Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone experiences at times. Many people feel anxious, or nervous, when faced with a problem at work, or before taking a test or making an important decision. Anxiety disorders, however, are different. They can cause such distress that it interferes with a person's ability to lead a normal life.
An anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness. For people with anxiety disorders, worry and fear are constant and overwhelming, and can be crippling.
What Are the Types of Anxiety Disorders?
There are several recognized anxiety disorders, including:
• Panic disorder: People with this condition have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. Other symptoms of a panic attack include sweating, chest pain, palpitations (irregular heartbeats) and a feeling of choking, which may make the person feel like he or she is having a heart attack or "going crazy."
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): People with OCD are plagued by constant thoughts or fears that cause them to perform certain rituals or routines. The disturbing thoughts are called obsessions, and the rituals are called compulsions. An example is a person with an unreasonable fear of germs who constantly washes his or her hands.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSD is a condition that can develop following a traumatic and/or terrifying event, such as a sexual or physical assault, the unexpected death of a loved one, or a natural disaster. People with PTSD often have lasting and frightening thoughts and memories of the event, and tend to be emotionally numb.
• Social anxiety disorder: Also called social phobia, social anxiety disorder involves overwhelming worry and self-consciousness about everyday social situations. The worry often centers on a fear of being judged by others, or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or lead to ridicule.
• Specific phobias: A specific phobia is an intense fear of a specific object or situation, such as snakes, heights or flying. The level of fear usually is inappropriate to the situation and may cause the person to avoid common, everyday situations.
• Generalized anxiety disorder: This disorder involves excessive, unrealistic worry and tension, even if there is little or nothing to provoke the anxiety.
What Are the Symptoms of an Anxiety Disorder?
Symptoms vary depending on the type of anxiety disorder, but general symptoms include:
• Feelings of panic, fear and uneasiness
• Uncontrollable, obsessive thoughts
• Repeated thoughts or flashbacks of traumatic experiences
• Nightmares
• Ritualistic behaviors, such as repeated hand washing
• Problems sleeping
• Cold or sweaty hands
• Shortness of breath
• Palpitations
• An inability to be still and calm
• Dry mouth
• Numbness or tingling in the hands or feet
• Nausea
• Muscle tension
What Causes Anxiety Disorders?
The exact cause of anxiety disorders is unknown; but anxiety disorders -- like other forms of mental illness -- are not the result of personal weakness, a character flaw or poor upbringing. As scientists continue their research on mental illness, it is becoming clear that many of these disorders are caused by a combination of factors, including changes in the brain and environmental stresses.
Like certain illnesses, such as diabetes, anxiety disorders may be caused by chemical imbalances in the body. Studies have shown that severe or long-lasting stress can change the balance of chemicals in the brain that control mood. Other studies have shown that people with certain anxiety disorders have changes in certain brain structures that control memory or mood. In addition, studies have shown that anxiety disorders run in families, which means that they can be inherited from one or both parents, like hair or eye color. Moreover, certain environmental factors -- such as a trauma or significant event -- may trigger an anxiety disorder in people who have an inherited susceptibility to developing the disorder.
How Common Are Anxiety Disorders?
Anxiety disorders affect about 19 million adult Americans. Most anxiety disorders begin in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. They occur slightly more often in women than in men, and occur with equal frequency in Caucasians, blacks and Hispanics.
How Are Anxiety Disorders Diagnosed?
If symptoms are present, the doctor will begin an evaluation by asking you questions about your medical history and performing a physical examination. Although there are no laboratory tests to specifically diagnose anxiety disorders, the doctor may use various tests to look for physical illness as the cause of the symptoms.
If no physical illness is found, you may be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist, mental health professionals who are specially trained to diagnose and treat mental illnesses. Psychiatrists and psychologists use specially designed interview and assessment tools to evaluate a person for an anxiety disorder.
The doctor bases his or her diagnosis on the patient's report of the intensity and duration of symptoms -- including any problems with daily functioning caused by the symptoms -- and the doctor's observation of the patient's attitude and behavior. The doctor then determines if the patient's symptoms and degree of dysfunction indicate a specific anxiety disorder.
How Are Anxiety Disorders Treated?
Fortunately, much progress has been made in the last two decades in the treatment of people with mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders. Although the exact treatment approach depends on the type of disorder, one or a combination of the following therapies may be used for most anxiety disorders:
• Medication: Medicines used to reduce the symptoms of anxiety disorders include anti-depressants and anxiety-reducing medications.
• Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy (a type of counseling) addresses the emotional response to mental illness. It is a process in which trained mental health professionals help people by talking through strategies for understanding and dealing with their disorder.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy: People suffering from anxiety disorders often participate in this type of psychotherapy in which the person learns to recognize and change thought patterns and behaviors that lead to troublesome feelings.
Can Anxiety Disorders Be Prevented?
Anxiety disorders cannot be prevented; however, there are some things you can do to control or lessen symptoms:
• Stop or reduce your consumption of products that contain caffeine, such as coffee, tea, cola and chocolate.
• Ask your doctor or pharmacist before taking any over-the-counter medicines or herbal remedies. Many contain chemicals that can increase anxiety symptoms.
• Seek counseling and support after a traumatic or disturbing experience.
Interested in History? Try Genealogy
Interested in History? Try Genealogy!
History is one of the most interesting things to look into in my opinion, and it may be for you too! Have you ever found yourself glued to the television set watching stories based on things that have happened in the past? Stories that represent earth quakes, volcanoes, starvation, and much more can be found on the television and in books. These are all things that have happened in history and though we may find them to sad events in the history of the world, they have created a legacy of stories that have sculpted the lives of many people and cultures. What is even more interesting is to learn about those who were able to survive these events and have left their stories for all of us to learn about. Understanding these stories and learning from the lessons taught in them can assist to make our lives better.
This is what genealogy is all about. Yes, we have all heard about genealogy, but most of us dont understand the depth of the work or the true meaning of the reasons behind this work of love. Genealogy may sound like a boring experience to some people. A lot of work and time hunting down names of our ancestors and it can be tough; this is what you are thinking right? Maybe you feel like finding names isnt worth it, what can you do with that information right? Well, there is so much more to genealogy that may catch your attention if you are a history buff. Each of the names discovered in your research are affiliated with thousands of stories just waiting to be discovered. Each story is unique and can provide you with information about your past and how your family survived different situations in their lives. The beautiful thing about the research, as in history, is that you have the opportunity to apply the lessons learned through your research in your own life. What a great opportunity to discover hidden treasures.
Genealogy can be tedious because there is so much information to uncover; and you may have the desire to get started with the work, but just can not afford the time to enjoy it. The solution is simple. If you truly are interested in working with your genealogy, there are businesses that specialize in finding information for you. These companies can trace your history back many generations, depending upon your needs. They will be able to perform your family history research in a shorter amount of time that it would take you to do on your own. It is an excellent opportunity to get a jump start on the research so you can dig into your own history.
Genealogy services are a unique and special line of business based around meeting your needs. In selecting which company to work with, be sure to find the company which can best suit your needs. Price and Associates specializes in finding information about your loved ones and could be the option for you. Genealogy is a wonderful work and can be a great way for you to learn more about history.
Mike Allen is an Internet Marketing Consultant for 10x Marketing.
How To Overcome Your Fear Of Flying
In this article I am going to write about how I managed to overcome my fear and phobia of flying. I hope the information will prove to be an inspiration to others out their who have a similar fear. In a way I have actually turned full circle as I now really enjoying travelling on an aeroplane and only wish I had faced up to my fear and sought help when I was a lot younger.
My family used to always take their holidays in the same country that we live, England. I am not complaining about this however as I used to love spending time on the South coast of England in places such as Cornwall and Devon. Many of my friends would talk about how they had travelled to the Canary Islands or to countries such as Turkey for their summer vacation and about how much of a good time they had had. This did not make me feel jealous in any way and I did not ever feel that I was missing out.
When I was seventeen years of age a few of my friends started to organise a holiday to Spain. I was invited to attend and I have to admit that I really wanted to go. There was only one thing that was stopping me, the fact that I did not want to fly on an aeroplane. I am not really sure as to why I was so scared, I was aware that flying is apparantly the safest form of travel and that millions of people fly each and every day but something inside of me just did not want to do it. I suppose it was the fact that if you have a crash in a car or on a train there is a good chance that you will survive but if the aeroplane crashes you are more than likely going to die. Even if you do survive the air crash it will have no doubt been a very scary experience.
On this year I decided not to go on this holiday to Spain with my friends and pretended that the reason why I was not attending was because I could not afford it.
My friends came back from their holiday with many stories of what had happened and on this occasion I really did feel that I had missed out.
Around a year later a second trip was organised, this time to Corfu. Yet again I was invited and this time stated that I was going to attend. I was now going to attempt to overcome this fear of flying.
I decided to attend hypnosis and am very happy to report that the results were superb. I have to say that on the day of my first flying experience, I was still very nervous but was able to cope with it. I have since travelled all over the world using air travel and am glad I met and sought help from that hypnotherapist.
Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:
Social phobia treatment
stuttering
Anxiety disorders and phobias
