How To Know If You Have Anxiety Problems

Anxiety Symptoms That Might Point To A Disorder

Everyone can expect to have the occasional bout of anxietymaybe you get nervous before an interview or a first datebut sometimes, that anxiety doesnt subside, which may indicate an anxiety disorder.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health , there are a few different types of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobia-related anxiety disorders, but they all hinge on one important aspect: when overwhelming feelings of worry or fear impinge on a persons daily life.

Researchers believe that anxiety disorders can stem from both genetic and environmental factors, and these anxiety disorders are typically treated through a variety of interventions, including psychotherapy, medication, or a combination of the two, according to the NIMH.

While anxiety disorders are often hard to pinpointand often benefit from a correct diagnosis from a mental health professionalthere are some signs and symptoms that are common among those with most types of anxiety disorders. Heres what you need to know, and including when you should seek professional help.

Anxious Thoughts: When To Be Concerned

Everyone worries. But severe anxiety occurs when you worry more than a situation warrants. Many people with anxiety disorders realize they are worrying more than they should, but they cannot shake their anxiety.

Overly anxious thoughts may make you:

• Feel irritable or tired
• Have a hard time relaxing
• Sleep poorly or have trouble falling asleep

• Trouble breathing or swallowing
• Twitching, trembling or sweating

People with severe anxiety can have a hard time doing basic daily tasks. They may feel paralyzed by fear or worry. They may avoid situations that trigger anxiety. Or they may have trouble working, going to school, or socializing. See your doctor if you have any of these symptoms. Treatment can help relieve anxious thoughts. It can also teach you how to cope with anxiety.

Anxiety In Children Is Caused By Frightening Experiences And Events

The development of anxiety in children is linked to a situation or perceived event that is frightening or traumatizing. For example, Sarah’s parents contacted me, frantically stating that their five-year-old daughter no longer wanted to go to school. She was clinging to her mother, crying, and was inconsolable at school for the first hour or so. They were not sure what had happened or why their daughter was so upset all of a sudden. In further discussion, it turned out that their daughter had watched her friend’s mother being taken to the hospital by an ambulance in her neighborhood. Her parents didn’t think that this would affect her, as their neighbor was fine and returned home that same day. However, their five-year-old daughter was traumatized by this experience and believed that if she went to school, the same thing may happen to her mother. As a result, she wanted to stay home and make sure that her mother was okay. Take note that this experience was observed and did not directly impact her or her family. However, for children, the frightening experience may be indirectly experienced or observed and still strongly affect the child.

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How To Handle Shortness Of Breath From Anxiety

When trying to get yourself out of an anxious spiral, McKee recommends using relaxation techniques like deep diaphragmatic breathing and engaging in distractions thatll occupy your mind such as crossword puzzles, mental exercises like counting backward from 100, or even a video game or exercise. Here are some great tips for making a panic attack more bearable, which can help with non-panic anxiety too.

McKee also urges people with health anxiety to stop reading or watching news related to the new coronavirus, or, at the very least, to significantly limit news consumption. And make sure youre only looking at news from accurate sources.

If youre wondering how Im personally keeping it together, its thanks to online therapy, the power of distraction, and forcing myself to do a few self-care acts every day. Physically moving, whether its doing an at-home barre workout or going for a quick skateboard ride up and down the street, has been really beneficial for me. My logic is, If I can do this exercise without collapsing, my lungs are probably fine.

Connecting with people in the same shoes as me, like Denise and Millie, has been extremely comforting throughout this journey. It helps to know there are people out there having the exact thoughts that I am. If theres anything Ive learned from this anxiety-filled pandemic experience, its that Im not alone. And if youre feeling this way too, neither are you.

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You Have A Major Case Of Avoidance

If you start making excuses for not participating in activities like parties or after-work happy hours or even networking events thatll advance your career, its time to take a step back and determine why. Avoidance is something we brush off and rationalize, like saying you dont want to go meet new people because youre tired, Zakarin says. It often starts smalllike hanging with close friends but skipping out when they invite othersand then you realize youre saying no more and more often.

Procrastination, though typically pretty common, can also reveal anxiety. If youre not turning in work because you fear your boss or co-workers will hate it or criticize you, thats when putting off a project becomes a little more serious than missing a deadline by a day. If it becomes a chronic problem, because its too distressing to face actually doing the project, thats a good signal of anxiety, says Zakarin.

Anxiety disorders affect 40 million adults in the United States.

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How Are Anxiety Disorders Diagnosed

If you have symptoms of an anxiety disorder, talk to your healthcare provider. Theyll start with a complete medical history and physical examination.

