Anxiety Disorders

HELP AT HOME:

Feeling stressed? Try these relaxation tips for care at home. Select another topic: Choose One ---------- Acne Alcoholism Anemia Anxiety Asthma Athlete's Foot Backaches Breast Cancer Bronchitis Burns Chest Pain Chlamydia Common Cold Cold Hands Constipation Corns Cough Cuts & Scrapes Dent. Abscess Depression Diarrhea Earache Eat. Disorder Eczema Endometriosis Eye Strain Eye Sty Fainting Fatigue Fever Fibroids Flatulence Flu Frostbite Genital Herpes Gonorrhea Gum Disease Hair Loss Hay Fever Headaches Hearing Loss Heartburn Hemorrhoids Hiccups Hives Incontinence Insect Stings Insomnia Jock Itch Laryngitis Lice Measles Menopause Menst. Cramps Nosebleeds Ovarian Cysts Pinkeye PMS Poison Ivy Prostate Rash Rash (Kids) Rep. Motion Seizures Shingles Shoulder/Neck Sinus Snoring Sore Throat Sports Injuries Sprains Stress Sunburn Syphilis Test. Cancer Tinnitus TMJ Tonsillitis Toothaches Toxic Shock UTI Varicose Veins Vomit/Nausea Yeast Infect.

SEARCH WEBMD Enter a topic:

Anxiety disorders are the most common of all mental disorders, affecting about 10 percent of American adults. Some anxiety is beneficial, triggering appropriate caution in dangerous or difficult situations. But for people with anxiety disorders, this normally helpful emotion may become overwhelming and disrupt daily life.

There are five categories of anxiety disorders, each with its own distinct features:

1. Panic disorder - feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Many people develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will occur.

2. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - recurring disturbing thoughts (obsessions) and rituals (compulsions) believed necessary to prevent or disperse the thoughts and relieve their discomfort. Depression or other anxiety disorders may accompany OCD. Some people with OCD also have eating disorders.

3. Post-traumatic stress disorder - repeated re-experiencing or flashbacks of a traumatic event. Anxiety regarding the recurrences, which are often unpredictable, combines with the emotions of the experience. Symptoms may be mild or severe.

4. Phobias - irrational fears. People with phobias experience persistent, unrealistic, intense anxiety in response to specific external situations. Phobias take several forms:

• specific phobia - a fear of a particular object or situation.
• social phobia - a fear of being painfully embarrassed in a social setting.
• agoraphobia - a fear of being in any situation that might provoke a panic attack or from which escape might be difficult if a panic attack, or generalized anxiety, occurred.

5. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) - chronic and excessive worry and anxiety in the absence of any provocation. Usually the impairment associated with GAD is mild. However, the anxiety and worry can be so extreme that they are uncontrollable, making it difficult to carry out even the most ordinary daily activities.

At least 19 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders.

Women are more likely than men to suffer from panic disorder, phobias and generalized anxiety disorder.

Although anxiety disorders can occur at any age, onset of panic disorder, OCD and phobias generally occurs in young adults. GAD usually appears in childhood or adolescence.

Symptoms of anxiety disorders include panic attacks, recurrent disturbing thoughts accompanied by behavioral rituals to relieve their discomfort, flashbacks of traumatic experiences, nightmares, irrational fears, and physical responses such as rapid heart rate, sweating, chest pain, a smothering sensation, or feeling weak, faint or dizzy.

Anxiety disorders are highly treatable using a combination of medications and specific forms of psychotherapy.

Antianxiety drugs relieve symptoms, often relaxing muscles, reducing tension or reducing sleeplessness. However, many antianxiety drugs are addictive and must be used with caution. Antidepressant drugs are also used for some anxiety disorders; these drugs are not addictive.

Behavioral therapy helps people change specific behaviors, such as compulsive rituals or fearful reactions, and helps them decrease or stop unwanted behavior.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches people to react differently to the situations and physical sensations that trigger panic attacks and other anxiety symptoms. In addition, people learn how their thinking patterns contribute to their symptoms and how to change their thoughts so that the symptoms are less likely to occur. This awareness of thinking patterns is combined with behavioral techniques to help people confront feared situations.

Biofeedback is being used to help people with anxiety disorders manage their physiological and emotional responses to anxiety-provoking situations. In addition, new medications are also being evaluated in clinical trials.

While anxiety disorders are not preventable, early recognition of symptoms, diagnosis and treatment can decrease or eliminate the symptoms and help people manage responses to anxiety-provoking stimuli.