Anxiety disorders are irrational fears of situations or objects that cause intense physical or mental responses. They often coexist with other disorders and are maladaptive. The American Psychological Association recognizes seven types, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, and specific phobia. Each type has its own symptoms and characteristics.
Anxiety disorders, also called panic disorders, are generally defined as irrational fears of particular situations or objects characterized by an intense physically or mentally debilitating response. Anxiety disorders often coexist with other disorders, such as depression, mood disorders, and drug or alcohol addiction. Anxiety disorders are considered maladaptive, meaning that, as far as we know, they serve no purpose as a survival or defense mechanism. The American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes seven anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome, social phobic disorder, and specific phobic disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder is defined as excessive worrying about any number of things. An ironic attribute of people with generalized anxiety disorder is that they worry excessively that they have nothing to worry about. Any situation, event, thought, word or object can produce anxiety. Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder include a feeling of tightness, tense muscles, trouble sleeping, inability to concentrate, irritability, and fatigue.
Panic disorder is similar to generalized anxiety disorder, except that a panic episode is more intense and brief than the episodes experienced by people with generalized anxiety disorder. Panic disorder is characterized by sudden panic attacks that last for less than an hour. Panic attacks are a false activation of the “fight or flight” response, which is the body’s natural physical reaction to fear. A person experiencing a panic attack will experience real physical symptoms of increased heart rate, numbness in the arms and legs, and difficulty breathing. Often people who suffer from panic attacks believe they are having a heart attack.
Agoraphobia, another of the anxiety disorders, can coexist with panic disorder. An agoraphobic person is afraid of traveling by car, bus, train or plane, and fears public places or particular situations. The severity of agoraphobia varies between individual sufferers, but it can become very debilitating. Sometimes, agoraphobia can become so severe that a person will refuse to leave their home. Sufferers of agoraphobia generally fear that they have panic disorder or becoming ill in public, and begin to cut out all activities they believe might trigger a panic attack.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the anxiety disorders that incorporates anxiety with behavioral components. OCD is characterized by persistently recurring unwanted and uncontrollable thoughts, which are termed obsessions. These obsessions are accompanied by irrational behaviors, called compulsions. A person with OCD tries to deny or control his obsessive thoughts with compulsive behaviors such as washing hands frequently, turning lights on and off, repeating a specific word a certain number of times, ordering, organizing, and so on. OCD often occurs alongside other forms of anxiety disorders, especially generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by a traumatic event in a person’s life, such as witnessing a terrible accident, natural disaster, abuse, or war. A person with PTSD frequently relives the traumatic event, which induces fear and anxiety. This can lead to avoidance of situations, panic attacks, general malaise, depression and withdrawal.
Social phobia and specific phobia are two closely related anxiety disorders that invoke intense fear. Social phobia is characterized by an irrational fear of social situations and interactions with other people. Usually, a person with social phobia has a disproportionate fear of how they will act in the company of others. Those with social phobia suffer from a fear of embarrassing or humiliating themselves, rather than a fear that other people will harm them.
Specific phobia is characterized by an exaggerated fear of animals or objects. A person with a specific phobia might be horrified by a spider, dog or bird, or they might be afraid of heights, water or the dark. Although many people feel uncomfortable about specific objects or get nervous around other people, true phobias are debilitating to the point of affecting a person’s quality of life and ability to carry out daily activities.
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