All human beings experience some degree of anxiety. It ranges from mild anxiety that comes and goes to more serious forms. When anxiety interferes with normal functioning in the world, limits productivity, or diminishes a person’s full enjoyment of life, we refer to it as an anxiety disorder. In this post I will be briefly describing four types of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, hypochondriasis, phobia, and panic disorder. In my next post I will be discussing causes and treatments.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) refers to a general experience of anxiety that is pervasive and without focus. It is a persistent sense of dread or foreboding as though something terrible were about to happen. The individual does not know why he or she feels anxious, cannot rationalize the feeling, and the feeling is chronic. It may be experienced as hand-sweating, shortness of breath, upset stomach, dizziness, or ruminative thinking (i.e., going over a thought repeatedly like an endless loop with no beginning and no end). The anxiety may may be of varying intensities but persists over time. People are constantly worrying even when there is nothing objective to worry about.
Hypochondriasis refers to a persistent belief one is suffering from some physical ailment in the absence of any medical evidence to support the condition. These individuals experience a symptom and believe that they have a life-threatening disease. People with hypochondria are overly focused on their physical health. They have an unrealistic fear of having a serious disease. As they focus on and worry about physical sensations, a cycle of symptoms and worry begins, which can be difficult to stop. It is important to realize that people with are unable to control their symptoms. They seek out reassurance from family, friends, or health care providers on a regular basis. They feel better for a short time at most, and then begin to worry about the same symptoms, or about new symptoms. Whereas people suffering with GAD do not know what is causing their discomfort and are unable to rationalize the feeling, people with hypochondriasis focus their anxiety on a specific symptom or disease. They are able to justify their anxiety on the basis of the “fact” that they have a yet undiagnosed disease.
Phobic Disorders People suffering from phobias have an irrational fear (anxiety) of some situation or circumstance that dramatically interferes with their quality of life. There are literally hundreds of phobias. In each case the fear is intense, debilitating, and irrational. These people have focused their anxiety on a single issue, e.g., agoraphobia=the fear of being in open spaces or with crowds. Though some people speak about their “fear” of something as though it were a totally rational fear, most phobic individuals recognize the irrationality of their behavior but feel helpless to change. Many phobias have a rather sudden onset and often are precipitated by some event or belief that becomes generalized to all similar circumstance, e.g., being bitten by a dog can generalize to all dogs or even all things furry.
Panic Disorder (PD)Panic disorder is one of the most disturbing forms of anxiety disorder. People who suffer from PD experience many of the same symptoms that accompany a heart attack. They often feel as though they were going to die. They can experience any or all of the following symptoms: pain in and constriction of the chest, vertigo, blurred vision, shortness of breath,chest pain or discomfort, fear of losing control or impending doom, feeling of choking, feelings of detachment, feelings of unreality, nausea or upset stomach, numbness or tingling in the hands, feet, or face, palpitations, fast heart rate, or pounding heart, sensation of shortness of breath or smothering, sweating, chills, or hot flashes, trembling or shaking. Panic attacks may include anxiety about being in a situation where an escape may be difficult (such as being in a crowd or traveling in a car or bus). A person with PD often lives in fear of another attack, and may be afraid to be alone or far from medical help. A panic attack begins suddenly, and most often peaks within 10 – 20 minutes. Some symptoms may continue for an hour or more.
Part 2 of this two-part post will be dealing with causes and treatments.
[Dr. Dreyfus is a nationally recognized clinical psychologist, relationship counselor, sex therapist, and life coach in the Santa Monica - Los Angeles area treating low sexual desire, premature ejaculation, sexual addictions and relationship communication and intimacy issues. The profits from his latest book, LIVING LIFE FROM THE INSIDE OUT along with his other five books, are being donated to charity through the website Book Royalties for Charity and can be purchased through Amazon.com. Please become a fan on his Facebook Fan Page by indicating "like" on the page by clicking here. You can also find more tools to help you experience a more fulfilling life by clicking here to visit his website.]
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