flight or fight

Anxiety symptoms

March 22nd, 2010

Worry, fear, and anxiety are a normal part of our life. Have you experienced feeling anxious before taking an exam and later find out that you got a higher result more than what you expected? Or, feeling anxious for a job interview and ended up getting hired, or feeling panicky walking down an alley where shocking things often happened? Standard anxiety helps us cope in any stressful situation, it also keeps us alert.

Mental health specialist are not concerned with normal anxiety. But, if your anxiety all of a sudden occurred without apparent reason and lasts for weeks to months and occurs in most days that is a different issue. If anxiety persists in a large amount of days and lasts longer than six months, it has become an immobilizing disorder.

An anxiety disorder is a recurring and excessive anxiety. Where you worry about events or activities without valid reasons. It can interfere with everyday activities, such as going to work, and socializing. A person experiencing anxiety condition finds it difficult to manage the feelings of worry and fear. The thing regarding people with anxiety disorder is that they in reality know that what they think or feel is not real and that they are just made-up.

The common anxiety disorders are Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Separation Anxiety, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

A person with anxiety condition may suffer different anxiety disorder symptoms. And since no two people are the same, the anxiety disorder symptoms may vary from one person to the other.

The physical symptoms of anxiety disorder are cause by the brain sending messages to parts of the body to prepare it for the flight-or-fight response. The lungs, heart, and other parts of the body work faster and the brain releases stress hormones, including adrenaline.

These are just some of the Anxiety disorder symptoms that people may experience physically:
Abdominal discomfort
Diarrhoea
Dry mouth
Rapid heartbeat or palpitations
Tightness or pain in chest
Shortness of breath
Dizziness
Frequent urination
Difficulty swallowing

Psychologically you may experience:

Insomnia
Irritability
Inability to concentrate
Fear of going crazy or dying
Feeling unreal and not in control of your behaviour

There are numerous types of anxiety disorders and sometimes they are associated with physical addictions such as alcohol and drug abuse. Anxiety is the main symptoms of other mental illness called anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorder symptoms may differ from the symptoms of other anxiety disorders, but all the symptoms cluster around excessive, irrational fear and dread.