What Is Anxiety?

Defining Anxiety

Feelings of worry and nervousness are a normal part of life. Everyone frets from time to time. Mild feelings of being on edge can give you the jolt of energy needed to help motivate you, focusing your attention to help complete specific tasks. But general moments of alarm are not clinical anxiety.

Clinical anxiety is a mental health illness that causes you to feel helpless and confused. The extreme worry that comes from anxiety is out of proportion with the actual seriousness or likelihood of the feared event. Overwhelming anxiety interferes with daily life. It prevents you from focusing, paralyzes you with overthinking, and causes you to doubt yourself and your abilities.

Many people in the U.S. feel a form of clinical anxiety. Of all the clinical disorders, anxiety is the most common mental illness. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 40 million adults in the U.S. ages 18 and older suffer from some form of a clinical anxiety disorder.

If you believe you may have an anxiety disorder, talk to your doctor. Have them complete a physical to ensure that your symptoms aren’t related to another medical condition, like hyperthyroidism. If it’s determined that you need mental health treatment, your doctor can discuss your options with you. The quicker you get assistance, the sooner you’ll feel relief.

Causes of Anxiety

Developing anxiety can occur at any age. Pinpointing the cause of an anxiety disorder can be difficult. Some people say that they’ve felt nervous and anxious all their lives. Others may have developed it during certain periods.

As it is the most common mental health illness in the U.S., researchers hypothesize that it’s an acceptable response to chronic stress. As it’s so normalized, people may naturally gravitate toward developing anxiety. Normalization is also why it often goes untreated.

Another potential cause of anxiety is genetics. An individual may have faulty circuits in their brain that control fear and other emotions. These circuits fire more often in individuals with anxiety disorders. When these parts of the brain are overactive, every “potential problem” becomes overwhelming to the point of someone becoming debilitated in thought.

Experiencing trauma, especially during childhood, can also cause an individual to develop an anxiety disorder. We create the belief after surviving trauma, which is often that we could have prevented it. Consciously or unconsciously we may become over-reactive to potential threats that remind us of the trauma. We may regularly live in a fearful state. We may even become over sensitive in our attempts to avoid reminders of the event. We then believe that living in an anxious state keeps us safe.

Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety symptoms are easy to notice. When we experience a perceived or actual threat, we activate the fight-flight-freeze response. When we are anxious, we regularly activate this response.

There are a variety of symptoms one must experience to be considered to have a clinical anxiety disorder. They are both physical and emotional.

Physical symptoms of an anxiety disorder include:

• Trembling, twitching, or shaking

• A feeling of fullness in the throat or chest

• Breathlessness or rapid heartbeat

• Lightheadedness or dizziness

• Sweating or cold, clammy hands

• Muscle tension, aches, or soreness

• Extreme tiredness

• Sleep problems, such as the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep, early waking, or restlessness

Emotional symptoms of anxiety include:

• Irritability, or feeling on edge or keyed up

• Worrying too much

• Fearing that something bad is going to happen; feeling doomed

• Inability to concentrate; feeling like your mind goes blank

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

A generalized anxiety disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that results in excessive ongoing worry which interferes with daily activities. Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder expect a disaster to happen at any moment. They are unable to stop worrying about certain areas in their lives like finances, health, family, work, or school. These worries cause feelings of dread and mental exhaustion. They create an unrealistic view of the world, as they cause the individual to believe that nothing is safe. The worrying thoughts are so pervasive that they result in headaches, nausea, and fatigue.

Panic Disorder

A panic disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that results in panic attacks. A panic attack is a sudden feeling of terror without a clear cause or when there is no danger. They last anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour.

There are a variety of physical and emotional symptoms that occur when an individual has a panic disorder. They include feelings of dying or losing control of yourself, rapid breathing, numbness or tingling of the hands or lips, and a racing heart. You may feel dizzy, sweaty, or shaky. Other symptoms include chest pain or tightness and an irregular heartbeat. These symptoms can be so intense that people confuse them with a heart attack. Usually, this is how individuals learn they have a panic disorder, as they take themselves to the ER to treat what they thought was a heart attack.

Phobic Disorder

Phobias are extreme and irrational fears that interfere with daily life. People who have phobias experience fears that are disproportionate to the perceived danger. They are unable to control their fear response to their phobias.

It’s natural to have fears. Most people deal with fear by avoiding what they are afraid of. This becomes a disorder when the avoidance behavior becomes so extreme that it interferes with your ability to participate in your daily activities. If it prevents you from interacting with people, traveling, advancing in your career, or even leaving your home, it has developed into a disorder. 

There are three main types of phobic disorders:

• Agoraphobia: debilitating fear of being alone or in public places where help might not be available or escape is impossible

• Social Anxiety Disorder or Social Phobia: debilitating fear of situations where you might be exposed to criticism by others

• Debilitating fear of specific things, such as plane crashes, dogs, bugs, or clowns.

Treatment for Anxiety

There are a variety of treatments for anxiety. You may seek counseling or therapy to learn skills like grounding yourself during a panic attack or stop-thinking to prevent overthinking. You may also seek out specialized therapy to address your phobias, like exposure therapy. If your anxiety disorder is severe, you may also be prescribed anxiety medications.

Work with your doctor to learn what treatment is best for you. It will take time for treatment to work. Medication will take several weeks before making the necessary chemical changes to your brain to prevent over-activation of the fight-flight-freeze response. Therefore, it is important to be patient and stick to your treatment plan.

It’s important to note that individuals with anxiety disorders may need to take medication long-term. Especially for individuals with panic disorders, medication may be necessary to prevent physical damage caused by the increased rapid heart racing and decreased ability to breathe. Any decision to discontinue medication needs to be treated with care. Talk to your health care team to know if you are ready to start or stop taking medication.

Helping A Loved One With Anxiety

It’s hard to watch a loved one go through anxiety. Learning more about anxiety will help you support your loved one, without inadvertently making their anxiety worse. When you don’t understand an anxiety disorder, you may push your loved one to do things that can increase the symptoms, and cause them to develop other mental health-related disorders. Remember that anxiety disorders are common, and can develop even in children. Remember that the symptoms are debilitating. Anxiety disorders can cause your loved one to literally become immobilized by fear. Normalize their experience to help them feel understood. Encourage them to seek treatment to learn how to manage their symptoms. Work with them to practice mindfulness meditation. Lastly, manage your own emotional response to their symptoms.

What did you learn about clinical anxiety? Let me know in the comment section below!

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