Coping with an Anxiety Disorder
What is an Anxiety Disorder?
An anxiety disorder is more than simply feeling nervous or anxious. It is characterized by persistent feelings of worry, tension, and fear. An anxiety disorder has mental, emotional, and physical symptoms, and is highly disruptive to your daily life.
Anxiety disorders can affect your ability to perform well in school. You may have anxiety about taking exams, making a presentation, or attending school. You may feel nervous about participating in class, asking a question, or approaching your teacher to discuss something. Trying out for a sports team, even for a sport you excel at, may seem daunting. Your performance in sporting events may be compromised due to your anxiety levels. The ability to make friends and participate in a social life can also be adversely affected.
Anxiety can affect your social life and other relationships. This is because you may avoid certain situations or events due to your anxiety and discomfort. This is especially true for those who struggle with social anxiety. You may find it difficult to approach people. Being among a group can cause you considerable stress.
Those who struggle with an anxiety disorder may find that it affects their effectiveness at work. You may feel too anxious to ask for a raise, get involved in an important project, or stand up for yourself.
Anxiety can prevent you from trying out new experiences, traveling, or making new friends. Generally, an anxiety disorder affects your overall quality of life.
Common Anxiety Disorders
There are a few different types of anxiety disorders. Some of the most common ones are described below.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Generalized anxiety disorder is continuous worry or anxiety about something. The anxiety could be around a specific event or day-to-day occurrences. The amount of worry is usually out of proportion to the event or stimulus. The worry you feel is hard to get under control and interferes with your daily life. You may avoid certain places, people, or circumstances due to the anxiety you feel.
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social anxiety disorder is when social situations and events trigger severe anxiety. People who suffer from this avoid social situations due to fear of being embarrassed and judged. They feel deeply self-conscious and believe that they are being either scrutinized or critiqued by others.
Panic Disorder
Panic disorder involves overwhelming feelings of anxiety, to the point of panic. The onset of a panic attack is sudden and can last for a few minutes. It is an intense, debilitating episode of anxiety. Physical symptoms are acute and include chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, and sweating. People also experience a feeling of imminent disaster and fear. A panic attack can occur even when there is no obvious trigger. Those who suffer from this disorder live in fear of their next panic attack. They may avoid going out or circumstances that they are afraid may trigger an episode.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America[1]:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects 6.8 million adults, and women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
6 million adults suffer from Panic Disorder and women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
15 million adults have Social Anxiety Disorder, which is equally common among men and women.
31.9% of teenagers struggle with anxiety disorders.
Common Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders
Symptoms of an anxiety disorder vary from person to person. Some of the most common symptoms are mentioned below.
Mental and emotional symptoms include:
Intrusive and obsessive thoughts
Racing thoughts
Constant worry
Fear
Anxiety can cause depressive symptoms in some people
A sense of dread
Physical symptoms include:
Fatigue
Sleep disturbances
Butterflies in the stomach
Sweating
Need to use the bathroom
Racing heartbeat
Rapid breathing
Feeling faint
Nausea
Digestive problems
Aches and pains (stomachache, headache)
Trembling
What Causes an Anxiety Disorder?
An anxiety disorder may be caused by a number of factors. It can be linked to emotional, mental, or physical distress or trauma that was experienced at some point in life.
Stressful incidents or circumstances can trigger anxiety. The death of a loved one, divorce, financial problems, job loss, burn out, experiencing racism, bullying or harassment – these are all examples of things that can result in varying degrees of anxiety.
In today’s world, climate change and environmental destruction are also cause for anxiety.
The covid-19 pandemic has resulted in many more people - both young and adult in receiving a diagnosis of anxiety.
People who were very shy or anxious as children may also be susceptible to anxiety as they get older.
Family history of anxiety disorders or other mental illness can also be a factor.
Dealing with an illness or chronic health problems is also known to cause anxiety in some people.
How to Care for Yourself When You have an Anxiety Disorder
It is important to extend care and kindness towards yourself when you are struggling with an anxiety disorder. There are some things you can do to help alleviate your feelings of anxiety and look after yourself.
Breathing techniques
Breathing is a useful tool when dealing with anxiety. Focusing on your breath or trying a breathing technique can help calm your system down. For example, breathing in deeply and slowly for a count of 5, and then out for a count of five can help. Box breathing is also recommended, as it focuses your attention and winds down your nervous system. To do box breathing, breathe in for a count of 4 and then hold for a count of 4; breathe out for a count of 4 and then hold for a count of 4.
Rest
After an episode of anxiety, you may feel tired. Find a quiet spot to rest your mind and body. You try breathing exercises here also.
Maintain your physical health
Keeping physically healthy plays a role in how effectively you manage your anxiety. As always, the key elements are proper sleep, good nutrition, and physical activity.
Keep a journal
It may help to make a note or keep a journal of what your triggers are. This will help you to recognize patterns that lead to anxiety episodes. Once you see the trigger patterns you can identify the thought patterns that contribute to your feelings of anxiety.
Therapy
Consider seeking the help of a mental health professional. Anxiety therapy is a treatment that will help you cope with and manage your anxiety. You will learn what to do when you feel anxiety coming on or when you are in the middle of an attack. Treatment will teach you how to recognize the thought patterns that are contributing to your anxiety. You will acquire the skills needed to replace the intrusive or triggering thoughts with those that are realistic and proportionate. With anxiety therapy, you will gain a greater sense of self-awareness. The positive affects of therapy are long-lasting.
FAQs
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Trust Mental Health is accepting clients all over California. We offer therapy in-person and through telehealth.
We have three locations:
East Bay/ Fremont/Newark Area:
39899 Balentine Drive
Suite 200
Newark, CA 94560
San Jose Airport Address:
2033 Gateway Place, 5th Floor
San Jose, CA 95110
Irvine address:
179 Von Karman Avenue
Suite 600
Irvine, CA 92614
If you prefer to have your therapy session conducted from your home or another space you are comfortable in, we offer telehealth. Telehealth is therapy offered by a professional therapist online, through an app such as Zoom. This is a convenience that many people opt for.
With telehealth, there is no commuting time to and from your session. You will avoid the hassle of finding a parking space or paying for parking. If you are uncomfortable with talking with someone about your struggles in-person, online therapy can work for you.
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Trust Mental Health is made up of a team of BIPOC therapists, who speak over 10 languages between them. The services we offer include anxiety therapy, depression therapy, couples therapy, BIPOC therapy, therapy for teens, therapy for children, and trauma therapy. Click here to see our full list of services offered.
We offer therapy sessions both in-person and online, via telehealth.
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Therapy will help you develop coping skills to deal with and better manage your anxiety. It will enable you to figure out the root causes of your anxiety. You will learn how to change your negative thought patterns and replace them with realistic thoughts. It will teach you to look at things that trigger you from a different perspective. In this way, you can reduce the severity of your anxiety.
You will learn ways to make anxiety interfere less in your daily life. You will be able to reduce the affect it has on your relationships, work, and general experience of life.
The tools and skills you learn in therapy will last through the long-term. Your learnings will always be there for you to draw on when you need to. Therapy will help you develop confidence in yourself and in your ability to handle different situations.
If you need help with anxiety, reach out to us for a free 15 minute consultation. We will match you with a therapist that truly suits your unique requirements.
REFERENCES:
[1] https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety