Anxiety is usually defined as a diffused, vague, very unpleasant feeling of **** and apprehension without any apparent reason, therefore it has been called ‘butterflies in the stomach’.
Anxious individual shows combinations of the following symptoms: Rapid heart-rate, Shortness of breath, Diarrhoea, Loss of appetite, Fainting, Dizziness, Sweating, Sleeplessness, Frequent urination, Tremors.
Types of Anxiety Disorder:
There are many types of anxiety disorders:
(а) Generalized anxiety disorder which consists of prolonged, vague, unexplained and intense fears that are not attached to any particular object. The symptoms include:
• Worry and apprehensive feelings about the future.
• Hyper vigilance, which involves constantly scanning the environment for dangers.
• It is marked by motor tension, as a result of which the person is unable to relax.
• Restlessness.
• Shaky and tense.
Other symptoms of anxiety
(b) Panic disorder—consists of recurrent anxiety attacks in which the person experiences intense **.
• A panic ** denotes an abrupt ** of intense anxiety, rising to a peak when thoughts of a particular stimuli are present.
• Such thoughts occur in an unpredictable manner.
• It continues for six and seven minutes and then patients becomes normal.
Clinical Features:
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness
• Trembling
• Palpitations
• Choking
• Nausea
• Chest pain or discomfort
• **** of going crazy
• Losing control or feeling of dying
(c) Phobic Disorders:
• People who have phobias have irrational fears related to specific objects, people, or situations.
• Phobias can be grouped into three main types, i.e., specific phobias, social phobias, and agoraphobia.
• Specific phobias are the most commonly occurring type of phobia. Specific phobias are unwarranted fears caused by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation. This group includes irrational fears such as intense **** of a certain type of animal, or insects.
• Social phobias intense and incapacitating and embarrassment when dealing with others, e.g., crowded market, of closed space and stage ****.
• Agoraphobia: people develop a **** of entering in an unfamiliar situations. Many agoraphobics are afraid of leaving their home. So their ability to carry out normal life activities is severely limited.
(d) Obsessive Compulsive Disorders:
• Obsessive Behaviour: is the inability to stop thinking about a particular idea or topic. The person involved often finds these thoughts to be unpleasant and shameful but can not control them.
• Compulsive Behaviour: Thus is the need to perform certain behaviours over and over again. Many compulsions deal with counting, ordering, checking, touching and washing.
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: People affected by this disorder are unable to control their preoccupation with specific ideas and are unable to prevent themselves from repeatedly caring out a particular act or series of acts that affect their ability to carry out normal activities.In OCD unwanted thoughts combine with compulsive acts.
(e) Post-traumatic Stress Disorders:
• People who have been caught in a natural disaster (such as tsunami).
• Victims of **** blasts by terrorists.
• Serious accident.
• In a war-related situation.
Symptoms:
• Immediate reactions, i.e., denial and disorientation.
• Physiological reactions, e.g., recurrent dreams, nightmares and flashbacks.
• Cognitive reactions, e.g., impaired concentration, memory loss.
• Emotional numbing, e.g., emotional numbness and suicidal tendencies.
• Social reaction, e.g., apathy and withdrawal.
