What is anxiety?

Anxiety is an umbrella term that describes a range of clinical conditions, physical symptoms, psychological symptoms. The main common feature of anxiety is the experience of fear and the body’s responses to this.

Anxiety is our own body’s natural response to perceived threats or danger. It can be thought of as a kind of in-built alarm system to alert us of things in our environment. Anxiety is generally a feeling of apprehension, fear, or what about what is to come. In many ways, it is completely normal to have some level of anxiety. Without any anxiety, there would be nothing stopping up us from walking onto the road into oncoming traffic. Whilst some level of anxiety is normal and appropriate for our everyday lives, excessive and persistent anxiety can severely impact upon our functioning and independence.

Anxiety can come in many forms and can impact all of us. Whilst everyone’s experience may be somewhat different, anxiety is something that can generally be managed and somewhat reduced with the treatment and intervention. Additionally, anxiety disorders are among the most common that people can experience across a lifetime.

Symptoms of anxiety generally include feelings of nervousness, restlessness, increased heart rate, difficulty concentrating, rapid breathing (or hyperventilation), feelings of panic, and difficulties with worry and sleeping. Many of these symptoms can be found in the wide arrays of clinical diagnoses which fall under the umbrella of anxiety.

What are the main disorders associated with anxiety?

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is a combination of recurrent and unexpected panic attacks which are also accompanied by an ongoing fear of having further panic attacks. People with panic disorder also tend to experience difficulties with worrying about the implications of having a panic attack and the impact of this on their lives.

People also generally tend to make significant changes to their behaviour in relation to the panic attacks. This can often take the form of avoiding certain places, situations or people that the individual feels may be likely to cause them to have another panic attack.

Additionally, it is worth noting that people can experience panic disorder with or without an accompanying diagnosis of agoraphobia. Details about agoraphobia can be found below.

Panic attacks

Understanding panic attacks is also important in order to be able to understand panic disorder. Panic attacks are described as an intense period of intense fear or discomfort whereby a number of panic symptoms come on quickly and reach their peak within a 10 minute period.

How do I know if I’m having a panic attack?

Panic attacks are quite a debilitating aspect of anxiety. They can come on quickly and unexpected and are usually quite difficult to stop despite people’s best efforts.

When people are experiencing a panic attack they can have any number of the following:

Heart palpitations, racing or pounding heart
Sweating
Trembling and/or shaking
Feeling short of breath of feeling smothered
Chest pain (or discomfort)
Nausea and/or abdominal distress or pain
Feelings of dizziness, unsteadiness, light-headedness or being faint
Feelings of things not being real (derealisation) and/or being detached from oneself (depersonalisation)
Fears of losing control or “going crazy”
Fears of dying (e.g. having a heart attack)
Numbness or tingling sensations (known as paraesthesia)
Chills and hot flushes

Panic attacks are extremely distressing for people and tend to lead to them wanting to avoid having another attack.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is another form of anxiety which can be incredibly debilitating for those who experience it. It is described as the fear of being in situations in which escape might be difficult of help might not be available in the event of panic attack (or similar). One of the effects of agoraphobia can result in people avoiding situations such leaving their home, being in a crowded place, travelling via car, train, bus or aircraft.

Agoraphobia can typically develop alongside panic disorder and panic attacks as a means of avoiding situations that may be likely to produce another panic attack. In cases where this becomes severe, it can result in people feeling extreme fear around leaving their homes resulting in severe social isolation.

Generalised anxiety disorder

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is generally characterised by symptoms of chronic and excessive worry about various events and activities in everyday life. These worries are also accompanied by a number of other symptoms which include restlessness, difficulty concentrating, muscle tension, irritability, sleep disturbances and being easily fatigued. Whilst it is common for most of us to have worries about things in our daily lives, people with GAD tend to experience these in a severely disproportionate manner, far in excess of the actual likelihood of the fear or worried event.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety (also known as social phobia) is an anxiety disorder that involves significant levels of anxiety, discomfort and/or distress in social situations. This can be characterised by fears of being in situations whereby the person may be likely to be embarrassed, humiliated, rejected, or looked down upon by others in social interactions. People can often also have a number of fears such as being judged or appearing awkward.

