What is Anxiety?
People with an anxiety disorder may be faced with physical symptoms, such as shakiness, muscle aches, sweating, cold and clammy hands, dizziness, fatigue, racing heart and dry mouth. Emotionally they may feel irritable and apprehensive, fearing that bad things are about to happen to them, or they are going to die.
The feelings of terror and doom may appear without notice and tend to drive the individual into acting in ways that are out of the ordinary for them under normal circumstances.
Perhaps the most noticeable consequence of anxiety is the way it can leave its sufferers practically disabled. Imagine being too frightened to get into an elevator, to go to your office, or to attend parties. At its most debilitating, anxiety can keep sufferers trapped in their homes.
Anxiety can be broken down into several different types. Many times anxiety is perceived as a physical illness such as a heart problem and can be misdiagnosed. Anxiety is treatable with a combination of medication, psychotherapy and behavior modification.
Symptoms of anxiety may include:
- Episodes of overwhelming fear, rapid heartbeat, chest pain, profuse sweating, trembling and shaking.
- Fear of loosing control, going crazy, or dying.
- Fear of being in a place where symptoms are observable.
- Avoiding certain situations because of symptoms.
- Worry about criticism.
- Avoid or become extremely nervous in social situations.
- Persistent feelings of apprehension, restlessness or irritability.
- Find it difficult to avoid worrying.
- Experience physical symptoms such as muscle spasms.
- Have problems falling or staying asleep.
- Experience medical problems that are hard to diagnosis (psychosomatic illness).
