Anxiety is defined as the excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational anticipation of future threats. Anxiety differs from fear, which is the emotional response to a real or perceived threat. Although these two states overlap, there is a difference. Where fear is associated with the activation of the autonomic nervous system and the fight or flight response in reaction to an actual threat, anxiety is associated with excessive vigilance and associated avoidant behaviours for a perceived threat.
Some anxiety can be a normal physical and psychological response to our minds perceiving a threat to our physical or psychological wellbeing, such as feeling anxiety before bungee jumping or giving a speech in front of a big crowd.
Blood, hormones and adrenalin pump through our body getting it ready to fight or flee. The ‘perceived’ threat means our brain and body thinks there is a real danger, but most of the time there is not. An exam will not kill us; sometimes it just feels that way to our minds!
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health problems experienced by young people. Disorders of anxiety are characterised by excessive fear and problems associated with this fear that happen a lot of the time, feel overwhelming and interfere with daily life. Different types of anxiety are caused by different situations or objects, all of which that can be treated. In the next blog post I will go into the different types of these disorders.
The physical symptoms of anxiety can include:
Feeling lethargic or constantly on alert
Experiencing shaking or sweating in intimidating situations
Heart palpitationsc
Chest pain
Trembling
Nausea and vomiting
Panic attacks
Anxiety might also involve:
Avoiding participating in activities and social situations
Having difficulties with concentrating, memory and problem solving
Having pressing phobias (about bees, dogs, etc.) or excessive fears about natural disasters or large-scale accidents.
Worrying about things way off in the future.
Unable to relax
Avoiding challenging situations
Being socially isolated
Problems with work, social or family life
What are panic attacks?
I describe a panic attack to the be the outcome of excessive anxiety or panic, where your body is snowballing into extreme anxiety by the second and it becomes so intense that an attack of panic occurs.
During a panic attack, a person may be suddenly overcome by strong fear and experience physical symptoms of anxiety, like a pounding heart, sweating, difficulty breathing, shaking, feeling dizzy or feeling sick. Panic attacks are short (about 10 minutes) and usually feel overwhelming. Someone experiencing a panic attack might feel like they’re having a heart attack or an asthma attack, or they might feel like they’re losing control.
Some people with panic disorder will have recurrent, unexpected panic attacks. Other people may find that their attacks almost always occur when they are confronting or anticipating particular things or situations. However, another group of panic sufferers find that although they are more likely to have anxiety attacks in certain situations it does not always happen, that is they have ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’.(American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
What are the symptoms of a panic attack?
Palpitations
Sweating
Trembling or shaking
Shortness of breath
Dizziness
Feeling detached from oneself
Fear of losing control or dying
Choking sensations
Chest pain or discomfort
Nausea
Numbness or tingling
Chills or hot flushes
Look out for series 2 of this 5 series of Anxiety posts. The next post will be about the different types of anxiety disorders that are commonly experienced.
With love,
Jacqui Zdravkovski