Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are diagnosed when normal stress is replaced by consistent suffering over prolonged periods leading to difficulties in normal living. A person may experience symptoms at various moments but in disorders this condition is often out of proportion and debilitating when it comes to daily life. The person suffering from such a disorder will find that it interferes with his surroundings, interactions and lead to the unwanted symptoms as described hereunder.

Panic attacks are not signs of a flaw in the character of a person. It is a serious mood disorder. It affects one's work, one's family, and one's social life. It affects a person's ability to function in every day activities.

The cause of these disorders are varied. Experts believe that they are caused by biological and environmental factors such as genetics, brain chemistry, life experiences, etc.

These disorders maybe broadly classified into 6 groups:

1) Panic Disorder

Symptoms:
- Severe attacks of panic.
- Heart palpitation, chest pain, discomfort.
- Sweating, feeling of choking, trembling.
- Feeling of doom.
- Chills, hot flushes.

The above may occur to a person who may feel they are going crazy or suffering form heart ailment for no reason. The onset of such an attack is seen by a sudden rush of intense panic. Diagnosis can be confirmed if two or more attacks take place in a month and the patient worries about more of these. Agoraphobia, i.e. fear of having such an attack in a place one cant escape from coincides with this.

2) Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Symptoms:
- Excessive, unrealistic worry lasting for a long period
- Trembling, muscular aches, dizziness
- Abdominal upsets, insomnia.

It is hard to diagnose. However if the worry lasts for more than six months it can be considered. It may occur due to financial worries, career worries, etc. The intensity and duration of worry are disproportionate to the issue and interfere with normal working.

3) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Symptoms:
- Persistent recurring thoughts based on fear, obsession.
- Ritual compulsive actions to relieve such obsession

A person may be obsessed with contracting illness and thus washes his hands every few minutes. This repeated compulsive behavior must take up large duration of the patient’s time.

Such compulsive actions include:

a) Cleanliness, i.e. tendency to arrange everything again and again
b) Checking and re-checking mundane things
c) Slow repetition of a methodical process

4) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Symptoms:
- Reliving of traumatic event through flashbacks and nightmares
- Avoidance behaviour, i.e. avoiding places, articles linked with such event
- Emotional numbing, i.e. detachment

5) Social Anxiety Disorder

Symptoms:
- Avoidance behavior
- Heart palpitations, faintness, blushing and profuse sweating.

It is characterized by extreme anxiety about being judged by others or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or ridicule. Thus extreme worry of what one’s peers think may lead to such a situation. It is highly noticeable in children at school and amongst teens.

6) Specific Phobias

Symptoms:
- Excessive fear of common things such as spiders, darkness, heights
- Avoidance of such things
- Profuse sweating, fear on encounter with such things

The contact or exposure with such specific objects leads to intense fear. It finds its roots in childhood and often disappears as one grows.

These are all treatable, but the problem is diagnosis. One must correctly diagnose the anxiety disorder and hence treat accordingly, else the problem persists. Various treatments exist such as:

a) Drugs and Medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), benzodiazepines and beta-blockers.
b) CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
c) Exposure Therapy
d) Anxiety Management
e) Psychotherapy

Anxiety disorders are treatable. The treatment may vary in results, duration and application but the percentage of success is high.