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What Are The Major Types Of Anxiety Disorders?

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The most prevalent psychiatric diseases impacting people today are anxiety disorders. Today, these disorders can affect both kids and adults. About 19 million adults experience an anxiety disorder of some kind. These ailments impact people’s lives daily, making it difficult for them to work, unwind, eat, and even sleep. If left untreated, anxiety problems can become chronic, unrelenting, and worsen. Here’s a closer look at some specific anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Generalized Anxiety condition, or GAD,

It is a common anxiety condition marked by recurrent episodes of anxiety or apprehension that are “free-floating” and unrelated to any event or circumstance.

These GAD bouts could persist for up to six months. Moving, changing jobs, losing a loved one, going through a difficult time financially, and other stressful life situations can start or exacerbate anxiety. The typical physical signs of a generalized anxiety disorder include muscle tension, sweating, difficulty swallowing, jitteriness, nausea, trembling, sleeplessness, stomach disturbances, dizziness, and irritability. This illness affects women twice as often as it does males.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD):

You must have read about OCD in many articles and watched movies about this issue.

People with the illness and those caring about them do not perceive it to be a laughing affair. People with this illness are troubled by recurring worries or obsessions that make them anxious and fearful. A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, could continually worry about catching a cold or burning down the house.

These obsessions drive the person to perform an act or sequence of actions obsessively (such as checking the toaster or washing their hands) to calm their anxiousness. Over one-third of those who experience obsessive-compulsive disorder first showed symptoms in childhood.

Panic Disorder:

An intense attack of a panic disorder showcases the symptoms such as heart palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, sweating, trembling, tingling, a feeling of choking, fear of passing away, fear of losing control, and a loss of reality. People who have panic disorder frequently and without warning experience sudden and overwhelming emotions of anxiety. They cannot predict when an attack will happen. Many have severe anxiety between episodes, worrying about when and where the next one will happen. These attacks may start due to a stressful situation or appear out of the blue.

People who experience panic attacks are frequently uneasy in new or strange situations because they may be concerned about how they would get to safety during an attack. Because of this, people with agoraphobia—the fear of unknown places—often also have panic disorders. In women, panic disorders are found more than the men.

Phobias:

Many individuals feel reasonable fear or trepidation when confronted with frightening things like spiders or circumstances like peering over the brink of a cliff. However, people incredibly terrified of a particular item or event may have a phobia, a type of anxiety condition.

A phobic person exhibits unreasonable, excessive levels of fear concerning the circumstance. People who have specific phobias frequently steer clear of commonplace situations. One or more phobias are closed spaces, heights, escalators, tunnels, highway driving, water, airplanes, canines, and injuries involving blood are some of the more prevalent specific phobias.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

It is generally known as PTSD, is a crippling anxiety illness typically brought on by seeing or experiencing a significant traumatic event. Post-traumatic stress disorder is frequently brought on by childhood abuse, rape, war, a terrorist attack, the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, or a fatal accident.

Intense sensations of fear, helplessness, or terror frequently accompany the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless of the underlying reason. Following the traumatic occurrence, many people endure nightmares, flashbacks during the day, trouble falling asleep, emotional numbness, and occasionally even personality changes. Many people see relief from these symptoms after a month. Others, however, may experience post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms for weeks, months, or even years.

Social anxiety disorder:

According to research, men and women both experience a social anxiety disorder. Extreme concern about their actions or how they are perceived to act in public is a common symptom of this illness. They might be scared of being criticized, laughed at, or embarrassed.

Physical symptoms of this social anxiety disorder include heart palpitations, faintness, blushing, and profuse sweating. These symptoms often lead the sufferer to avoid social situations.

Conclusion:

Most of us experience anxiety when exposed to demanding circumstances or tragic occurrences. However, suppose worry makes it difficult for you to function normally and fills you with dread and panic. In that case, you may have an anxiety disorder.