Anxiety Disorder – The Five Different Forms Of This Disorder
Anxiety disorder or anxiety disorders is a blanket term for a wide variety of pathological anxiety and fear. Below are brief explanations about the five major types of anxiety disorders.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD is an anxiety disorder that is described as exaggerated worry, chronic anxiety, and tension that are focused on an object or situation. Often, even when there is very little or no reason at all to worry, people with GAD still worry. The hallmark of people with generalized anxiety disorder is that they anticipate disaster all the time and are overly worried about the worst-case scenarios that may happen to them or to the people close to them. For the majority of people with generalized anxiety disorder, even the thought of getting through the day is enough to cause them more than enough worry.
Panic Disorder
Panic disorder is a sudden onset wave of apprehension, fear and terror combined that is accompanied by a host of physical symptoms like sweatiness, dizziness, weakness, faintness, confusion, shaking, nausea, ‘racing heart’, and nausea.
Panic attacks last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, often peaking at least 10 minutes after the first symptoms occurred. It can occur at any time, even during [while the person is sleeping sleep]. The exact triggers for each episode are yet to be identified although it is widely accepted that exercising, intense fear, and being subjected to stress can cause the wave of symptoms to occur.
Phobias or Phobic Disorders
The largest group of anxiety disorders is phobia or phobic disorders. People with phobia most frequently experience or anticipate intense levels of fear and anxiety as they encounter the object or situation they most fear, which can be anything from a location, a small animal, or a bodily fluid. In anxiety disorder talk, agoraphobia and social anxiety disorder are the most common complaints.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, better known as OCD, is the anxiety disorder that is characterized by unwanted and recurrent thoughts with repetitive behaviors. These persistent and upsetting thoughts or obsessions are controlled using rituals or compulsions. Although people with OCD initially feel lower levels of anxiety by doing repetitive behaviors, they actually end up being controlled by their compulsions. Still, compulsions such as counting, checking, hand washing, and cleaning are performed to ease the anxiety caused by their obsessions. Results, then, are temporary.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Or PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops as a result of exposure to a terrifying experience or event in which a person experienced a great deal of physical harm or was faced with a possibility of experiencing one. Traumatic events that often develop into PTSD are natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.
People with PTSD have persistent and recurrent frightening memories and thoughts of their ordeal, often forcing them to feel emotionally numb to people they were once close to. Left untreated, these memories could live with them to their deathbed.
If you suspect that some of the symptoms of any of any anxiety disorder could be happening to you, it is best that you seek medical help soon.
To find out whether the symptoms you are experiencing are signs of a particular disorder, it is advisable that you first seek the professional advice of your physician. From there, he could recommend you to a clinician or a psychologist to look into your anxiety disorder.
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