What’s The Definition Of Anxiety

When Should I Go To The Emergency Room For An Anxiety Disorder

Symptoms of an anxiety disorder can resemble symptoms of a heart attack or another health emergency. If youre experiencing an anxiety attack for the first time, or youre concerned in any way about your health, call 911 or head to the nearest ER. A healthcare provider will check you for serious or life-threatening conditions.

If youre having an anxiety attack and unsure whether you should head to an ER or not, its better to go. Healthcare professionals can make sure youre OK and give you any necessary treatment.

How Do I Know If My Child Has An Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety-related problems in children share four common features. The anxiety:

• Is typically a fear or fixation that interferes with the ability to enjoy life, get through the day or complete tasks.
• Is puzzling to both the child and parents.
• Does not improve after logical explanations to address the worries.
• Is treatable.

Examples Of Anxiety In A Sentence

anxietyanxietyanxietyanxietySeventeenanxietyRolling Stoneanxiety Los Angeles Timesanxiety Forbesanxiety The Hollywood Reporteranxiety WSJanxietyCNNanxietyVariety

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘anxiety.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Risk Factors For Anxiety Disorder

Some things also make you more likely to develop an anxiety disorder. These are called risk factors. Some risk factors you canât change, but others you can.

Risk factors for anxiety disorders include:

• History of mental health disorder. Having another mental health disorder, like depression, raises your risk for anxiety disorder.
• Childhood sexual abuse. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect during childhood is linked to anxiety disorders later in life.
• Trauma. Living through a traumatic event increases the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder , which can cause panic attacks.
• Negative life events. Stressful or negative life events, like losing a parent in early childhood, increase your risk for anxiety disorder.
• Severe illness or chronic health condition. Constant worry about your health or the health of a loved one, or caring for someone who is sick, can cause you to feel overwhelmed and anxious.
• Substance abuse. The use of alcohol and illegal drugs makes you more likely to get an anxiety disorder. Some people also use these substances to hide or ease anxiety symptoms.
• Being shy as a child. Shyness and withdrawal from unfamiliar people and places during childhood is linked to social anxiety in teens and adults.
• Low self-esteem. Negative perceptions about yourself may lead to social anxiety disorder.

Prevention And Coping With Anxiety

All human beings experience anxiety. In many cases, anxiety can have some beneficial and adaptive qualities such as pushing one to study for an upcoming difficult exam or propelling a person to flee from danger. Although experiencing some anxiety with life stressors and worries is normal, sometimes it can be difficult to manage and can feel overwhelming. Below we provide a list of tips and strategies to help individuals prevent anxiety from reaching a diagnosable level. Even though not everyone will struggle with a diagnosable anxiety disorder, learning strategies to aid in relief from anxiety and to manage the “normal” anxiety experienced in everyday life can help you live the life you desire.

Learning Relaxation Strategies

Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga

Exercise, Healthy Diet, and Rest

Awareness and Identifying Triggers

• It could be helpful to have a journal that you use to track your stressors, mood, thoughts, and behaviors that are impacted by anxiety. This will further help you identify the cause of your anxiety and notice when you may be engaging in unhelpful thoughts that only increase your anxiety.

Supportive Friendships & Family/ Contact a Therapist

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Where Can I Go From Here

You can learn more about anxiety from these resources:

AnxietyBCVisit www.anxietybc.com for more information on anxiety and anxiety disorders. You can watch videos and learn self-help tools to help you cope with anxiety at home. You can also download how to documents and order DVDs on managing anxiety.

Bounce Back programVisit www.cmha.bc.ca/bounceback for information on the Bounce Back program. Bounce Back is for people dealing with low mood, stress or anxiety. Part of the program teaches you skills that help with anxiety. You learn skills from a DVD or you can talk to someone on the phone. The program is free. Talk to your doctor if you want to sign up for Bounce Back. Bounce back is run by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Wellness ModulesVisit www.heretohelp.bc.ca for the Wellness Modules. They include worksheets that help build good mental health. See the ones on stress, problem-solving and healthy thinking. Here to Help is the website of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information.

