Anxiety is primarily a form of mental condition where you get feelings of worry and fear for a situation you face. You may get anxious when to have to sit for an exam, before a job interview, or when having a medical test done. Sometimes anxiety proves good as it motivates you to do better and does not interfere with your routine life. Anxiety is a normal feeling which appears and disappears. But it can be a problem when anxiety symptoms become unmanageable and starts affecting your regular life and when this happens, it is called anxiety disorder.
What is Anxiety Disorder?
In anxiety disorder, the feeling of worry and fear becomes intense and occurs in almost all of the situations of your regular life. This affects your everyday work, and it becomes tough to control this feeling. You resist performing certain activities or even going to some places in order to escape the anxious feeling. You experience anxiety when your anxious feeling disables you from functioning normally, you overreact in some situations, or your response is out of your control.
Causes of Anxiety disorder
The definite anxiety cause is yet not known. However, it is considered that a blend of factors is responsible for the disorder. They are as follows:
- Chemicals of the brain like noradrenaline and serotonin are responsible for balancing and controlling mood. An imbalance in these chemicals can cause the disorder.
- Addiction to certain drugs and alcohol.
- Uncontrollable activity in the zone of the brain that is responsible for your behavior and mood.
- It is also considered to be a genetic disorder. So you may inherit the gene from your relative suffering from the same condition. In fact, your chances of contracting the disorder increase to a greater extent if you have a relative with anxiety disorder.
- You may also happen to get anxiety disorder if you are suffering from any long-term painful medical condition like arthritis.
- If you have a history of any distressing or hurtful experiences like child abuse, drug abuse, or domestic violence.
Symptoms of Anxiety disorder
The common symptoms of anxiety disorder are as follows:
- Hyperventilation, i.e., patient breathing at a faster pace. This is an anxiety-breathing problem.
- Weakness and tiredness
- Difficulty with sleeping
- A feeling of restlessness, tension, and nervousness
- Sweating
- Experiencing an increase in heart rate
- Trembling
- Difficulty in focusing and instead thinking about the same worrisome situation
- Usually preferring to restrain from the situations that aggravate the emotions
- May have gastrointestinal disorders
- Having a feeling of forthcoming panic, difficulty, or disaster
- Anxiety causes a feeling of unmanageable worry
Diagnosis for Anxiety Disorder
Any single diagnostic test can not confirm the disorder. Diagnosis of anxiety disorder is an extensive process that involves testing your mental health, psychological questioning, and physical examination.
You may have anxiety even due to some underlying medical disorder. So healthcare providers prefer doing some physical examinations like urine tests and blood tests. These tests will help in finding out if there is any medical condition that is responsible for the symptoms of anxiety that you are going through. If any underlying medical condition is diagnosed, then it can be treated accordingly, and eventually, anxiety will be managed.
There are many anxiety tests and scales that are used by healthcare providers to diagnose the level of anxiety disorder.
What if, on physical examination, no underlying medical condition is diagnosed?
When this situation arises, the doctor refers the patient to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, as they are experts in diagnosing and accordingly treating the mental health illness. For diagnosis, these professionals take the help of specifically developed questionnaires and assessment tools. There are certain criteria based on which the healthcare providers confirm the disorder like:
- Discussing the anxiety symptoms that restrain your daily activity.
- Understanding the symptoms, like the intensity of the symptoms and their duration.
- The behavior and habit are monitored by the professionals.
Healthcare providers also need to refer to a standard manual that is Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM5); it s specially designed for mental health diagnosis. DSM5 is the publicity of the American Psychiatric Association.
Aslo Read: Depression – Stages, Types, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
Treatment for Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety treatments are majorly two important treatments; they are Psychotherapy and Medications; the combination of these two treatments works best for curing anxiety.
Medications
Different types of medicines are used to treat the symptoms based on the type of anxiety disorder the patient is suffering from. Medicines will not help to cure anxiety but will help to improve the symptoms and improve the functioning ability of the patient. The medicines that are prescribed are as follows:
- Anti-anxiety medicines are prescribed, like buspirone and benzodiazepines. These drugs help to decrease your anxiety and feeling of worry.
- Antidepressants can also be prescribed for anxiety treatment. These medicines help in uplifting your mood and reduce your stressful thoughts.
- Some other types of medicines, like beta-blockers or sedatives, are also prescribed by doctors in some specific cases. However, these drugs should be used for the long term.
It is always advisable to consult your doctor about the side effects, risks, and benefits of the medicines before you start the course. Also, it is very important to take these medicines as per the doctor’s directives, and the dose should be changed without consulting your doctor.
Psychotherapy
Its other name is psychological counseling or talk therapy. Here the professional talks to the patient about the anxiety disorder symptoms and helps in reducing these symptoms. This is one of the most beneficial treatments for anxiety. There are various approaches for the therapy, they are as follows:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This is the most commonly used psychotherapy in the treatment of anxiety disorder. In this therapy, the patient is taught to identify the behavioral pattern that is aggravating the symptoms. Once this is identified, the patient can work on it and help reduce the symptoms of anxiety disorder. Thus, can eventually get back to their routine activities and their regular lifestyle.
Exposure therapy
In this therapy, the patient is eventually exposed to those circumstances and objects that are responsible for aggravating the anxiety disorder symptoms. By doing this, the patient will gradually develop confidence towards these circumstances and objects. Thus, the patient will learn to manage the symptoms of anxiety disorder. Some exercises and imagery can also be utilized by professionals in addition to exposure therapy.
Conclusion
Thus, anxiety is a normal feeling until it is manageable, but as it gets out of control and persists for longer than normal, then it becomes a disorder. However, there is no need to worry much if anyone develops anxiety disorder as you can always take the help of trained professionals who specialize in the treatment of mental conditions like anxiety disorder. These professionals also help you to find the best treatment plan for you based on your anxiety symptoms.
Agilus Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Fortis Healthcare Limited
