
- The feeling of fear or dread.
- The feeling of nervousness.
- Being irritable.
- Feeling self-conscious.
- The feeling that you want to escape the situation you are in.
The symptoms listed above are not conclusive of an anxiety disorder but may point towards the possibility of one. Anxiety disorders may coexist alongside other diseases or disorders such as depression, irritable bowel syndrome and a thyroid disorder. If these disorders are treated, it is likely that the anxiety will decrease.
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An Anxiety Disorder can be caused by Many Factors, Including your Brain Chemistry. |
What Causes an Anxiety Disorder?
Depending on the type of anxiety disorder, there are many possible factors that could lead to the cause. Researchers have associated physical causes such as genetics and brain chemistry with the causes of an anxiety disorder and psychological and social factors such as personal experiences and personality. Below are these possible causes in more detail:
Genetics: Researchers have discovered links between anxiety disorders within families. They have found that if one identical twin has an anxiety disorder, then the other has a much greater chance of having one too, even if they were separated at birth.
Brain Chemistry and Neurological Causes: Imbalances in brain chemicals have been found to be a possible cause for anxiety disorders as some medications prescribed for anxiety aim to alter the levels of chemicals in the brain and seem to be affective.
Personal Experience: Research has shown that a person's personal experience plays a key role in causing some anxiety disorders. Post-traumatic stress disorder, a form of anxiety disorder, is known to occur after someone has been subjected to a traumatic experience. Common examples of this disorder are found in people who have fought in wars, been part of rescue teams for natural disasters or have suffered the loss of a loved-one.
Personality: It is possible that people who have low self-esteem maybe more susceptible to getting an anxiety disorder and it is also possible that people who develop an anxiety disorder in the early stages of their life will, as a result, develop low self-esteem later on.
How can I treat my Anxiety Disorder?
Anxiety disorders, in most cases, can be treated. If you suspect that you have an anxiety disorder, it is important that you seek the professional opinion of your doctor. If your doctor diagnoses you with an anxiety disorder, there are a few treatment options that will be made available to you:
Helping Yourself: Depending on the severity of your disorder, there maybe techniques that you can adopt to relieve some of your anxiety. Such techniques involve learning how to relax when feeling anxious which might mean utilising deep-breathing techniques and exercise.
Medication: Medications such as antidepressants, buspirone and diazepam, may be prescribed to people with an anxiety disorder. However, these medications will probably only be prescribed as a short-term treatment as long-term use of the drugs could lead to a dependence.
Counselling: If you are a sufferer of mild anxiety or depression or you have been subject to a traumatic experience, then counselling may help you overcome some of your anxiety. By talking to someone about how you are feeling, you can get to the root cause and begin to take steps to alleviate your anxiety.
Cognitive Therapy: If you have an anxiety disorder, part of the cause may be the way you think when you approach a situation that makes you feel anxious. Over time, cognitive therapy looks to change the thinking of a sufferer from negative to positive when approaching the situation that would normally cause anxiety.
Behaviour Therapy: This is an effective technique that actually teaches the person with an anxiety disorder to face their problem rather than avoid it. The sufferer will be taught steps to take when faced with a situation that may cause anxiety instead of trying to avoid the situation, thus leaving the disorder untreated. Behaviour therapy usually involves exposing the sufferer to the situation they are afraid of over a period of time. The sufferer will gradually learn other ways to rid of anxiety which do not involve escaping the situation.
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Donny Osmond Overcame Social Anxiety Disorder. |
Living with an Anxiety Disorder.
We all experience anxiety at some point in our lives. In fact, anxiety can be a useful tool. Anxiety alerts us to danger and encourages us into acting upon our instincts. Imagine coming home and smelling smoke in the house. You will become anxious and, due to your anxiety, will either remove yourself from the danger or wipe out the danger entirely, in this case by putting out the fire. So, if you feel anxious from time to time, there is probably no cause for alarm as it is completely natural. However, if you begin to feel anxious in situations which would usually not be considered to be stressful and it is affecting your daily life, then perhaps this is a sign of an anxiety disorder.
If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, you are not alone and there is plenty of help available. Anxiety disorders can happen to just about anyone, even famous people! Some celebrities that have been reported to have anxiety disorders include, David Beckham, Donny Osmond, Oprah Winfrey and Winona Ryder. If you have an anxiety disorder, you may find yourself continually avoiding the situations that make you feel anxious to prevent any of the symptoms occurring. However, by avoiding these situations, you are not resolving your disorder. It is important that you seek professional medical advice so that you and your doctor can work towards you living an anxious-free life.
How can I Help?
Anxiety is a heavily researched disorder and the understanding of anxiety is continually being developed and improved upon. To improve their understanding, researchers must conduct research studies to discover how and why anxiety occurs and if possible, how to treat it.
If you suffer from the symptoms associated with an anxiety disorder, you may be eligible to participate in a research study. There are many types of research that is conducted to help better the understanding of anxiety disorders.
Some researchers require individuals to test new or experimental drug treatments for anxiety which could lead to these treatments, if affective, to become available to the general public. Other types of research may involve psychological tests being conducted. You may be asked to perform certain tasks on a computer while electrodes attached to your hands monitor the amount of electricity produced by your skin. Other research studies may involve you having an fMRI scan, which is a completely safe way of creating images of your brain. There are also research opportunities that simply aim to better understand anxiety disorders by conducting pen and paper tests such as questionnaires and interviews. By conducting this type of research, it is possible to gain an insight into how people feel when they are anxious, when they feel anxious and why they feel anxious.
What would I get out of Participating in Anxiety Disorder Research?
Like with any medical research or clinical trials, there is a necessity for such research to be conducted to help improve the quality of people's lives. Medical research is responsible for producing and testing new treatments and gaining a better understanding of diseases and conditions. If you participate in medical research of any kind, you will be contributing to the development of new treatments and the understanding of diseases. This is an important role to play as you could be improving, or even saving people's lives. Helping people by helping medical research will probably make you feel good about yourself, and rightly so!
As well as the feel-good factor of participating in medical research, you can also receive generous financial compensation for your time and inconvenience. Studies involving an MRI scan can pay good hourly rates while medical trials, testing the effectiveness and safety of a new medicine can pay you generous amounts for your participation, time and inconvenience.
Often, for your participation in anxiety disorder research studies, you will receive free treatment plans including medication, counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
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