A crisis line can help you when you are very upset. But they can help for a lot of other problems. They can help you find services in your community. You can also call if you just need to talk to someone. Call 310-6789. Do not put 604, 778 or 250 before the number. When you call 310-6789, you can talk to someone right away.

About the author

What Is An Anxiety Attack

An anxiety attack is a feeling of overwhelming apprehension, worry, distress, or fear. For many people, an anxiety attack builds slowly. It may worsen as a stressful event approaches.

Anxiety attacks can vary greatly, and symptoms may differ among individuals. Thats because the many symptoms of anxiety dont happen to everyone, and they can change over time.

Common symptoms of an anxiety attack include:

• feeling faint or dizzy

Researchers are not sure of the exact cause of anxiety. But, its likely a combination of factors play a role. These include genetic and environmental factors, as well as brain chemistry.

In addition, researchers believe that the areas of the brain responsible for controlling fear may be impacted.

Current research of anxiety is taking a deeper look at the parts of the brain that are involved with anxiety. Learn more about what the researchers are finding.

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Recognizing The Disorder In Others

Jennifer Stevens, PhD

How do I recognize if someone close to me is having trouble with anxiety?

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder in the U.S., affecting more than 18% of the population. They are even more common among children, affecting an estimated 25% of children between the ages of 13 and 18. The most common anxiety disorders are Specific Phobias, affecting 8.7% of the population, and Social Anxiety, affecting 6.8% of the population.

You likely know someone with an anxiety disorder.

Although there are several different types of anxiety disorders, each with unique features, there are some common symptoms that might be a clue that someone is suffering from an anxiety disorder:

Please note that it is not a good idea to attempt to diagnose or label a friend or family member. Only a mental health professional can diagnose an anxiety disorder, as many disorders have overlapping features, and can go together with other types of mental health difficulties. However, if you notice signs of anxiety, or just feel that something is not quite right with someone that you care about, it’s a good idea to reach out to ask the person how they are feeling. You could start with something neutral and supportive like, “It seems like you haven’t been quite yourself lately. Is there something going on that you want to talk about?”

What can I do to help a family member or a close friend with anxiety?

It may also be helpful to:

What Is Anxiety Really Anxiety Definition

What is anxiety? The term anxiety refers to feelings of worry, nervousness, apprehension, or fear commonly experienced by people when faced with something they view as challenging a test, speaking in public, performing in public, a job interview, divorce, layoff, or any number of other stress-inducing events.

Sometimes anxiety is characterized by vague, unsettling feelings of nervousness and apprehension, often with the person having no idea what he or she is anxious about.

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What Is An Anxiety Disorder

Severity of symptoms and a persons ability to cope separate everyday worries or anxious moments from anxiety disorders. National surveys estimate nearly one in five Americans over 18, and one in three teens ages 13 to 18, had an anxiety disorder during the past year.

If anxiety is persistent, excessive, or routinely triggered by situations that arent an actual threat, tell your doctor, who can discuss treatment options or refer you to an experienced mental health professional.

There Are Effective Treatments For Anxiety

Treatment is tailored to the diagnosis. Effective options include:

• Lifestyle changes, such as skipping caffeine, exercising regularly, and avoiding medicines or substances that might cause anxiety symptoms.
• Mind-body approaches, such as deep breathing, meditation, mindfulness, and techniques to ease muscle tension and promote calm.
• Psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy. CBT teaches people to challenge and reframe distorted or unhelpful anxious thinking, because thoughts influence feelings and actions. Exposure therapy helps people tolerate and calm anxiety by gradually exposing a person to feared situations or objects under guidance from a therapist.
• Medicines, such as short-acting drugs called benzodiazepines, which are taken as needed when anxiety spikes. Low doses of some antidepressants, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , help relieve anxiety when taken daily.

