There are several signs and symptoms of anxiety disorder common among people who experience one of the various types of anxiety disorders. If you notice one or more of these signs, you may want to reach out to a professional and explore your options regarding anxiety treatment.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at the signs and symptoms of anxiety disorder.
Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder
Feeling anxious once in a while is completely normal. Some anxiety and stress can be a good thing. Like, when you encounter a scary situation, it is the anxiety that helps you escape.
It’s the anxiety that sticks around long after a stressful event has passed or the fear that appears for no reason at all that can lead to a disorder.
An anxiety disorder is defined as a mental health disorder. The type of disorder causes increased levels of worry that may interfere with your ability to function at work or home.
Statistics show that around 30% of Americans will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. This related to over 40 million people struggling with anxiety, making it the most common mental health disorder. Anxiety does not affect adults only. Each year there seems to be a rise in the number of children, teens, and college students experiencing anxiety.
You may be wondering how they know it is anxiety. There are specific signs and symptoms associated with anxiety disorders.
Here are the most common signs and symptoms of anxiety disorder.
Poor Sleep
Do you have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up multiple times throughout the night? These are symptoms of underlying anxiety that can cause insomnia.
Sleep is one of the most important contributors to good mental health. Think about the nights where you haven’t slept well and how that affects you the next day. Irritability, poor concentration, and even depression can appear, making it more challenging to complete tasks and maintain positive relationships.
Improving your sleep habits will lead to restorative sleep, which will decrease anxiety.
Body Tension
Do you clench your jaw without meaning to, or while you are sleeping? Do your muscles feel tight even when you are not trying to produce tension? Stress like this on your body represents anxiety.
It is not always known which comes first, the anxiety or the muscle tension. That’s why it’s essential to learn mindfulness.
You can recognize what your body is telling you long before you feel the pain of too much tension through mindfulness techniques. Relaxation is a part of mindfulness that teaches you activities like meditation and yoga that directly lowers stress in the body. The more you can relax your physical body, the less anxiety you will feel mentally.
Chronic Worry
As mentioned before, a little worry can be a good thing. Excessive worry, or chronic worry, can wreak havoc on your mental and physical health.
Chronic worry can make it challenging to stay focused at work and create a barrier between you and your loved ones. Worry can intrude on your thoughts, becoming obsessive over time. Anxiety can cause physical reactions like ulcers, wringing hands and may lead to compulsions.
You may notice yourself sweating a lot, avoiding social situations, having more headaches, or physical illnesses, and you may even develop tics or twitches. Once you learn to cope with worry, however, these anxiety symptoms can subside.
Negative Thinking
Anxiety produces negative thoughts and feelings and vice versa. It is almost impossible to feel anxious and have a happy, upbeat presence. That’s because your focus is on the many worries circling through your mind.
Negative thinking can lead to irritability, saying mean things to both people you love and strangers, and inappropriate reactions.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an excellent way to improve how you think, feel, and act, leading to more happiness and less anxiety.
Panic Attacks
If you have ever had a panic attack, you know how frightening and devastating they can be. In an instant, you are overwhelmed by a sense of fear.
Panic attacks can be categorized as unexpected, like when they come from out of nowhere and for no reason. They can be situational, like having an attack while on an airplane, even though you have been able to fly just fine in the past. Finally, they can be expected, like when you are confronting a phobia. For instance, you have a fear of snakes but force yourself to hold a snake.
Over time, you may begin to develop a phobia of having a panic attack. The fear of having a panic attack in a social setting can lead to other anxiety disorders like agoraphobia.
Avoiding Social Situations
Social anxiety can be mild or severe and usually develops at an early age. This type of anxiety symptom goes beyond just being shy or quiet. A person with social anxiety fears going into social settings. They may fear they will be embarrassed around other people, feel nauseous when speaking in front of a group, and be unable to talk in group conversations.
Some may experience anxiety when using public bathrooms, making eye contact, and eating in front of others.
Discovering the cause of your anxiety is crucial to overcoming the disorder.
Get Help Today
Your anxiety may result from post-traumatic stress, phobias, chemical imbalances, hormone imbalances, or medical conditions.
Working with a psychiatrist to obtain an accurate diagnosis is the first step in healing. Psychiatrists have a multitude of resources to help you recover from an anxiety disorder. For example, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a treatment method with great success in assisting people in finding the root of their anxiety.
Furthermore, anxiety medication is used by millions of people as both temporary and permanent aid in the relief of anxiety symptoms. Medicine is a tool that can help you learn and retain skills with a clear mind. Skills like relaxation, stress management, and mindfulness can help you control anxiety and reach short-term and long-term goals.
The first step is to reach out for help. There are mental health professionals ready to help you overcome your anxiety.