There are no lab tests or scans that can diagnose anxiety disorders. But your provider may run some of these tests to rule out physical conditions that may be causing symptoms.

What Is It Like Having Social Anxiety Disorder

In school, I was always afraid of being called on, even when I knew the answers. I didnt want people to think I was stupid or boring. My heart would pound and I would feel dizzy and sick. When I got a job, I hated to meet with my boss or talk in a meeting. I couldnt attend my best friends wedding reception because I was afraid of having to meet new people. I tried to calm myself by drinking several glasses of wine before an event and then I started drinking every day to try to face what I had to do.

I finally talked to my doctor because I was tired of feeling this way and I was worried that I would lose my job. I now take medicine and meet with a counselor to talk about ways to cope with my fears. I refuse to use alcohol to escape my fears and Im on my way to feeling better.

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Anxiety And Depression In Children

Find information and resources for parents on how to help children cope

Learn about recommendations for school-based cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce depression and anxiety symptomsexternal icon.

Many children have fears and worries, and may feel sad and hopeless from time to time. Strong fears may appear at different times during development. For example, toddlers are often very distressed about being away from their parents, even if they are safe and cared for. Although fears and worries are typical in children, persistent or extreme forms of fear and sadness could be due to anxiety or depression. Because the symptoms primarily involve thoughts and feelings, they are sometimes called internalizing disorders.

Scoring The Anxiety Disorder Test

The more times you answered yes on the anxiety disorder quiz, the more likely it is you may suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Sections one and two of the anxiety disorder test are designed to indicate an anxiety disorder, while sections three and four screen for conditions that may complicate anxiety disorders â such asdepression or substance use.

If you answered mostly yes in any one section, or in the anxiety disorder quiz overall, you should print this page with your answers and discuss them with a mental health or healthcare professional.

Remember, only a trained, mental health professional like your family doctor, a psychiatrist or psychologist can diagnose a mental illness.

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What Is An Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks, also known as panic attacks, are episodes of intense panic or fear. They usually occur suddenly and without warning. Sometimes theres an obvious triggergetting stuck in an elevator, for example, or thinking about the big speech you have to givebut in other cases, the attacks come out of the blue.

Anxiety attacks usually peak within 10 minutes, and they rarely last more than 30 minutes. But during that short time, you may experience terror so severe that you feel as if youre about to die or totally lose control. The physical symptoms are themselves so frightening that many people think theyre having a heart attack. After an anxiety attack is over, you may worry about having another one, particularly in a public place where help isnt available or you cant easily escape.

Why Do Anxiety Attacks Cause Heart Attack

Panic attacks tend to cause a chain reaction in the body that triggers many of these physical symptoms. Some of these reactions include:

• Hyperventilation Poor breathing can cause chest pains, shortness of breath, etc. It can also lead to lightheadedness and muscle weakness.
• Adrenaline The anxiety from a panic attack leads to an adrenaline rush, causing rapid heartbeat. Like hyperventilation, it can cause tingling in the extremities and other heart attack-like symptoms.
• Hyper-sensitivity Another issues is known as hypersensitivity. Its when the person experiences a lesser symptom more than someone without hypersensitivity would experience. For example, a small amount of chest pain might physically feel more severe, when any other person would shrug it off.

In addition, physical stress can cause a host of problems, like memory loss, indigestion, and more, and these can contribute to the heart attack experience in their own way.

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What Does It Mean To Be Anxious

Although anxiety is often an unpleasant feeling, its actually a healthy response to certain triggers.

There are many situations that come up in everyday life when it is appropriate and reasonable to react with some anxiety, says Edmund Bourne, PhD, a former director of the Anxiety Treatment Center in San Jose and Santa Rosa, California, and the author of The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook.

Thats because anxiety as in day-to-day worrying about say, crossing a busy street or about a persistent toothache helps keep us safe. Its also a natural response to stressors. As Dr. Bourne explains, If you didnt feel anxiety in response to everyday challenges involving personal loss or failure, something would be wrong.

Normal anxiety is proportionally related to a specific situation or problem and lasts only as long as the situation or problem does, says Sarah Gundle, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City and a teacher at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center at Mount Sinai Hospital. For example, its completely normal to feel anxious about speaking in front of a large group of people or meeting an important deadline at work.

You Have A High Level Of Distress

Anxiety is a question of degree. Its one thing to be jittery before an important test or presentation or to worry about your health when an epidemic is in the news. And if you have a particular sensitivity flying, dentists, working the room at a crowded party youre going to be tense as one of those situations approaches. If the tension consumes your day, however, if it crowds out other thoughts or if the psychic pain goes from troubling to severe, thats another matter.

