Psychotherapy Today

How Anxiety Disorders Affect Your Daily Life

Anxiety

At times, we all experience feelings of anxiety, worry, or fear; but when these sensations become overwhelming and pervasive, they can severely disrupt everyday life. How to conquer Anxiety Disorders: Step one is visiting your GP. They will assess your symptoms and conduct a physical examination, while also offering psychotherapy or medication options if appropriate.

Causes

Many of us experience fear and anxiety during certain situations; this is usually temporary and resolves as soon as the event ends. If however, your anxiety persists beyond this temporary period, this could indicate an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders remain poorly understood; however, several factors appear to contribute to their onset – these may include genetic traits, life experiences and even changes in brain structure.

If anxiety is something that troubles you, try practicing mindfulness techniques to bring yourself back into the present. This might include breathing exercises – like counting inhale/exhale cycles of four and four, then exhale. Also try singing soothing songs or listening to soothing music. Try self-massage or sensual experiences such as self-massage as ways of distracting yourself from anxious thoughts. Senses may also prove helpful.

Symptoms

All people experience anxiety from time to time; however, excessive and long-lasting bouts may indicate an anxiety disorder. Common symptoms of such disorders can include trembling, twitching, muscle tension, trouble sleeping, poor concentration, depression and irritability – in addition to dizziness which has been linked with anxiety due to neurotologic disorder chronic subjective dizziness (CSD).

Anxiety causes your fight or flight response, producing adrenaline and other hormones, which can trigger various physical symptoms. If you’re experiencing anxiety symptoms due to medical reasons, see your doctor immediately as this could be contributing.

If a medical cause cannot be found for anxiety symptoms, your physician may refer you to a mental health professional for further assessment and possible treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and applied relaxation therapies, while medications may help manage psychological and physical symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.

Diagnosis

Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time; it’s the brain’s way of protecting us against stress and potential danger. However, when anxiety interferes with daily functioning or causes symptoms like racing heartbeats, restlessness or difficulty sleeping it’s time to seek professional help.

Medical providers will conduct a physical exam and ask about your symptoms before conducting lab tests to rule out other conditions, like heart disease or hyperthyroidism, that could be contributing to them.

If they determine your problems aren’t due to medical causes, they’ll start by assessing your mental health. They might use an anxiety disorder questionnaire or self-assessment tool and ask you about symptoms as well as impacting on how well you function or considering risk factors such as family history of depression or sexual abuse as ways of measuring this.

Treatment

Anxiety disorders are typically treated outpatient. Medication, psychotherapy or “talk therapy,” and stress management techniques are among the most widely employed therapies for this condition.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can teach you to identify troubling thoughts and learn healthier coping techniques, like deep breathing exercises or yoga or Tai Chi classes. Relaxation techniques like these may also be effective ways of alleviating symptoms.

Exposure therapy helps you gradually face things that scare you in a safe, controlled environment. It may include visualizing or engaging in real situations that you fear, such as exposure. For more serious cases of anxiety disorders such as OCD or GAD, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), may also prove effective treatment methods.

If you suffer from social anxiety, joining a support group and sharing your worries may be useful in relieving symptoms. Groups exist both physically and online, and meditation and mindfulness practices may also help.