Common Anxiety Disorders: What are the Symptoms?

The most common psychiatric illness that affects children and adults is anxiety disorder. Some people are at significantly greater risk for developing one or more of these disorders. These risks include inherited genes, life events, brain chemistry and personality. Approximately 40 million American adults have some type of anxiety disorder. Although these disorders are extremely treatable, only one-third of this group is receiving treatment for anxiety disorder. The remaining group may be misdiagnosed, homeless or attempting to modify symptoms on their own. rnThe Categories There are five categories of common anxiety disorders. * Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) * Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) * Panic Attack Disorderrn * Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) * Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia) Stress provokes anxiety, but this is a natural reaction designed to help a person cope with life events. When anxiety goes far beyond reality, persisting for six months or more, it becomes a disabling disorder. Research has already made great strides with new treatments that are available for people with anxiety disorders. Treatment makes it easy to lead a productive life if it is consistent and the patient faithfully takes prescribed medications. rnThe Symptoms A common thread connecting the five anxiety categories is worry – various types of worry with different focal points. For example, GAD has life issues (money, health, relationships and career) as its focal point. Whereas, OCD worry focuses on fears (personal contamination with germs, improper behavior and violence) and rituals (excessive hand washing, counting in patterns, hoarding, repeating words or phrases). Panic attack disorder results from dark fears, such as fear of dying, losing control or that a nightmare will become real. Men are less likely to develop panic attack disorder. Some people who have panic attack disorder develop other intense fears. These phobias deepen the anxiety of a panic attack. It is not uncommon for a person to self-treat panic attacks with drugs or alcohol - to the point of abuse. Agoraphobia is the most common companion of panic attack disorder. PTSD unexpectedly re-lives exposure to violence, death, personal invasions, assaults, or intense natural disaster in the form of nightmares, hallucinations and headaches. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder went undiagnosed until recently. Combat soldiers coming home were obviously afflicted with this disorder. It was formerly called “battle fatigue” or “distress syndrome” and the treatment was usually “rest.” Civilians are also prone to this disorder for a different version of the same conditions suffered by combat troops. Social anxiety disorder is intense fear of judgment by others resulting in real physical symptoms usually associated with heart attacks, strokes and other neurological illnesses. The associated symptoms are treated separately from the anxiety disorder. They are very real and cannot be discounted or dismissed. rnComplicating the Care It takes large amounts of healthcare hours to diagnose anxiety disorder. The person with this disorder seeks medical help for symptoms that indicate physical illness. Before those symptoms escalate into the illness that they mimic, it is important to conduct an investigation into those pseudo-illnesses. More than $42 billion is spent on anxiety disorder treatment in the United States each year. People with anxiety disorders will likely need medical attention three to five times more than other individuals. It is possible for people to “doctor-hop” for years before receiving a diagnosis. This wait means they are likely to require hospitalization for their psychiatric disorder.