Social anxiety can take many forms but generally takes the form of any number of the following:

Fear of situations in which they may be judged negatively
Worry about being embarrassed or humiliated
Intense fears around speaking with strangers or people not well known to the person (such as friends of friends)
Fears of appearing anxious and/or awkward
Fears of physical indicators of anxiety in social situations (trembling, shaky voice, sweating, blushing, etc.)
Avoidance of talking or doing other things out of fear of embarrassment (e.g. not wanting to go first)
Avoiding of situations where one may likely be the centre of attention
Anxiety leading up to a social event (e.g. nervous a few days prior from a birthday party) with an expectations of negative or worst-case scenario
Intense anxiety about past social situations focusing on things that did not go well

There are also some subtypes of social anxiety that are less well known. For example, people with social anxiety may experience difficulties with eating in front of others(This can also be a common feature in eating disorders). Additionally, paruresis is another form of social anxiety whereby sufferers experience extreme anxiety when attempting to urinate in public.

Overall, anxiety can take several forms and each of these can come with its own unique set of challenges and circumstances.

Specific Phobia

Specific phobia is another category of anxiety disorder. This is defined as intense, irrational fears of specific situations objects of other stimulus. Some of the most common examples of specific phobia include arachnophobia (fear of spiders*), fear of flying (aerophobia), fear of heights (acrophobia). More recently, trypophobia has also demonstrated to be an increasingly common phobia characterised by a fear of repetitive clusters of small holes.

*There was even a movie made about this.

The defining characteristic around the presence of specific phobias is around the intensity is disproportionate and irrational. Additionally, phobias can also extend to similar stimuli that can serve as reminders of the feared object or situation (e.g. fear of a photo of the feared item).

Separation anxiety disorder

Separation anxiety disorder is a specific type of anxiety disorder which predominantly impacts children (but can also impact adults). It is characterised by an intense and excessive fear around separating or experiencing distance from an attachment figure.

In children, this can be seen as intense fear around separating from their parents in situations such as school, sleepovers and other events and situations within the child’s life. In more severe cases it can lead to school refusal.

Selective Mutism

Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder associated with difficulties to speak in social situations or in front of others. It is another anxiety condition that predominantly impacts children. Compared to other forms of anxiety disorders, selective mutism is a comparatively rare condition. Moreover, it is also a relatively complex condition which can make it even more difficult to overcome.

In a lot of cases of selective mutism, the child will often be able to speak when at home and around their family and/or parent. Often, the child will experience significant difficulties with speaking or will revert to other forms of communication (such as pointing) when requests are made of them to speak. Often this can also be more prominent when there is the presence of another sibling or family member who may speak for them.

Selective mutism can be particularly frustrating for parents and teachers alike as attempts are made to help the child to feel comfortable with speaking in situations that wouldn’t normally. It is also separated out from other potential causes as the inability to speak cannot be attributed to a communication disorder.

Substance-induced anxiety disorder

Substance-induced anxiety disorder is a form of anxiety which is directly caused by the use of substances. Unlike other forms of anxiety whereby there may be a combination of several genetic, environmental and psychological factors, substance-induced anxiety disorder is directly related to the immediate effects of substance use and/or withdrawal.

Anxiety disorder due to another medical condition

Another form of anxiety disorder is a diagnosis that is characterised by prominent anxiety symptoms that are linked to an underlying physical health problem. This condition is distinct from other diagnoses (such as panic attacks) as the anxiety is understood to be the direct result of the health condition and not associated with psychological factors.

There are numerous physical health conditions which may cause symptoms of anxiety. These can range from respiratory disorders, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders and many others. It is particularly important that individuals speak with their treating GPs and specialists around the presence and potential impact of any physical health conditions which may be contributing and/or causing anxiety for them.

Anxiety NOS (not otherwise specified)

Finally, Anxiety not otherwise specified is another type of anxiety disorder whereby individual may be experiencing anxiety, however, they may not neatly fit into any of the previous categories for anxiety.

As we can see, anxiety can come in many various forms and can impact virtually anybody. Anxiety is the most common form of mental health condition affecting around 17% of the population annually. The good news is that there are many things that people can do in order to help to manage their anxiety symptoms and improve their daily lives..

How EMDR can help

EMDR can help with symptoms of anxiety by providing a range of strategies and resources for dealing with symptoms of anxiety. In the next phases of treatment, EMDR can also assist with alleviating the distress from past events whilst also assisting individuals to work through future scenarios within the therapeutic environment. The therapist also helps to client to desensitise to previously feared situations and address and current triggers for anxiety. Overall, there is a wide variety of benefits that can be obtained via use of EMDR in the treatment of anxiety.

To find out more, see our post on EMDR and Anxiety.

If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and would like to speak with someone, EMDR Brisbane is happy to help. Please reach out to our team to make an appointment.