Often, a combination of approaches is best. Relieving anxiety with medicine while using CBT or exposure therapy to strengthen coping skills and help retrain the brain can do much to make anxiety manageable.

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Tips From Our Activists And Bloggers On Dealing With Anxiety

• I really wish I could tell 17-year-old Emily to just tell someone. Believe me, it feels so much better to get your worries out of your head and be honest about what youre going through.

  Emily

• , try to remind yourself that theres no danger with your family or friends, and that you are safe with them.

  Luke

• Write a letter to yourself explain how you feel and why. Be as open and truthful with yourself as you can be. A few days later, read it back imagining someone else wrote it to think how you would help them.

  Molly

• Sometimes all you need to do is stop and focus on your breathing. I have learned many techniques over my time in counselling, and finding one that works for you is important.

  Georgie

• Ive found that imagining my anxious thoughts physically leaving my brain and floating off into the sky really helps me.

  Georgie

• As stressful and anxiety-inducing as seeking help can be in itself, talking to someone and receiving support is the only way to overcome it.

  Jasmine

Who Can Diagnose Anxiety Disorders

If your provider finds no signs of physical illness, they may refer you to a psychiatrist or psychologist. These mental health professionals specialize in diagnosing and treating mental illnesses. They may use specially designed interview and assessment tools to figure out if you have an anxiety disorder. Typically, the provider bases a diagnosis on:

• Your reported symptoms, including how intense they are and how long they last.
• Discussion of how the symptoms interfere with your daily life.
• The providers observation of your attitude and behavior.

Providers also consult the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The American Psychiatric Association publishes the DSM-5. Its the standard reference manual for diagnosing mental illnesses.

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Causes And Risk Factors

• Behavioral Choices
• Demographics

It’s important to note that everyone feels anxiety to some degree regularly throughout their life. Fear and anxiety are helpful emotions that can function to help us notice danger or threats that keep us safe and help us adapt to our environment. Anxiety disorders occur when significant distress impairs your ability to function in important facets of life, such as work, school, or relationships. There are many potential risk factors for anxiety disorders, and most people likely experience multiple different combinations of risk factors, such as neurobiological factors, genetic markers, environmental factors, and life experiences. However, we do not yet fully understand what causes some people to have anxiety disorders.

Genetic risk factors have been documented for all anxiety disorders. Clinical genetic studies indicate that heritability estimates for anxiety disorders range from 30-67%. Many studies, past and present, have focused on identifying specific genetic factors that increase one’s risk for an anxiety disorder. To date, an array of single nucleotide polymorphisms or small variations in genetic code, that confer heightened risk for anxiety have been discovered. For the most part, the variants that have been associated with risk for anxiety are located within genes that are critical for the expression and regulation of neurotransmitter systems or stress hormones.

What To Do About Anxiety

Feeling constant anxiety can be a sign that something in your life isnt right, and you may need some help figuring out what that is.

Talk to your GPIf they think youre suffering from anxiety, whether mild or severe, they can suggest different types of treatment that might help. They can also offer regular check-ups to see how youre doing.

• Remember you are resilient and you will get back up when you fall down.

  Luke

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How Is Anxiety Diagnosed

Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms. Often they will use a detailed questionnaire to do this. The more detailed answers you can give about what you’re experiencing, the better.

You may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder if the symptoms are affecting your ability to function in some way, either at work, school or socially. The questionnaire may also pick up if you have depression and how severe the problem may be.

Your doctor will diagnose the type of anxiety disorder you have based on recognised criteria such as those listed in the DSM-5 .

What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder

With GAD, you may feel extreme and unrealistic worry and tension even if theres nothing to trigger these feelings. Most days, you may worry a lot about various topics, including health, work, school and relationships. You may feel that the worry continues from one thing to the next.

Physical symptoms of GAD can include restlessness, difficulty concentrating and sleeping problems.

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