Anxiety

The notes below on anxiety are here to help you understand what might be going on for you or perhaps a friend or loved one. They are not here to provide you a diagnosis, rather a tool in helping you by providing some information to help you seek out support if you require it.

The word anxiety is used as an umbrella term for many different types of anxiety disorders – below are some of the most common:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is when people have persistent and excessive worry (apprehensive expectation) about a number of things, situations, events and activities (such as work or school performance) for 6 months for more. The things and situations people will be worrying about are wide ranging and generally are not focused on just one thing. People may find it hard to control the worry and it can start impacting their daily life.

Often 3 or more of these symptoms are present for at least 6 months or more:

· Easily fatigued

· Irritability

· Muscle tension

· Difficulty concentrating

· Restlessness

· Avoidance of situations

· Sleep disturbance

Panic attack

The symptoms of a panic attack may often occur for no clear reason. They can often produce feelings of intense fear, or discomfort that will occur suddenly with no warning at all. The real feeling of overwhelming anxiety and physical symptoms are likened to when your body responds to being in great danger. Panic attacks can often last from 10-20 minutes, however in extreme cases they can last for more than an hour. Despite panic attacks being frightening and very uncomfortable, they are non life threatening. Generally 4 or more of the below 13 symptoms often occur with the intense fear or discomfort:

· Heart palpitations

· Shortness of breath

· Nausea

· Derealization

· Fear of insanity

· Paresthesias (pins and needles),

· Sweating

· Choking

· Trembling

· Chest pain

· Dizziness

· Fear of Death

And persistent concern or worry for more than a month

*Panic disorder may be present if you have had four or more panic attacks, or you live in fear of having another panic attack after experiencing one.

Most people experience a panic attack once or twice in their lives. The American Psychological Association reports that 1 out of every 75 people might experience a panic disorder

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe reaction to a highly stressful/traumatic event outside the range of everyday experience.

Some examples of these types of events:

Serious car accident, military combat, violent personal assault (sexual assault/abuse, rape, physical attack, abuse, robbery), terrorist attack, natural disaster, diagnosed with life threatening illness, childhood abuse, repeated abuse as an adult.

Symptoms of PTSD may be felt immediately, although onset may occur three months or more afterwards.

Some symptoms of PTSD are below:

The person may be experiencing unwanted (intrusions) these intrusions may occur by way of:

· Memories

· Dreams

· Flashbacks

They can also bring distress when exposed to event linked to the trauma (for example, sitting in a car after experiencing a serious car accident), and there may be physiological (bodily) reactions.

The person may also be avoidant of situations because of internal or external reminders of the traumatic event. They may also be unwillingly reliving the event on a regular basis.

Often 2 or more of these symptoms may be present for longer than one month:

· Impaired memory of traumatic event

· Negative self-worth

· Pathological blame

· Negative emotions

· Decreased participation

· Detachment

· Emotional numbness

In addition to the above symptoms – 2 or more of the following may also occur for at least one month:

· Irritability or aggression

· Recklessness

· Hypervigilance

· Exaggerated startle

· Impaired concentration

· Sleep disturbance.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is when people are preoccupied with perfectionism, mental and interpersonal control, and orderliness. This often has an impact on the ability to be flexible, openness and the person’s efficiency. OCD sufferers have distressing, sometimes scary and unwanted images and thoughts, often these do not make sense to them or others. The thoughts continue to come back, no matter how hard the person tries to ignore them, or the extreme efforts they try to rid themselves of the thoughts or images. A person may have reduced life quality because the person becomes consumed with repetitive tasks or compulsive rituals they undertake to help control or rid themselves of the thoughts or images. For example, a person may have an extreme fear of germs, in order to control that thought or rid themselves of the fear they continually wash their hands, or avoid touching door handles, shaking hands, using other peoples equipment etc.

People with OCD may exhibit the following behaviours or traits:

· Preoccupation with rules, lists or items of a similar nature

· Excessive devotion to work

· Limited of no attention paid to recreational activities or friendships

· Limited expression of warm emotions

· Reluctance to delegate work, often demanding others follow their exact way of working.

· Excessive desire to save money

Symptoms of PTSD normally occur for more than 1 hour per day:

· Recurrent and intrusive thoughts, urges and images that they try to ignore or suppress through compulsive acts

· Repetitive behaviours or mental acts to reduce distress.

Phobias

A Phobia is an intense and extreme, irrational fear of a specific situation or object. Normally the anxiety will vary in in severity from slight uneasiness to extreme terror. A phobia disorder has the potential to interfere with the daily life of an individual, it can impact on the persons ability to work, socialise, and to carry out their daily tasks. Those that experience a major disruption to their daily life should seek help.

Phobias usually occur when fear produced by an original threatening situation is transferred to other similar situations, often the original source of fear is repressed or forgotten.

Phobias may be developed from a specific situation or incident for example, a child who was never scared of dogs may have been bitten by a large scary dog ,this then developed into a fear of all dogs, big and small. No matter how friendly or safe the dog is that persons transference of fear from the original bite incident is put onto that friendly dog. Or a common place of exposure is a scary tv movie. With the release of Jaws in 1975, there was a major increase of fear around the world of sharks and open water. Some Psychologists even believe that almost anything can become a phobia.

Common symptoms associated with a phobia:

· Avoidance

· Sweating

· Tight chest, or chest pains

· Fear of dying

· Nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea

· Numbness, pins and needles

· Dizziness, lightheaded or feeling faint

· Fear of fainting

· Fear of losing control

· Choking

· Trembling or shaking

· Heart palpitations, or accelerated heart rate

· Hot or cold flushes

· Shortness of breath, or a smothering sensation

*note the individual can also experience these even just thinking about the source of fear.

Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia): People will have an excessive and irrational fear of being in a situation where your activities can be watched by others. This leads to avoidant behavior. Fear of public speaking and eating in public are the most common complaints of people with social phobia.

Some signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder:

· Fear of situations in which we may be judged

· Intense fear of being in situations with strangers

· Worrying about embarrassing or humiliating ourselves

· Fear that others will notice we look anxious

· Avoiding doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment

· Avoiding situations where we might be the centre of attention

Plus any of the symptoms listed above under Phobias