How Anxiety Disorder can Affect your Life and How to Treat It?

By | July 12, 2022

Anyone can feel anxious whenever he encounters a new situation. The person will feel intense fear about the unknown situation. But the anxiousness disappears after some time and the situation becomes normal. But when the person is dealing with anxiety disorder, he will get anxious in every situation repeatedly. This disorder starts interrupting daily activities. Due to this disorder, people often start avoiding all situations that can trigger anxiety. 

How Anxiety Disorder can Affect your Life and How to Treat It?

Types of anxiety disorders

Social Anxiety Disorder

This is one of the most common types of anxiety disorder. Everyone feels a bit nervous when they face social situations like public speaking, rallies, etc. But the fear vanishes after some time and the situation feels normal. But when a person has a social anxiety disorder, every social situation seems difficult to handle. An annual function that seems normal and fun to others can become a huge fear to a person with social anxiety. Any type of social contact becomes very uncomfortable for them. 

Two main types of fear faced by people with this disorder are initiating a conversation with an unknown person and speaking in public. Some other situations that can trouble them are:

  1. Dating
  2. Making eye contact
  3. Visiting family gatherings
  4. Starting conversations
  5. Going to school
  6. Using public restrooms
  7. Asking anything from strangers
  8. Ordering in restaurants
  9. Eating in public

A person with social anxiety may not feel anxious in all these situations. Some people may not feel uncomfortable in gathering but get anxious while making eye contact or initiating conversation. 

Symptoms of social anxiety disorder

  1. Blushing
  2. Trembling
  3. Muscle tension
  4. Fast heartbeat
  5. Unable to catch a breath
  6. Dizziness 
  7. Lightheadedness 

The symptoms of social anxiety can change with time. This is a treatable condition. Certain medications and therapies are available to treat social anxiety disorder.

Causes for social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety is a type of mental health condition that does not have a specific cause. But there are a few factors that can cause social anxiety disorder.

Brain structure: The brain has a part that controls fear responses. This part is known as the amygdala and when the amygdala is overactive, the response to any fear increases. Due to the overactive amygdala, every situation becomes more anxious.

Inherited traits: This anxiety disorder can run in families. If anyone in the family has a social anxiety disorder, kids may have the same mental condition. However, some research shows that social anxiety is more like learned behavior than inherited traits. The kids learn the same behavior which they witness at home.

Environment: Some people also develop social anxiety disorder when they face any unpleasant or embarrassing social situations like rejection in public places, etc. Kids may develop social anxiety disorder when their parents are overprotective. 

Risk factors

There are also some risk factors for social anxiety disorder such as family history, any negative experience, new social changes, etc.

Generalized anxiety disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a type of disorder where the person is always worried about everyday events. The situations can be anything like visiting someone’s place, worrying about health, exams, health, etc. Well, exam fever is common as many kids experience it. But when a person has GAD, he will start working on lots of other normal events. Due to the anxiety, the person always seems worried. He may start thinking about upcoming events all the time. Due to this, the person can’t live his life to the fullest.

Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

GAD affects the thinking of a person. Along with the mental symptoms, a person also faces some physical symptoms of GAD. 

  1. Excessive thinking
  2. Tension
  3. Trouble in concentration
  4. Fatigue
  5. Trouble in sleeping
  6. Muscle tension
  7. Irritation

People with GAD may also have other disorders like phobias, OCD, etc.

Causes of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Genetics: Many pieces of research show that generalized anxiety disorder can run in families. It may pass from one generation to another. 

Brain chemistry: A person can get generalized anxiety disorder due to some problems in certain nerve cell pathways. Neurotransmitters send information from one nerve cell to another. But when the neurotransmitters are not functioning correctly, the way of thinking changes. 

Environmental factors: A person can face GAD when he goes through any stressful or traumatic situations like the death of a loved one, changing school, divorce, breakup, etc. Sometimes GAD can also occur due to substance or alcohol abuse. 

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder can be classified as a sudden and intense fear of certain triggers. A panic attack can appear anytime and can be frightening. The triggers can be very simple like crossing a road, hearing a loud sound, etc. When the attack appears, the person loses control and may also get a heart attack. Usually, panic attacks are not severe. But if the attack seems severe, you should rush to the hospital.

Symptoms of Panic Disorder

A person can get a panic attack anywhere without any warning. The attack usually lasts for a few minutes. After the panic attack, the person seems worn out or fatigued. Other symptoms of panic disorder are:

  1. Sweating
  2. Trembling
  3. Pounding heart rate
  4. Chills
  5. Nausea
  6. Sense of danger
  7. Shortness of breath
  8. Chest pain 
  9. Dizziness

Causes of panic disorder

Doctors don’t know what can cause the panic disorder. But it seems like a response of the brain towards any type of fear. Panic disorder can appear due to high stress, or some traumatic situation. Say a person has witnessed a car accident, he may face a panic attack whenever he senses a similar situation. 

Separation anxiety

This type of anxiety is very common in kids. They become anxious whenever their loved ones are not near them. But adults can also have this anxiety when people are not near them. They often start worrying and thinking that something bad will happen to their loved ones. 

Agoraphobia

In this anxiety disorder, the person becomes anxious when he gets into a situation that seems difficult to escape in an emergency. People with this disorder often feel anxious while getting in an elevator, airplane, etc.

Medication-induced anxiety disorder

A person develops anxiety for certain drugs or mediation. They become anxious whenever they don’t have those drugs or when they are trying to withdraw those drugs. 

Some people also have specific phobias like fear of height and water. Many people have anxiety about spiders and reptiles, etc. Living with anxiety is difficult, you should get proper treatment for your anxiety disorders.

Treatment options for anxiety

Medications

Different types of medications are available for treating anxiety. Doctors usually prescribe antidepressants to reduce the symptoms of anxiety. Some other medications for anxiety are bupropion, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, antipsychotics, etc. These medicines can reduce the symptoms but can cause other harm to the body. Instead of taking these medications, you can try natural medications. Talk to a doctor of Homeopathy degree and get a good and proper treatment for your anxiety disorder.

Psychotherapy

Medications can reduce the symptoms of anxiety but can’t treat it completely. To get rid of your anxiety, you should take psychotherapy sessions. Your therapist will help you to remove the negative feelings and thoughts. He will work with you to treat the anxiety disorder completely.