Anxiety, Fear, Phobia, and Panic Disorders

Anxiety, Fear, Phobia, and Panic Disorders

 

Anxiety disorders can take many forms but are generally characterized by excessive worry about a variety of topics that lead to significant distress or impairment. Anxiety disorders can be experienced on a continuum from Generalized, Phobias, Social, and Panic. The key feature that distinguishes anxiety disorders from normal day-to-day anxiety is the perceived inability to control worry along with physiological and psychological arousal. Feeling keyed up, restless, on edge, difficulty concentrating, disrupted sleep and eating, irritability, fatigue, racing heart, sweating, etc. are some of the major symptoms of anxiety disorders.

Psychological GAD Symptoms:

  • Trouble making large or small decisions,

  • Feeling constant dread,

  • Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep,

  • Being easily scared,

  • Feeling “on edge” almost always,

  • Feeling unable to concentrate.

Symptoms of GAD in Children and Adolescents:

  • Worrying a lot.

  • Often having an upset stomach, although not sick.

  • Obsessing over disasters.

  • Avoiding social interactions.

  • Perfectionist tendencies.

  • Needing more reassurance than peers.

Physical Symptoms:

  • Increased pulse.

  • Shaking hands and legs.

  • Sore or tense muscles.

  • Fatigue, even with plenty of rest.

  • Sweating more than normal.

  • Nausea.

People with and without GAD may experience panic attacks. During these attacks, individuals have extreme stress as a response to something that is not life-threatening. Panic attacks often come with physical signs such as trembling, a high pulse, and sweating.

Fear and Phobia disorder

The difference between fear and phobia. The terms fear and phobia are often used interchangeably, but there's a difference between these two concepts.

Fear is an emotional response. A person can react fearfully to either a real threat or a perceived threat. Fear can be a good thing as it helps you avoid a potentially dangerous situation. You can develop fears of many things, including dogs or flying in an airplane. Some people develop a fear response (such as shaking or sweating) when they confront their fear.

A phobia is a response to something that is not a threat. This is why phobias are sometimes called irrational fears. The response is so intense it may interfere with your ability to function or perform daily tasks. Simply thinking about the feared item can trigger symptoms of anxiety. How much the phobia affects your life is called an impairment, and this can range from mild to severe. If you have a phobia, you might develop a fear response even if you’re not face-to-face with the item. For example, if you have a phobia of crowds, just thinking about a crowd could trigger shaking or sweating.

Panic disorder

A panic attack is an extremely fearful reaction to a relatively small outside stimulus. People can have panic attacks as part of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or with no other mental health issues to speak of. These attacks come quickly and are often intense. People who have them have anxious emotions alongside physical symptoms like rapid breathing.

Panic Attack Statistics

  • 1 out of every 75 people will have a panic attack during their lives.

  • 40 percent of people who have panic disorder also live with major depression.

  • 1 million individuals in the United States have panic attacks each month.

  • One-third of people who have panic disorder also live with agoraphobia.

Panic Attack Symptoms

During a panic attack, people may experience:

  • Chills or sweating.

  • Dizziness.

  • Pain in the chest.

  • Trouble breathing.

  • Feeling out-of-control.

  • A feeling that something horrible is about to happen.

  • Rapid pulse.

  • Tingling in feet and hands.

At MindShift Psychotherapy, we are experts in assessing and treating anxiety disorders. Treatments consist of Psychodynamic therapy, Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Virtual Reality Therapy, Biofeedback, Heart Rate Variability training, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), and Neurofeedback/Neurotherapy.