Anxiety

Anxiety is an overall feeling of fear, nervousness, and apprehension, usually with physical signs such as sweating, nausea, and increased heart rate. Although occasional anxiety is normal and natural, for some people it is persistent and interferes with everyday life, which usually means that they have an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric illness, affecting approximately nineteen million Americans. These disorders develop from a complex set of factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. Anxiety disorders in adults are categorized as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and specific phobias.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is an excessive and uncontrollable worrying about everyday events. Sufferers tend to be irritable, easily tired, have trouble sleeping, and feel "on edge." It affects daily functioning and can cause physical symptoms such as muscle tension, sweating, nausea, clammy hands, difficulty swallowing, and stomach pain. Often, Generalized Anxiety Disorder is difficult to diagnose because there are no major, dramatic symptoms that are seen with other disorders, such as unprovoked panic attacks. In order for a diagnosis to be made, worry must be present more days than not for at least six months.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a condition in which a person is plagued by persistent, recurring thoughts that reflect exaggerated anxiety or fears, and in order to relieve these feelings, the person performs a ritual or routine which temporarily neutralizes the anxious thoughts. Common obsessions include thoughts about germs or contamination, persistent doubts, extreme need for organization and orderliness, and aggressive impulses or thoughts. Common compulsions include cleaning ones home, washing their hands, checking several (or even hundreds) of times that something has been done, repeating a name, phrase or action over and over, hoarding useless items, and taking an excessively slow and methodical approach to daily activities, such as organizing and arranging things. For a diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder to be made, the obsessions and compulsions must take up at least one hour per day of the sufferer's time and interfere with their normal routine. Usually, the onset of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is gradual and most often begins in adolescence or early adulthood.

Panic Disorder is diagnosed when someone has at least two unprovoked panic attacks, followed by at least a month of concern about having another attack. A panic attack is a sudden, intense feeling of fear or discomfort that peaks in approximately ten minutes and includes at least a few of the following symptoms - a feeling of imminent danger, a need to escape, heart palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, a choking feeling, chest pain, nausea, stomach pain, dizziness, chills, hot flashes, tingling sensations, a fear of losing control, and a sense of things being unreal. Often, sufferers become concerned about the physical and emotional consequences of the attacks. Many worry that the panic attacks indicate an undiagnosed illness. Many times, people with panic disorder also have agoraphobia, which is the fear of having a panic attack in a place that it would be difficult to escape from. Typically, the age of onset of Panic Disorder is sometime between adolescence and the mid-30s.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing and unusually distressing event, such as sexual or physical assault, the unexpected death of a loved one, or a natural disaster. The main symptoms