Here we will describe briefly the different types of anxiety disorders. Causes and treatments will be discussed on the forum under assigned folders.

Please see a licensed therapist for a correct diagnoses of any condition.

Anxiety is most often described as excess worrying, feelings of uneasiness, feeling fearful without a direct cause, impatience about most things and the inability to be calm and relaxed throughout the day. For most people anxiety is just a normal reaction to stress or tough situations. But some of us go on to develop anxiety disorders. Meaning the anxiety does not go down when the stress stops or the situation has already been dealt with. Some physical signs of anxiety include: heart palpitations, trembling or shaking, dizziness, sweating and nausea. Psychological symptoms include: apprehension, uneasiness, detachment, disorientation, and a dread or fear of something bad will happen. More extreme symptoms will be described in the Panic Disorder section.

A common form of anxiety disorder is General Anxiety Disorder and is often concurrent with depression. GAD can develop at any age and approximately 4% of the American population is affected with women being slightly more affected than men.

Some symptoms of GAD include: restlessness, feeling keyed up, being easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension and difficulty sleeping. In addition to these symptoms there is frequent worrying without the ability to control it and interference with your daily activities because of this worrying.

Panic Disorder is characterized by sudden episodes of acute apprehension or intense fear that occur without cause. Intense panic usually lasts no more than a few minutes. This panic response is set off by the body’s natural fight/flight response to danger/distress. In people with panic disorder this is set off with no apparent danger or cause and can be very disturbing to those who experience them. Most people experience a panic attack in their lifetimes. But some of us go on to develop ‘panic disorder’ in which these attack re-occur continuously. The symptoms include: shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dizziness, trembling, shaking, sweating, feeling of choking, nausea, feelings of unreality, numbness, hot and cold flashes, chest pain, fears of going crazy or losing control, fear of dying. Panic disorder by itself does not involve any phobias nor do they occur because you are thinking about, approaching, or actually entering into a phobic situation. Instead, it occurs spontaneously and unexpectedly for no reason. You may have two or three panic attacks w/out ever having another one again or at least for many years. It is common to develop anticipatory anxiety, or apprehension between panic attacks focusing on the fear of having another one.

Agoraphobia, in essence, is the fear of having panic attacks. (the symptoms of these attacks vary from person to person, and the fears also can include other attacks besides panic attacks, we’ll discuss this in the agoraphobia folder). The most common feature of agoraphobia is anxiety about being far from home or far from a ‘safe person’. In severe cases some people can only travel a small distance outside their home or they may become housebound. You also tend to be anxious much of the time thinking about situations in which you might become ‘stuck’ or unable to escape from the situation. Depression also arises from this condition since activities tend to be limited.

Social Phobia is one of the more common anxiety disorders. It involves the fear of embarrassment or humiliation in situations where you are exposed to the scrutiny of others. Symptoms include, fear of blushing in public, fear of choking on or spilling food while eating in public, fear of being watched at work, fear of using public toilets, fear of writing or signing documents in the presence of others, fear of crowds, fear of taking examinations.

Sometimes social phobia is less specific and involves a generalized fear of any social or group situation where you feel that you might be watched or evaluated also called Generalized Social Phobia.

Specific Phobias are phobias that involves a strong fear and avoidance of one particular type of object or situation. Among the most common are: animal phobias, Acrophobia (fear of heights), elevator phobia, airplane phobia, doctor/dentist phobias, thunder/lightning phobias, blood phobia and illness phobia.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is also another form of anxiety and includes the obsession of recurring ideas, thoughts, images or impulses that seem senseless but nonetheless continue to intrude into your mind. Examples include images of violence, thoughts of doing violence to someone else, fears of having the lights left on, the door unlocked, the oven left on. It also includes compulsions, behaviors or rituals that you perform to dispel the anxiety brought up by obsessions. Examples include continual hand washing, checking and counting. Obsessions can occur by themselves without being accompanied by compulsions.

Heatherkay2003

Forum Owner

Panic Disorder w/Agoraphobia

Please Email me with any questions!!!

Email: Heatherkay2003@yahoo.com