What Is Anxiety? Unraveling The Often Misunderstood Emotion

Everybody experiences anxiety every so often. And that is completely normal. You might feel anxious about an upcoming exam, the health of an ailing family member, or the results of a job interview.

In the above cases, anxiety can be a normal, even healthy emotion. But when you begin to experience excessive levels of anxiety regularly, then there’s cause for concern because anxiety can turn into a medical disorder.

So what is anxiety, and what causes it? What are the signs and symptoms, and is there a way to treat the disorder? For answers to these questions and more, keep reading.

What Is Anxiety?

According to The American Psychological Association (APA), anxiety is an emotion whose chief characteristics include feelings of tension, worrisome thoughts, and physical symptoms such as high blood pressure.

It is a condition that could cause fear, recurring intrusive thoughts, apprehension, restlessness, and excessive nervousness. These feelings are usually disproportionate to the actual trigger.

A person suffering from deep anxiety might choose to avoid some situations because of worry. Also, they might display physical symptoms like a rapid heartbeat, trembling, sweating, dizziness and sleeplessness.

Different people experience anxiety in different ways. For some, it might be butterflies in your stomach or a racing heart kind of situation. But for others, they might feel out of control or a disconnect between body and mind. Anxiety symptoms could also include panic attacks, nightmares, or uncontrollable, painful memories.

However, anxiety is not always a negative emotion. It can be quite helpful in situations where it alerts you to danger. Here, it can help you pay more attention to your surroundings.

What Causes Anxiety?

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to a stressful situation. Anxious feelings arise when you anticipate a future concern. For instance, fear is a response to an imminent threat and relates to a fight-or-flight reaction.

In the examples illustrated at the beginning of this article, anxiety occurs when you feel fearful or apprehensive about a given eventuality. This type of anxiety is often mild and could come and go, though it leaves you feeling unsettled.

There is no definite cause of anxiety, but research suggests that environmental factors, genetics, and brain chemistry could contribute. Brain sections responsible for managing fear might also be affected.

For some people, specific traumatic experiences could trigger anxiety. Still, anxiety could also be the first sign of an underlying health issue such as diabetes or heart disease.

Anxiety Attacks

Characterized by feeling overwhelmed with worry, fear, apprehension, distress, or fear, an anxiety attack builds gradually and could worsen with the approach of a stressful event. Symptoms vary with individuals and could change with time, but the most common are:

●     Feeling dizzy or faint

●     Chills or hot flashes

●     Dry mouth

●     Sweating

●     Shortness of breath

●     Apprehension, fear, distress, and worry

●     Feeling numb or tingly

Note that while an anxiety attack and a panic attack share similar symptoms, they are not the same thing. Panic attacks occur suddenly, entail intense, overwhelming fear and come with scary physical symptoms like nausea, palpitations, and labored breathing.

When Does Anxiety Become a Disorder?

Normal anxiety turns into a disorder when the resultant feelings like fear and apprehension become extreme, typically lasting for over six months. These feelings could become constant, intense, and, in the worst cases, debilitating. At this point, they could also start to interfere with your normal life.

Anxiety disorders can make you avoid situations that trigger or worsen your symptoms. They can also:

●     Stop you from engaging in your hobbies

●     Prevent you from leaving the house or crossing the street 

●     Affect your relationships or performance at work or school

Amongst all the forms of emotional disorder, anxiety disorders are the most common. What’s more, anyone, whatever their age, can suffer from the condition. They can start from childhood and continue to adult life. Curiously, women are the most likely victims of anxiety disorders.

 

Anxiety Disorders: The Causes, Signs, and Symptoms

Let’s now look at the causes, signs, and symptoms of anxiety disorders:

Causes

The exact cause of anxiety disorders remains unknown.That said, a mix of several factors, among them environmental, psychological, genetic, and developmental factors, could contribute to the rise of anxiety disorders. 

