Learn More About Anxiety Disorders

As a group, anxiety disorders afflict nearly nine percent of Americans during any six-month period.

Symptoms can be so severe that patients are almost totally disabled. Some people feel too terrified to leave their homes, enter the elevator that takes them to their offices, to attend parties or to shop for food at the local grocery store.

Anxiety is a word so commonly used that many people don't understand what it means in mental health care. Complicating matters is the fact that anxiety and fear are often used to describe the same thing.

The word anxiety is used to discuss a group of mental illnesses. It refers to an unpleasant and overriding mental tension that has no apparent identifiable cause.

Fear, on the other hand, causes mental tension due to a specific, identifiable reason.

Anxiety is usually diagnosed as one of the following:   generalized anxiety ,separation anxiety, Phobias panic disorders, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder ( OCD ).

When people suffering from these disorders talk about their condition, they often include these descriptions:

unrealistic or excessive worry

unrealistic fears concerning objects or situations

exaggerated startle reactions

"flashbacks" of past trauma

sleep disturbances

ritualistic behaviors as a way of with dealing with anxieties

shakiness

trembling

muscle aches involuntary muscle spams

sweating

cold/clammy hands

dizziness

jitters

tension

fatigue

racing or pounding heart

dry mouth

numbness/tingling of hands, feet or other body part

upset stomach

diarrhea

lump in throat

high pulse and/or breathing rate

In addition, people suffering from anxiety are often apprehensive and worry that something bad may happen to themselves or loved ones. They often feel impatient, irritable and easily distracted.

most of the time specific symptoms and causes of them will differ for each individual person and circumstance, and can have a major impact on person's social and personal relationships.

Often the people around someone with an anxiety disorder do not understand how real these feelings are. People will often get annoyed , and tell you to "just snap out of it." and "calm down" But for someone who suffers with anxiety, it's just not that easy.