Anxiety disorders are a category of mental health diagnoses that involve excessive nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry. These symptoms can interfere with a person’s quality of life but are very treatable.
This article discusses the symptoms, causes, and treatments for anxiety.
Anxiety is a feeling of fear, tension, or worry that occurs as a response to real or perceived threats.
When a person feels afraid, it triggers the body’s stress response, also known as fight, flight, or freeze. This can involve cognitive, physical, and behavioral changes, such as an increase in heart rate or breathing.
This response can help humans escape or avoid danger by supplying more oxygen and blood to the muscles. However, people can also feel anxiety about things that are not dangerous, such as:
- important events or decisions
- public speaking
- social situations
Feeling anxious does not always mean a person has a mental health condition. Many people occasionally feel anxious from time to time.
But when anxiety becomes frequent, out of proportion to a situation, or persists after the situation is over, it can be a sign of an anxiety disorder.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), around 40 million people in the United States have an anxiety disorder. It is the most common type of mental illness in the country. However, only 36.9% of people with an anxiety disorder receive treatment.
The main symptom of anxiety is a feeling of worry. Other symptoms can include:
- elevated heart rate
- faster breathing
- irritability
- restlessness
- muscle tension
- difficulty concentrating
- difficulty falling or staying asleep
If a person has severe anxiety, they may experience a panic attack, which causes an intense feeling of dread or panic that reaches a peak before subsiding. Symptoms may include:
- rapid breathing (hyperventilation)
- pounding heartbeat
- sweating
- shaking or trembling
- a feeling of impending doom or lack of control