Signs and Symptoms

There are many anxiety disorders, and each type has its symptoms. But the most common symptoms with most of these disorders are:

●     Uncontrollable feelings of fear or worry

●     Feeling irritable, nervous, restless, or tense

●     Sleeping problems, sweating and trembling

●     Having a sense of danger, panic, or impending doom

●     Difficulties concentrating, hyperventilation, and gastrointestinal issues

When you have an anxiety disorder, your behavior and how you process emotions changes. You could also become depressed. This is not unusual since anxiety and depression often occur together.

Many people battling anxiety disorders also end up abusing drugs like alcohol and cigarettes to make themselves feel better. Sadly, this could lead to dependency and addiction. It’s also possible to have more than one of these disorders.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders vary and include some of the following types:

●     Generalized anxiety disorder. This disorder manifests as incessant and excessive worrying about daily life and could end up interfering with your normal activities. You worry about your job, your family’s health, chores, or appointments. Physical symptoms typically accompany the perpetual worrying. These include restlessness, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, lack of sleep, or feeling easily fatigued.

●     Illness anxiety disorder: This anxiety disorder is also known as hypochondria. It makes you have lots of anxiety over your health.

●     Post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is anxiety that ensues following a traumatic occurrence, such as an accident, assault, war, or a natural disaster. You might have disturbing dreams or experience flashbacks of the traumatizing incident.

●     Panic disorder. Here, you suffer from repeated panic attacks. These can happen unexpectedly. Since they come with an overwhelming mixture of physical and psychological symptoms like sweating, trembling, fear of dying, you live in perpetual fear of the next attack.

●     Obsessive-compulsive disorder. When you have obsessive-compulsive disorder, you experience recurring irrational thoughts that could cause you to carry out specific, repeated actions.

●     Phobias. A phobia is an excessive fear of a typically harmless object, activity, or situation. While you might understand that your fear is extreme, you are helpless to overcome it. You might also take extra care to avoid your fears, such as fear of flying or public speaking.

●     Agoraphobia. If you have this disorder, you become fearful of being in situations where you might find it difficult or embarrassing to escape. You might also fear that help might not be readily available if you were to experience panic symptoms. Examples include the fear of being in enclosed or open spaces, being in a crowd, being away from home alone, or using public transportation.

●     Separation anxiety disorder. This disorder makes you excessively anxious about separation from loved ones, your home, or losing loved ones. The anxiety is typically inappropriate for your age and could cause you to have problems carrying out normal functions. You might have nightmares about separation, become reluctant to leave the house, or refuse to sleep away from home.

●     Social anxiety disorder. This refers to the extreme fear of people judging you when in a social setting. To avoid being humiliated, embarrassed, or rejected, you avoid activities involving social interactions such as public dining, public speaking, or meeting new people.

Can You Treat Anxiety Disorders?

Diagnosing anxiety disorders can be a lengthy process involving several physical examinations, psychological and mental health evaluations. It’s also essential to deal with any challenges with alcohol or other drugs first.

Fortunately, once diagnosed, anxiety disorder is a treatable condition. With effective treatment, most people can resume their everyday lives. Left untreated, anxiety can take a turn for the worse.

Treatment options include:

●     Natural remedies. These include lifestyle changes like eating well, exercising, meditating, getting adequate sleep, and eliminating unhealthy activities like smoking and drinking alcohol.

●     Medical treatment. This entails the use of antidepressants and sedatives to reduce severe symptoms, prevent anxiety episodes and balance brain chemistry.

●     Psychotherapy. A therapist assists you in identifying strategies and tools to cope effectively with anxiety whenever it occurs.

When to Seek Treatment for Anxiety

It’s best to treat anxiety disorders before they worsen. See a doctor if you experience any of the following signs:

●     Your anxiety is distressing and difficult to control

●     You feel depressed and often use drugs like alcohol to cope

●     Your worrying interferes with your relationships or daily activities like work or school

●     You experience suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behavior

●     You feel your anxiety might be because of a physical or mental health issue

Final Thoughts

Anxiety is a normal body response to a stressful event. But if the resultant feelings of fear, worry, and apprehension become intense, excessive, long-lasting, and interfere with your normal life, consider seeking treatment. While anxiety might not go away entirely, you can overcome the disorder, learn to manage daily life functions more effectively, and live a healthier life.