What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a generalized term which covers many different types of disorders that cause a person to feel worried, anxious, and nervous. Although it is typical to feel these things before a big event, test, game, or recital, anxiety is considered a disorder when it begins to interfere with day to day life, such as ability to function or get to sleep.
Anxiety also becomes a disorder when the amount of worry that you feel is disproportionate to the even that you are anxious about. There are many different disorders that fall under the category of anxiety, and there are also many treatment options available for a person who has anxiety. The first step towards properly dealing with your anxiety is to know what type you have, so that it can properly be treated and dealt with.
The first type of anxiety is general anxiety disorder.
This type of anxiety causes those who suffer from it to worry constantly about non-specific life events. They will worry about things that haven’t even happened yet, or things that have shown no signs of ever happening. They will commonly worry about things such as their health, the health of their family, keeping their job, money, being able to afford the things they need, and natural disasters. Their constant fear of disaster can greatly interfere with their quality of life.
The second type of anxiety is panic disorder.
Panic disorder causes a person to experience brief, extremely intense bouts of panic, known as panic attacks. They usually only last about ten minutes, and can occur after a long period of stress or a frightening event, but they can also be spontaneous.
Another type of anxiety is separation anxiety.
This usually occurs in children, but it can occur in adults as well. With separation anxiety, a person becomes extremely nervous when separated from either a person or a place that makes them feel safe and secure. If this is occurring to the point that it is negatively effecting a person’s life, it is considered separation anxiety.
The last type of anxiety is social anxiety disorder.
This type of anxiety causes a person to have an irrational fear of humiliating themselves and not being able to control themselves in public, as well as being judged by others. Those who suffer from this will avoid being out in public to the extent that it makes living a normal life impossible if it is not dealt with.