Anxiety and depression are having very tight link. Eighty percent of people who suffer depression also suffer from anxiety. So, if you have symptoms on both, do not panic because it is very common.
Besides depression, people with anxiety are commonly found with other illness like high blood pressure, gastro-intestinal related disease, tension headaches, weight gain or even relationship problems.
How to recognize anxiety then? Anxiety is much easier to be identify on body reaction like increase heart beats, blurred in vision, spike in blood pressure, dizziness and fatigue, gastric and stomach upsets, sweating and general aches and pain.
There are a few types of anxiety which can be identified with in-depths understanding:
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) also known as anxiety disorder |
The most common symptoms of this type of anxiety are excessive worry or difficulty in sleeping. These two main symptoms usually last for at least 6 months.
However, the good news is GAD does not comes with phobias or panic attack.
Other obvious signs of GAD are:
-muscle tense at neck, back and shoulder
-difficulty in concentration and insomnia
-constant worry about things which do not show any obvious failure: for example constant worry about money or career even though there are no sign of difficulty or low self-esteem. |
Panic Attack or commonly known as panic disorder |
Panic attack usually last for about 8 – 10 minutes but ones will feel at “almost dying” stage. The bad news is sometimes the attack also comes with heart attack or even madness.
Symptoms of panic attacks are:
- perspiring
- irregular rapid heart rate or even chest pain
- light headedness also known as vertigo
- shortness of breath, numbness, or even trembling
- stomach upset or even vomiting
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) |
In order to reduce anxiety, people with OCD have thoughts and images that usually results with undesired response.
There are multi-diversified of symptoms can be seen on the victims of OCD which can normally identify by close family and friends, here are some of the examples
- when undesired thought happens, he or she will try to get out of the situation by repeating certain words, for example, when the thought “stupid” comes into the mind of the person, he or she will be repeating “I am not stupid” for at least more than two times.
- Or thoughts that do not involve real life problem like the action of constantly checking on cars door whether it locks or not.
- Or thoughts that affecting ones behavior like instant rage with change of plan or the way things in order.
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Agoraphobia |
This is the only kind of anxiety that happens only in adulthood.
The indicators of Agoraphobia are
-afraid of leaving home
-scared of going to public places like library, swimming pool, stadium, cinemas or even supermarket
-fear of going to crowded place with the thought of unfortunate incidents or accidents or even panic attacks.
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) |
This type of anxiety happens only when there is a particular traumatic incident happens in life which causes emotional and/or physical trauma like severe accident, molest, war or even natural disaster.
Image or flashes of the incidents always in the thoughts are very strong indicators for this type of anxiety. |
Other anxiety also includes specific phobias like height, thunder and lighting, dogs are pretty common as well.
Not all anxiety needs medication. However, people with GAD, OCD and PTSD are commonly treated with SSRI (which is listed here).
NEXT: FAQ on life problems
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