What is anxiety?
Everyone experiences anxiety and worry. This may be short-lived and intense over a specific incident, or more long-term and complex in nature. People with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) experience severe anxiety, which is excessive, chronic, and consistent and typically interferes with their ability to function.
What are the signs and symptoms of anxiety?
- Excessive anxiety and difficulty controlling it
- Worrying for a large portion of the day
- Restlessness and feeling on edge
- Easily fatigued
- Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
- Irritability
- Muscle tension
- Sleep disturbances (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep)
What is panic disorder?
Another type of anxiety disorder is Panic Disorder. This is when you have brief episodes of intense fear and multiple physical symptoms called panic attacks. Attacks can occur repeatedly and unexpectedly, even when there is no perceived any external threat and are part of the brain’s faulty “fight or flight” response.
What are the signs and symptoms of panic disorder?
- Being very scared and feeling out of control
- Chest pains or heart palpitations
- Dizziness, light-headedness, blurred vision
- Feeling of suffocation or choking, and difficulty breathing
- Tingling or no feeling in the hands
- Hot flushes or shaking cold, excessive sweating
- Fear of losing control, going “crazy”, or doing something embarrassing
- Fear of dying
- Constant headaches or pressure around the eyes
- Numbness, tingling, or even a feeling of temporary paralysis
- Trembling, spasms, cramps, muscle tension, stiffness, or unexplained aches and pains
- Stomach-related problems such as constipation, indigestion, heartburn, nausea or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Sensations of being disconnected from reality or feeling trapped
- Constant fatigue and decreased ability to concentrate Uncontrollable negative thought patterns
Experiencing a panic attack can be a very frightening experience and getting to the possible cause of it, as well as developing skills for easing these symptoms, can greatly improve your daily experience.