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When Worry Becomes an Anxiety Disorder

Everyone worries at times. You may worry about your family, your finances, your children, your health and other personal issues. You may worry about your friends and your community, or even about issues facing the entire world. Sometimes, though, worry becomes a problem. Worry may begin to disrupt your daily routine, keep you from focusing, and cause you problems with your sleep. Chronic worry can become troublesome when it becomes the focus of your life, when you seem unable to stop worrying. However, when worry gets to the point that it controls your life, it is called an anxiety disorder.
The only one who can diagnose whether or not you have an anxiety disorder is a physician or mental health provider. However, these are some warning signs of an anxiety disorder:

• If you feel anxious or nervous (that feeling of "butterflies" in your stomach) almost all the time, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If you're having trouble pinpointing why you feel anxious, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If even when you solve one problem that caused you to worry, something else always pops up, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If you start avoiding situations that may be the source of your anxious feelings, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If you don't enjoy many of the activities you once enjoyed, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If sometimes you become so anxious that you actually feel terrified and may even become immobilized, you may have an anxiety disorder.
• If you've noticed physical symptoms since you began worrying more often; such as: trouble sleeping, trembling, headaches, muscle tension, sweating, hot flashes, lightheadedness, and/or even chest pains, difficulty breathing, trouble concentrating, irritability and/or depression, you may have an anxiety disorder.

Most people experience feelings of anxiety before an important event such as a big exam, business presentation, first date, or other such event. Anxiety disorders, however, are illnesses that fill people's lives with overwhelming anxiety and fear that are chronic, unremitting, and can grow progressively worse. Tormented by panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, flashbacks, nightmares, or countless frightening physical symptoms, some people with anxiety disorders can even become housebound.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America, affecting more than 19 million Americans each year.

Here are the Different Kinds of Anxiety Disorders:

• Panic Disorder-This anxiety disorder is characterized by repeated episodes of intense fear that strike often and without warning. Physical symptoms include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, abdominal distress, feelings of unreality, and fear of dying.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder-This anxiety disorder is characterized by repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors that seem impossible to stop or control.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-This anxiety disorder is characterized by persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing a traumatic event such as rape or other criminal assault, war, child abuse, natural disasters, or automobile accidents. Nightmares, flashbacks, numbing of emotions, depression, being easily startled, and feeling angry, irritable or distracted are common.
• Phobias-This anxiety disorder is divided into two major types of phobias, which are social phobia and specific phobia. People with social phobia have an overwhelming and disabling fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in social situations, which leads to avoidance of many potentially pleasurable and meaningful activities. People with specific phobia experience extreme, disabling, and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; and the fear leads to avoidance of objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder-This anxiety disorder is characterized by constant, exaggerated worrisome thoughts and tension about everyday routine life events and activities, lasting at least six months. In this anxiety disorder, the person almost always anticipates the worst even though there is little reason to expect it. This anxiety disorder is accompanied by physical symptoms such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headache, or nausea.

The most effective treatment for anxiety disorder often combines medication and specific types of psychotherapy. Medications to effectively treat anxiety disorder include groups of drugs called antidepressants and benzodiazepines. If one medication is not effective, others can be tried.

Two clinically-proven effective forms of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety disorders are called behavioral therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing specific actions and uses several techniques to stop unwanted behaviors. Cognitive-behavioral therapy uses behavioral therapy techniques as well, but also teaches patients to understand and change their thinking patterns so they can react differently to the situations that cause them anxiety.

About the Author

Michele Soloway has dealt with bipolar disorder from a very young age. Her grandmother, mother, herself, and her teenage son all have the disorder. She also lost her sister to suicide because of bipolar disorder. Michele has a blog for bipolar survivors at http://bipolarsurvivor.blogspot.com, and is also a contributing writer to www.bipolarcentral.com.

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Featured Article:

Being the Ultimate Perfectionist

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I am the ultimate perfectionist.  Yes, me.  I even got a fortune cookie one time that said, "You have a yearning for perfection," do you believe that?"  Even Confucius knows it!

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It's ok to make mistakes.  That's what I've been learning.  If you don't learn that, you'll be bound up in fear (another thing that's bad for our bipolar disorder). 

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