There are normal states of anxiety, and there are abnormal states of anxiety. And sometimes, both types of anxiety can co-exist at the same time. This article will focus on understanding some of the most common anxiety disorders, what causes them, and how they are clinically treated.
Types Of Anxiety
Normal states of anxiety
All of us, to one degree or another, will experience different levels of anxiety during the course of our lifetime.
Normal states of anxiety should not be confused with clinical anxiety disorders.
Experiencing anxiety is a normal response to what is perceived as a threatening situation. It is also normal to have different perceptions of what one considers threatening.
For example, it would be normal to experience anxiety if you are suddenly confronted with a growling Pitbull running toward you. It would also be normal for a person to experience anxiety going on their first date or anxiously awaiting their college admissions test scores.
Abnormal states of anxiety
In a report published by the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), over 40 million adults (19.1 percent of the U.S.) suffer from an abnormal anxiety disorder, with most developing symptoms before age 21.
What makes anxiety an abnormal behavior is the frequency and intensity of its onset and the fact that it can quickly escalate into intense fear and worry without the presence of an imminent or threatening event.
Anxiety disorders cover a wide spectrum of emotional disorders. In fact, a person can have more than one anxiety disorder simultaneously. Anxiety disorders can also result from serious medical conditions such as cardiac disorders, diabetes, and tumors that stimulate anxiety-inducing hormones.
Common Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder includes excessive anxiety and worries about one’s life and all the events that could go wrong. Anxiety and fear are almost always out of proportion to the actual circumstances.
Social anxiety disorder
Social anxiety disorder can trigger high anxiety levels, especially in those predisposed to bouts with anxiety. While most of us are shy when meeting new people in social situations and feel uncomfortable, those suffering from social anxiety can have severe emotional reactions to social gatherings.
Those severely inflicted with anxiety can feel almost paralyzed in such situations. Feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness, and sensing others are judging them
Agoraphobia disorder
Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety in which the person fears leaving their home’s safety and avoiding locations and circumstances that could cause them to feel trapped, helpless, and isolated. Sometimes, the anxiety can quickly escalate into a disabling panic attack.
Panic disorder
Panic attacks can overwhelm a person’s physical, mental, and emotional states. The main trigger of anxiety is caused by an intense and debilitating fear of an impending event that is perceived as an existential threat. Panic attacks used to go by the non-clinical term nervous breakdown and which is no longer even used or considered a medical term.
Common Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders
- Intense nervousness
- Intense worrying
- Intense stress
- Hopelessness
- Increased heart rate
- Rapid breathing
- Profuse sweating
- Insomnia
- Exhaustion
- Depression
- Tremors
Anxiety Disorder Caused by Emotional Trauma
The onset of anxiety can also begin from an emotionally traumatic experience suffered in childhood or adulthood and then be regularly retriggered by associative events.
A primary example of emotional trauma falls under the diagnostic classification called generalized anxiety disorder.
Suppressed and unprocessed emotional trauma
As described earlier, generalized anxiety disorder is a chronic condition characterized by worry, fear, and nervous tension. This condition is challenging to diagnose or treat because the condition does not have an apparent or objectifiable emotional trigger. This is usually because the emotional source of the anxiety resulted from an emotional trauma that was never fully processed or even understood by the person.
A person who suffers from unprocessed trauma is often mistaken for someone who is unduly negative, excessively worries, or just overthinks about what might happen if things don’t go as planned – even in the absence of an actual or imminent threat.
While general anxiety disorder is often misunderstood as excessive exposure to stress, in many adult cases, the real source of their anxiety can be traced back to an unresolved emotional trauma that was experienced and usually suppressed in the person’s childhood.
Children are unable to process emotional trauma
Instead, emotional wounds caused by trauma get buried in the child’s subconscious and manifest as innate fear, nervousness, and tension – but without knowing or understanding the cause of the internal chaos.
Unfortunately, the emotional wounding can be so profound that it will rarely go away or work itself out without active and engaged therapy.
Having never processed the emotional trauma, the child’s anxiety is left to fester and, in time, gets entangled with other worries and setbacks. The anxiety often spreads to other parts of the child’s life and is absorbed into different levels of their psyche as well as their physical sense of being.
According to SAMHSA, the impact of emotional childhood trauma can last well beyond the person’s childhood and is often a life-long battle.
Childhood trauma survivors may experience:
- Learning problems,
- Difficulty focusing and keeping their attention on one task
- Behavior problems resulting in suspensions and expulsions
- Unable to make new friends
- Speech problems such as anxiety-induced stuttering
- Feeling depressed and alone
Medication Management of Anxiety
Over the past fifty years, medical treatment for the management of anxiety disorders has been through the combination of medication and psychotherapy.
For people with chronic and severe anxiety disorders, antidepressants such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) have been prescribed to manage the symptoms of chronic anxiety disorders. SSRI medications are not mood elevators or tranquilizers
Types of antidepressants
Psychiatrists are specialists in determining which antidepressants might work best for you. You must follow up with your doctor to adjust the dosage and ensure the antidepressant prescribed is a good fit for you.
Some of the most widely sold antidepressants include Zoloft, Celexa, and Paxil. If you do not have health insurance, these types of medications can be expensive. However, discount pharmacies buy in large quantities and can be as much as 80 percent lower than the brand’s retail prices.
Numbing the pain with alcohol and drugs
It is essential to remember that the most intense levels of anxiety surface when life presents traumatic or profoundly disturbing circumstances to face, with or without an anxiety disorder. These combined experiences can culminate in an emotionally charged state and lead to acute emotional trauma, clinical depression, and other psychological disorders.
Unfortunately, instead of seeking therapy, many people resort to numbing their pain through alcohol and drugs. Should this happen, the risk of self-harm can spiral out of control and have devastating consequences.
Don’t wait to seek help – you have options now
Many helpful publicly funded state assistance resources are available to you, irrespective of your ability to pay. There are also nonprofit addiction and recovery organizations ready to help if you truly desire to recover.
Consider setting up a consultation with an online mental healthcare professional for more information.
For a more holistic approach to maintaining emotional balance, consider also learning about the benefits of yoga and meditation and how to release the innate healing power of your mind.
Emergency 24-Hour Suicide Hotline
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK. (8255)
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