Signs, symptoms and treatment options for anxiety

Signs, symptoms and treatment options for anxiety

Anxiety disorders can vary depending on the situations or objects that trigger them. However, all forms of anxiety share common characteristics of excessive worry, fear, and anxiety that interfere with a person's everyday life.

Do you suffer from anxiety?

Anxiety typically includes both emotional and physical symptoms. If you feel excessively worried, anxious, and tired, you may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). If you feel that your emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses are disproportionate to what would normally be expected in a particular situation, you should consider counseling or psychotherapy.

How do you recognize fear?

Some of the characteristic emotional symptoms of anxiety are:

• Feeling a loss of control

• Excessive worry and anxiety

• I feel agitated and/or irritable

• Persistent fatigue

Anxiety symptoms often include sleep problems, difficulty paying attention, a general fear of approaching problems, and a tendency to avoid situations or people that trigger anxiety.

In addition, physical symptoms of anxiety may occur, which usually include:

• nausea

• dizziness

• Headache, stomach pain and/or chest pain

• Sweat

• Increased pulse

• Hyperventilation

• I feel tired or weak

• Numbness in legs and arms

Causes of anxiety and risk factors

Your anxiety can be triggered by many factors, including genetics, environmental factors, brain changes, and other medical conditions. However, an anxiety disorder can develop without external provocations. Feelings of anxiety can arise from your negative self-thoughts and thought patterns.

How to overcome fear?

Whether you have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), excessive and persistent symptoms can affect your relationships, work, and academic performance.

Although anxiety disorders are highly treatable, only about 37% of people with anxiety receive treatment. The most successful psychological therapies for anxiety include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy.

• CBT

As a problem-specific and goal-oriented short-term therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy can help you by changing your dysfunctional thought patterns and behaviors. CBT also helps reduce stress and improve resilience. It can help you face life transitions and deal with overwhelming emotions such as sadness, fear, or anger.

Additionally, CBT teaches coping strategies that can be used in your daily life long after therapy has ended. A highly structured approach, cognitive behavioral therapy can also be delivered in person, online, individually or in groups. However, CBT requires your active participation to be successful.

• Exposure therapy

In exposure therapy, you are gradually exposed to a situation or object that produces fear. Over time, you learn to be less sensitive to a feared object or situation. Exposure therapy has been shown to be particularly effective for phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Alternative practitioner psychotherapy

The best place to find alternative practitioners psychotherapy is in our free alternative practitioner directory. To view all alternative psychotherapy practitioners, please click here.