Anxiety Related Disorder and Its treatments

Anxiety is a negative feeling of tension, worried thoughts and some physiological changes in the body like increased blood pressure. It is a negative mood state. For example, giving a speech in front of whole auditorium can make a person anxious. But when this anxiety becomes extreme and start interfering with your daily routine work then it can convert into anxiety disorder. 

Anxiety disorder is a more persistent mood state of anxiety that hinders your daily activities. This disorder has high prevalence rate in people due to many factors such as personality traits, life history, genetics, environmental factors, childhood traumas, certain health conditions etc. According to Dsm-5 these anxiety disorders can exist in the following forms:

1. Specific Phobia
2. Social Anxiety Disorder
3. Panic Disorder
4. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
5. Agoraphobia

• Specific Phobia

A specific phobia is when a person exhibits an intense and persistent fear provoked by the presence of a particular object or situation, resulting in significant distress and/or impairment of a person’s ability to function. When people with specific phobias encounter the stimulus of the phobia, they often exhibit an immediate fear response that often resembles a panic attack, except in the presence of a clear external trigger. Because they experience anxiety when they anticipate encountering the object or situation of the phobia, they go to great lengths to avoid encountering the stimulus of the phobia. Even depictions are often avoided. There are different types of specific phobias, such as: B. Nature type, animal type, trauma type, situational type, etc. 

Specific phobia is characterized by:

1. Unreasonable, excessive fear
2. Immediate anxiety response
3. Avoidance or extreme distress
4. Six months duration
5. Life-limiting

• Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety disorder is characterized by fear of one or more specific social situations such as public speaking, eating in public, writing in public etc. People with this disorder feels that they are exposed to the negative evaluation of others. They fear that they may act in a strange or embarrassing manner that will make them the subject to laugh or discuss about. Such individuals avoid all the social situations to the very extent possible. Social Anxiety disorder is characterized by:

1. Avoidance
2. Escape from society
3. Safety behaviour’s
4. Negative beliefs
5. Negative thoughts
6. Physical symptoms such as chest pain, chills, headaches, lump in throat, nausea, sweating, shortness of breathing, trembling voice etc.

• Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is characterized by frequent occurrence of panic attacks that comes “out of the blue”. According to DSM-5 criteria for panic disorders, the person must have experienced recurrent, unexpected attacks and must have been persistently concerned about having another attack or worried about the Panic disorder is characterized by:

1. Frequent panic attacks
2. Feelings of extreme terror that occur suddenly without warning
3. Weakness
4. Physical symptoms like chest pain, numbness, sweating, dizziness, trembling etc.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Everyone experiences worry about different aspects of life but when this worry becomes excessive, chronic and unreasonable then it may develop into generalized anxiety disorder [GAD]. People with GAD worry about even minor aspects and this worrying becomes so excessive that it starts hindering the daily activities. Persistent, negative and exaggerated thoughts about everything is the common characteristic.

GAD is characterized by:

1. Perceiving situations way more threatening as they are
2. Excessive worry about everything
3. Difficulty in letting go of negative thoughts
4. Sleep disturbance
5. Disturbed concentration 
6. Physical symptoms such as fatigue, dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, weakness etc.

• Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia involves fear of open gathering places. People fear and avoid situations such as shopping malls, movie theatres, and stores. Individuals afraid that they may get into situations which will be difficult to escape and there will be no help available to them and they will have panic attacks. This fear often leads to persistent avoidance behaviour in which the person begins to avoid the places and situation in which they fear that panic may occur. Agoraphobia is characterized by:

1. Being afraid of leaving home
2. Being afraid of enclosed spaces
3. Being afraid of open spaces
4. Fear of public transports
5. Fear of social gatherings etc.

Agoraphobia is then marked with several physiological symptoms such as chills, trembling, sweating, dry mouth, blackouts, nausea, numbness, dizziness etc. While being in the situations as mentioned above.

Treatment for anxiety disorder

1. Cognitive behavioural therapy [CBT]

Cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders is one of the most effective psychotherapeutic technique because it helps to alter the basic thoughts and feelings behind the fear. The main core of CBT is the interaction between thoughts, feelings/emotions and behaviour.   

2. Exposure therapy 

Exposure therapy is proven to be the best therapy for phobia related disorders. In this therapy we exposed the person to the specific situation or object that induce fear through various methods.

3. Medications 

Medications cannot directly cure the disorder but they can be a very good source to cure the symptoms. They help to reduce the symptoms. Medicines such as anti-depressants, selective serotonin uptake inhibitors [SSRIs], antipsychotics, benzodiazepines etc. proved to be the best. 

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