When Does Anxiety Needs Treatment (Anxiety Disorder)

When Does Anxiety Need Treatment?

Normal anxiety, physiological or alarm, is a state of psychological and physical tension that implies a generalized activation of all resources to react to a really existing stimulus, often well known, represented by difficult and unusual conditions or perceived as such.ax; apprehension; hypervigilance; restlessness.

Anxiety is pathological when it interferes with psycho-physical well-being. It is characterized by a state of uncertainty about the future, with the prevalence of unpleasant feelings. The disorder is characterized by the presence of strong anxiety feelings, which last for months and which interfere with the quality of life. This condition may be due to a problem relating to an imminent future, or to the possibility of more or less distant events. Anxiety often accompanies other psychological and psychiatric problems, as well as the unresolved conflicts of the person suffering from them. The intensity can cause unbearable suffering or determine defensive behaviors that limit the quality of life since, to drive away the disturbance, we leave the house or we perform rituals of various types with the intent to have control of the situation.

Anxiety disorders

Anxiety disorders are the most common form of emotional disorder and can affect anyone of any age. The duration or severity of an anxious feeling also has a physical impact and can be disproportionate to the original trigger or stress. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V), an international reference text, classifies anxiety disorders into several main types. In previous editions of DSM, anxiety disorders included obsessive-compulsive (DOC) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in addition to acute stress disorder. The fifth edition no longer places these conditions under the umbrella of anxiety disorders which are classified into: generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks and panic disorder, specific phobic disorders.

Generalized anxiety disorder. It is a chronic disorder that involves excessive anxiety and prolonged concern for non-specific events, objects and life situations. This is the most common anxiety disorder and people who suffer from it are not always able to identify the cause of their anxiety.

Panic attack. An intense feeling of terror for short or sudden periods characterizes the panic attack which is manifested by tremors, confusion, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing. Symptoms intensify rapidly, peaking after 10 minutes, but may persist for hours. Panic disorders are a shocking experience and usually occur after frightening situations or prolonged stress, but they can also occur without a trigger. An individual experiencing a panic attack can mistakenly interpret it as a potentially life-threatening disease since the most reported symptom is "feeling dying" and can make drastic changes in behavior to avoid future attacks.

Specific phobia. It is an irrational fear towards a particular object or situation. Phobias differ from other anxiety disorders because they have a specific and known cause. A person with a phobia might recognize a fear as illogical or extreme but remain unable to control the feelings of anxiety in his or her presence. The triggers of a phobia are environments (airplane / lift), animals (spiders, mice, dogs) or everyday objects.

Agoraphobia. Often misunderstood as a fear of open spaces and outdoors, it is instead the disturbance of those who are afraid, therefore avoid, places, events or situations from which it can be difficult to escape or where help would not be available if a person were trapped. A person with agoraphobia may be afraid of leaving home or using elevators and public transportation.

Social anxiety disorder or social phobia. It is the fear of negative judgment by others in social situations or public embarrassment. This disturbance can induce people to avoid public situations and human contact to the point of making normal daily activities extremely difficult. Selective mutism is a form of anxiety that typically occurs in children who are unable to speak in certain places or contexts, such as school, although they may have excellent verbal communication skills when they are in a context familiar to them. It could be an extreme form of social phobia.

Separation anxiety disorder. After separating from a person or a place capable of transmitting feelings of security, some people may experience an anxiety disorder with symptoms similar to a panic attack.

In the case of an anxiety disorder, the feeling of fear can always be present in such an intense way as to be debilitating: it can make you stop doing things you like (go to a concert for example) and, in extreme cases, do not take the lift, prevent you from crossing the street or even leaving your home. If left untreated, anxiety tends to worsen.

Diagnosis

Establishing when anxiety becomes a disease is not easy. Patients' ability to tolerate it is variable and it can be difficult to establish the causes of the pathological form. In the assessment of severity, it is considered whether: anxiety is a cause of malaise; interferes with normal functionality; it does not stop in a few days. To check if anxiety is secondary to other pathologies, tests, even blood tests, can be useful.