Not everyone gets anxious about the same thing, a problem at work for example is something that many people could just brush off but for others it will sit in their mind and cause so much anxiety that they may never be able to go back to work again.
If you are suffering from shortness of breath, chest pains, dizziness and have a ongoing fear of death and levels of distress that are higher than your friends or associates then there is a good chance you are having a anxiety attack. The best known anxiety disorder is post traumatic stress disorder, it used to be solely associated with soldiers who have returned home from war, that is changing over time.
If you are washing your hands constantly even though you know they are clean, or doing some other repetitive behavior that you are unable to stop then you may well be suffering from a obsessive compulsive disorder.
Phobias are another type of anxiety. There are two types of phobias, social phobia and specific phobia. People who have social phobia have fear of embarrassment, humiliation, scrutiny, causing them to avoid social situations and miss out on other important activities in their life.
You probably don’t even take any notice of most things in your daily routine, if you suffered from a generalized anxiety disorder every change in your routine would upset you. You would worry about every step of your day and that anxiety would show itself as fatigue, tension, nausea and probably headaches as well.
People with anxiety will often wait months before going to see their Dr and when they do see a Dr the first step is often medication. A mixture of therapy and medication will usually be offered as a solution by your Dr.
There are more medications then there has ever been before to help treat anxiety disorders. Some of these medications are called antidepressants and benzodiazepines. If one medication is not effective when it is tried then others can be tried to see if they will be effective.
New medications are currently under development to help treat anxiety. Two effective forms of psychotherapy used in treating anxiety disorders are behavioral therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy focuses on changing certain actions and uses some techniques to stop unwanted behaviors from happening.
Understanding your thinking and why you act in certain ways will help you change the way you think and act in certain situations. That is exactly what behavioral therapy does for you.
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