Understanding Your Anxiety Disorder

Do you persistently worry? It is absolutely normal to worry about everyday things such as a bad relationship, crazy schedule, or life in general. But, when worry and dread begin to take over your life, and surround you at every turn you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders affect people of different ages, some as young as 18 years old can suffer from a disorder. The disorder causes people to feel uncontrollable fear and dread for a span of up to 6 months. Symptoms will only worsen if they are not properly treated. An anxiety disorder can coincide with other mental or physical ailments. People will utilize drugs and alcohol to cover up the symptoms or cause them to heighten. Each disorder has different symptoms that come along with it, but all the symptoms are centered on extreme fear and uncertainty of what the future may bring.

Anxiety disorders are not a new found illness. Doctors have known about the disorder for decades and have been able to classify each disorder by name. Some of the most common disorders you will run across are separation anxiety, social phobia, selective mutism, panic disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia.

Separation Anxiety- Separation anxiety is a disorder that relates to separating someone from their normal element of attachment such as home or a specific person. The mental symptoms that occur from this disorder are overwhelming fear of being alone. The physical symptoms that accompany the mental feelings are upset stomach, headache, unbearable chest pain, and vomiting.

Social Anxiety Disorder- Social Anxiety disorder also referred to as social phobia is a fear of human interaction. You constantly feel like you are being judged and have an increasingly unrealistic feeling that someone may be spying on you. The number one fear with this disorder is embarrassment; people who suffer with this social phobia can not stand being put in a spot where they feel vulnerable. People who have social anxiety disorder can worry for days at time. This worrying is not only affecting their home life, but can also affect their school and other daily activities.

Selective Mutism- Selective Mutism, is a common disorder to everyone. This disorder is the increased fear of public speaking. Studies have been able to link this phobia alongside social phobia.

OCD-This anxiety disorder has recently been receiving a lot of attention. Popular television shows such as Monk show this disorder for what it truly is. OCD is a disorder of where a person has obsessions that may cause the person overwhelming discomfort. A person, who suffers with the disorder, participates in many senseless activities, some of which may be harmful to them physically. A person with this disorder can find quitting the habits extremely hard.

PTSD-This is a degenerative position in which a person relives something terrible that has occurred in their life. Normally, people who have to cope with the disorder have horrible thought and memories of things that they have seen occur with their own 2 eyes. Signs and symptoms may begin to appear with 3 months after the event has taken place.

Panic disorders- Panic disorders come into play when someone is experiencing extreme stress that their bodies simply can not handle. A few symptoms you will suffer with are rapid or uneven heartbeat, increased chest pain, and vomiting.

Agoraphobia- Agoraphobia is a fear of wide open spaces and crowds. This debilitating disorder can affect someones social life in a major way, causing them to fear leaving their home.

General anxiety disorder- Just about everyone has had their own bought in this disorder. It is when you are extremely worried or stressed out about two or more life occurrences for a period of more then 6 months. The occurrences are normally something completely out of your control; a great instance of this is your husband being shipped to Iraq.

Specific Phobia- Is a fear of a certain thing such as heights, spiders, fire, and many others.

If you have any of the symptoms of any of these disorders to not wait to consult a physician as soon as possible, all disorders do have a cure. The sooner you find out what disorder is ailing you the sooner you can regain your emotional independence.