Anxiety is an everyday and normal emotion, used primarily for survival purposes, without it we would be likely to be reckless and engage in dangerous behaviours or activities. Anxiety only presents a problem when it becomes uncontrollable and excessive - thus inappropriately high with disproportionate responses to perceived threats. Anxiety is often associated with stress related disorders and events which continue unresolved over a period of time - causing considerable distress and discomfort.
When anxiety gets out of control it can quickly become disabling and chronic with many forms. You may have experienced overwhealming fears or worry, panic attacks, phobias, post-traumatic stress responses or obsessive behaviours or maybe your days are just clouded by low-grade anxiety, having a constant feeling of being nervous/ panicky and not able to focus without the "what if?" and "shouldn't I?" thoughts, interfering.
Anxiety conditions, tend to 'lock' us in to our 'emotional brain' and this encourages black and white thinking - "if something can go wrong it will", we become too self-focused, jump to conclusions very easily, look to attribute blame when things go wrong, exaggerate our feelings, catastrophising "if he dumps me, my life will be over", making perfectionist type demands on ourself and putting ourselves down.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
This is fairly common and is characterised by ongoing and excessive worrying which the person finds difficult to control. This worrying usually occurs frequently (more days than not) and continues for periods of 6 months or more. Everyday 'normal' events can become worries and hurdles which are seemingly impassable. Typically, your sleep is disturbed - difficulty in getting to sleep, waking in the middle of the night or early in the morning with a panicky feeling. The feelings associated with this are typically:
- lack of concentration (mind going blank)
- irritability
- sleep disturbance (insomnia)
- continual worrying
- feelings of depression
Some physical symptoms maybe:
- muscle tension
- headaches
- restlessness
- tiredness (extreme)
- upset stomach
- dry mouth
- heart palpitations
- dizziness
- sweating
Panic Disorder (Anxiety/ Panic Attacks)
This can be described as a feeling of intense fear that usually reaches it's peak within 10 minutes, common experienced feelings during this time are: breathlessness, dizziness, palpitations, trembling and feelings of choking, nausea and pins and needle sensations through the arms and hands. This may often results in short and rapid inhalation and exhalation, which can cause hyperventilation - a common symptom of panic attacks. Panic attacks can occur unexpectedly and sufferers often live in fear of having additional attacks and subsequently tend to avoid any situation in which they have occurred previously. The problem with doing this - is that it may reinforce the behaviour and gradually increases the potential to have another panic attack. This is because the brain is constantly on alert for similar events, situations or places, which may be matched to the other panic attack experiences (for example if a panic attack happened in a supermarket - you may avoid all supermarkets in the future but then the brain may extend this match to other crowded areas - such as shopping malls, carparks, cinemas etc.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
This is at the other extreme of generalised anxiety disorder - with it's low level constant arousal and can be frightening to experience. It is usually of witnessing or being part of a traumatic even life threatening event, especially where the person may have felt helpless. Examples of such are: natural disasters - earthquakes, wide-spread fires, or ones caused by human error - car crashes, muggings, rapes, physical assault, times of war (this does not mean that if you have been subjected to such experiences you will definately suffer with PTSD - statistics show it to be around 1-5 who do suffer). With PTSD the traumautic event, whatever it may, be will be re-experienced in one or more of the following ways:
- persistant intrusive re-living of the event - visualisation, thoughts and perceptions
- recurrent dreams about the event
- a sense of re-living the event, as if it were really happening, resulting in flashbacks or hallucinations.
- unconscious or conscious physical and/or mental distress when the brain makes associations with environmental stimuli, i.e. triggers that recall the event (sounds, smells, significant anniversaries)
The above often leads to avoidance of certain situations, knowingly or not, for instance - avoiding certain thoughts, conversations, people, places. The person may experience amnesia for certain aspects of the trauma, feel detached from others or have a marked loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities. A person suffering with PTSD would also show at least two of these symptoms, for at least one month, causing significant problems for everyday functioning:
- sleep disturbance of some form
- anger outbursts or irritability
- problems with concentration
- hypervigilance
- an exaggerated startle response
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
This is a severe anxiety condition which can lead to significant impairment to the quality of life. It commonly involves intrusive and recurrent thoughts and images- that if certain rituals are not carried out something harmful will happen, thus performing the rituals reduces the anxiety in the person. An example of this would be ritual and repeated hand-washing for the fear of contamination, despite the resultant skin on the hands becoming raw with soreness. These compulsions cause anxiety and distress and are clearly excessive.
The forms of anxiety described briefly above are extreme and it may be that you experience any one of these to a lesser degree or with differing symptoms, if you would like more information or would like to know how we can help you, please contact us.
The Emotional Needs Audit - follow this link to assess how well your emotional needs are being met in your life, now.
Warning!
In a small number of cases any of the above described symptoms can be the consequence of a physical condition, such as heart and lung irregularities, inner ear disturbance, epilepsy or an undiagnosed thyroid disorder. In addition too much caffeine (coffee and other drinks) can result in anxiety type symptoms, as can the sudden stopping of drinking caffeine, alcohol or taking tranqillisers.
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