Common Types of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders can affect your daily life activities and may worsen if immediate treatment is not given.

Is there anything that makes you worry lately? It is completely normal to worry about things in life like your hectic schedules, rocky relationships, job interviews, and the many things our complicated life brings us. But, if the worries become too much that you may feel so choked up and that you are not in control of your life anymore, they might be symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders are affecting people age 18 years and above, causing them to be filled with fear and uncertainty. It is defined as excessive anxiety and worry, happening more days than not for at least 6 months and can get worse if they are not treated. The person with anxiety disorder finds it difficult to control his/her anxiety. Anxiety disorders usually occur along with other mental or physical illnesses, including drug or alcohol abuse, to mask the symptoms or worsen them. Each anxiety disorder has different symptoms, but all the symptoms cluster around excessive, unreasonable fear and dread.

Some of the common types of anxiety disorders are separation anxiety, social anxiety or phobia, selective mutism, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PST), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia.

Separation Anxiety is an excessive anxiety relating to separation from home or someone you are so attached with. The symptoms mostly relate to the recurrent fear of being separated from someone or something you are so attached with and accompanied by physical symptoms like nausea, stomachaches, headaches, or chest pain.

Social Anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is diagnosed when you become overwhelmingly anxious and extremely fearful of social interactions. People with this illness have intense, persistent, and constant fear of being watched and judged, and other things that can put them in an embarrassing position. They can worry for days before the actual situation takes place and this feeling may worsen.. interfering with work, school, and other activities.

Selective mutism is the consistent failure to speak in a specific social situation where speech is anticipated inspite of be able to speak in other situations. According to research, there is a relation between social phobia and selective mutism.

OCD is an anxiety disorder where a person has recurrent and unwanted ideas or impulses (called obsessions), and an urge or compulsion to do something to relieve their discomfort caused by obsession. A person with OCD has senseless, repetitive, distressing, and sometimes harmful habits that are also difficult to overcome.

PTSD is a debilitating condition that follows a terrifying event. Usually, people with posttraumatic stress disorder have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb even with people they used to be so closed with. The signs and symptoms usually appear within 3 months of the tragic event.

Panic disorder has brief episodes of intense fear and is accompanied by various physical symptoms like heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, etc., that occur repeatedly and not knowingly in the absence of external threat.

Agoraphobia is an incapacitating fear for open spaces. It is a disorder characterized by avoidance of crowds and open and public spaces. Agoraphobia can lead to extreme anxiety and evasion, resulting a sufferer to become housebound.

General anxiety disorder is characterized by diffused feelings of apprehensions with physiological symptoms. It is one of the most common anxiety disorders and is described as excessive anxiety and worry about two or more life circumstances for a period of six months.

Specific phobia is an intense fear for specific things or situations like, heights, water, closed-in places, spiders, and many others.

These anxiety disorders are curable. The sooner you are diagnosed, the sooner you'll get better. So, if you think you have symptoms of anxiety disorders, don't hesitate to see a doctor. Don't let anxiety disorders ruin your life.