Quick Guide To Anxiety & Treatment Options
What is Anxiety and Its common Symptoms?
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive worry and anxiety about various aspects of life, even when there is little or no reason to worry. Symptoms of GAD can vary in severity and may include:
Excessive Worrying: Persistent and uncontrollable worry about a wide range of concerns, including health, work, relationships, finances, and everyday responsibilities.
Restlessness or Feeling On Edge: A constant feeling of restlessness, agitation, or being on edge, making it difficult to relax or concentrate on tasks.
Fatigue: Feeling tired or exhausted, even after getting enough sleep, due to the mental and physical strain of constant worrying.
Difficulty Concentrating: Trouble focusing or experiencing the mind going blank, making it challenging to complete tasks or make decisions.
Irritability: Being easily irritated or having a short temper, often as a result of feeling tense or anxious.
Muscle Tension: Physical symptoms such as muscle tension, tightness, or trembling, especially in the neck, shoulders, or back.
Sleep Disturbances: Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, experiencing restless or unsatisfying sleep patterns.
Physical Symptoms: Symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, nausea, sweating, trembling, or shortness of breath, without any underlying medical cause.
Perfectionism: Setting excessively high standards for oneself and feeling distressed when unable to meet them, leading to increased anxiety.
Excessive Planning and Reassurance Seeking: Engaging in repetitive behaviors such as seeking reassurance from others, constantly checking for potential problems, or repeatedly seeking information to alleviate anxiety.
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety disorders can happen due to several factors, like:
Genetics: Family history of anxiety or mood disorders may increase susceptibility.
Trauma: Past experiences of abuse or significant life events can contribute to anxiety development.
Stressful Life Events: Major changes like relocation, job transitions, or loss can trigger or worsen anxiety.
Brain Chemistry: Imbalances in neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine affect mood regulation, influencing anxiety.
Personality Traits: Traits such as perfectionism or overthinking may heighten vulnerability to anxiety.
What Might Be Triggering Your Anxiety?
The human body’s stress response system gets triggered when it senses danger. These changes can heighten our cognitive and emotional responses, leading us to feel things more acutely or think about them in a different manner. For people who believe harm is coming their way or are convinced that something bad is going to happen, the anxiety they may experience will be through the roof. They’ll also feel like they have no control over what’s happening to them.
Potential Anxiety Triggers:
Social Situations: Large gatherings, public speaking, or meeting new people can trigger social anxiety.
Work Stress: Deadlines, presentations, and conflicts with colleagues are among common work-related causes of stress.
Traumatic Events: Triggers for traumatic events range from reminders about past traumatic experiences, e.g., some sounds, smells, or places.
Health Concerns: Examples of health related anxiety triggers include appointments with doctors, medical procedures or news about one’s health condition.
Financial Worries: Debt, job insecurity or unexpected expenses are examples of financial stressors that may cause uneasiness.
Discover the Top 4 Treatments for Anxiety Relief
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): CBT assists people in recognizing and changing their negative thinking patterns as well as behaviors that lead to anxiety. It is focused on the development of coping strategies and problem-solving skills that enable one to handle anxious thoughts and behavior better.
Medications (for example, SSRIs or SNRIs): Drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are sometimes prescribed by psychiatrists to help reduce symptoms of anxiety. They function by manipulating neurotransmitters in the brain.Exposure Therapy: Exposure therapy includes a gradual process of introducing an individual with fear or triggers into a controlled environment which is safe from danger. After being exposed over and over again individuals learn to face their fears, thereby reducing anxiety reactions.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy: Some examples of mindfulness based therapy are mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). By practicing mindfulness techniques one can become more resilient to anxiety-provoking situations and achieve overall wellbeing.
Relaxation Techniques: Relaxation methods include deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided imagery, which help pacify the body’s physiological response to stressful situations or anxiety. These techniques create a relaxation effect, causing muscle tension reduction and calmness within oneself.