Anxiety will prevent people from sleeping theyll find themselves crying over it, says psychologist Golda Ginsburg, professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a specialist in child and adolescent mental health. There are students who will vomit in the days leading up to a test.

In some cases, the emotions become so severe they lead to a panic attack, a sort of weaponized anxiety that hits fast and hard and includes such symptoms as dizziness, rapid heart rate, depersonalization or out-of-body experience and a fear of losing control or dying. If you suddenly have to slam on your brakes and swerve to avoid a collision, that pounding heart and rapid breath you feel for a few minutes after is a form of panic attack, says psychologist Anne Marie Albano, director of Columbia Universitys Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders. In the context of a disorder, however, you might start to feel the same thing the moment you walk into the office or a party.

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Whats The Outlook For People With Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders can often go undiagnosed and untreated. Fortunately, treatment can help. The right treatment can help improve your quality of life, relationships and productivity. It can also support your overall well-being.

You dont need to live with constant worry and fear. If you notice symptoms of an anxiety disorder, talk to your healthcare provider. Its best to get diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. Doing so can limit the problems that anxiety disorders can cause. Often, a combination of medications and counseling for anxiety can help you feel your best.

Information For Carers Friends And Relatives

If you are a carer, friend or relative of someone who hears voices, you can get support.

How can I get support?

You can do the following.

• Speak to your GP about medication and talking therapies for yourself.
• Speak to your relatives care team about a carers assessment.
• Ask for a carers assessment from your local social services.
• Join a carers service. They are free and available in most areas.
• Join a carers support group for emotional and practical support. Or set up your own.

What is a carers assessment?A carers assessment is an assessment of the support that you need so that you can continue in your caring role. To get a carers assessment you need to contact your local authority.

How do I get support from my peers?You can get peer support through carer support services or carers groups. You can search for local groups in your area by using a search engine such as Google. Or you can contact the Rethink Mental Illness Advice Service and we will search for you.

How can I support the person I care for?

You can do the following.

• Read information about anxiety disorders.
• Ask the person you support to tell you what their symptoms are and if they have any self-management techniques that you could help them with.
• Encourage them to see a GP if you are worried about their mental health.
• Ask to see a copy of their care plan, if they have one. They should have a care plan if they are supported by a care coordinator.
• Help them to manage their finances.

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What To Do When You Have An Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks often need to run their course. Once theyve started, there is very little that you can do to stop them completely. Theyre a reaction that your body has that is somewhat beyond your control. They can be prevented, and their severity can be lessened, but they are very hard to stop.

Reducing its severity has to do with reacting correctly to the symptoms. Remember the physical symptoms you experience are very real, and very disruptive. But theyre not related to any health problem, and solely a result of your anxiety. If you believe you feel an anxiety attack coming or youre certain youre in the middle of the one, try the following:

Drinking water may also calm the mind, and if you feel strong enough, a good jog can get your body to breathe better and use oxygen at a healthier pace.

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.

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How Do Physical Heart Problems Arise

Heart problems encompass a wide range of conditions. Issues can arise due to physical problems in the vessels or pumping chambers of the heart, which makes it difficult to pump and/or send oxygen around the body. This can lead to chest pain and issues such as:

• Coronary artery disease

• Arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation .

Are There Tests That Diagnose Anxiety

A single test cant diagnose anxiety. Instead, an anxiety diagnosis requires a lengthy process of physical examinations, mental health tests, and psychological questionnaires.

Some doctors or healthcare professionals may conduct a physical exam, including blood or urine tests to rule out underlying medical conditions that could contribute to the symptoms youre experiencing.

Several anxiety tests and scales are also used to help a doctor assess the level of anxiety youre experiencing. Reach about each of these tests.

Once youve received a diagnosis of anxiety, you can explore treatment options with a doctor.

But treatment can help you overcome the symptoms and lead a more manageable day-to-day life.

Treatment for anxiety falls into three categories:

• Psychotherapy. Therapy can include cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure response prevention.
• Complemental health techniques. Mindfulness, yoga, and self-management strategies such as stress management are ways to treat your anxiety using alternative methods.
• Medication. Doctors prescribe antianxiety and antidepressant drugs.

Meeting with a therapist or psychologist can help you learn tools to use and strategies to cope with stress when it occurs.

The Mental Health Resources page can provide tips on finding a psychiatrist, or a doctor who specializes in mental health, to fit your needs.

Some other commonly used medications include:

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