What is Anxiety Disorder – When Does It Become a Problem
Anxiety is a part of normal human life. Everyone experiences some form of anxiety or nervousness when faced with big events such as a job interview or a wedding. Furthermore, small events can also trigger the jitters. Things such as an exam or blind date are just to name a couple.
Anxiety can be a healthy and beneficial thing when at a normal level. It can motivate us to study for that big test or be more cautious and less reckless. Normal anxiety is something that comes and goes without affecting daily life in any significant way. However, for 19 million Americans who suffer from anxiety disorder, these feelings do not come and go and affect their ability to function in daily life.
When Does Anxiety Become a Problem?
In someone with abnormally high levels of anxiety, feelings of dread, worry and fear become part of their everyday lives. These feelings can become more intense and irrational triggered for no reason at all or by some small insignificant event. For these people, anxiety negatively impacts their work or school life, family life as well as their personal habits.
In order to understand the difference between normal and abnormal anxiety, let’s explore this example; two different people are waiting for a friend to arrive at a restaurant. The friend they are waiting on is now a half an hour late. The first person with normal anxiety will shrug off the situation believing the friend is caught in traffic and will be along shortly. However, in a person with chronic anxiety, the worry about their friend quickly turns to irrational thoughts and panic:
Has my friend been in a car accident? What if she is seriously hurt? Should I call the police? Should I call her family? How will her family react?
These examples are just a few of the racing thoughts going through the mind of an anxiety sufferer. Each thought will become more intense and irrational even after the friend has already arrived.
What Causes Anxiety?
An anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness because it can overwhelm the sufferer with persistent worrisome thoughts and thus be crippling. There are several types of anxiety disorder, but generally a person can be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder after having pervasive feelings of panic, fear, or uneasiness for six months or longer.
There is some dispute as to what causes anxiety disorders, but most researchers agree a person with the disorder is likely genetically predisposed to the condition. Many people with anxiety disorders begin to show symptoms in childhood or adolescence, although adult-onset anxiety is not uncommon. Women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety as men. Anxiety affects all ethnic groups pretty equally.
Just as other mental disorders are affected by a chemical imbalance in the brain, anxiety is thought to have this cause as well. The chemicals Serotonin and GABA are areas of great interest for researchers trying to better understand anxiety. In addition to the chemical imbalance, researchers also believe that outside influences play a major role in affecting anxiety. Factors such as the loss of a job, living in a stressful environment or the death of a loved one can all bring on levels of anxiety.
Treatment
Due to the physiological nature of anxiety, it can not yet be cured.
Anxiety can be managed however with medications and behavioral therapy. Additional methods for managing this disorder also include lifestyle changes including diet and exercise. The first and most important step in managing anxiety is to recognize that a problem exists.
A person who seeks treatment for anxiety has a great chance of living a life that is more normal and fulfilling.
Funmi Salami is an established writer who loves to share her knowledge about Anxiety Disorder and Stress and other information about Anxiety Disorder Medication on Clivir – the Free learning Community Site.
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