What Are the Manifestations of Anxiety?

Anxiety is a very common ailment, affecting approximately 1 in 20 people, and can become manifest as either acute or chronic. Anxiety is a normal reaction to an emotional or stressful situation, but becomes a problem when it affects day-to-day life.

Types

• There are five types of classified anxiety disorders: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Social Anxiety Disorder.

Features

• Symptoms of anxiety disorders include irrational fears, chest pains, shortness of breath, panic attacks, avoidance of situations known to provoke anxiety, repetitive behaviors and scary memories.

Effects

• People who have severe forms of anxiety can become ashamed of their fears because logically they understand them to be irrational, but many cannot control their behavior. This causes many people with anxiety to live secluded lives and avoid seeking treatment.

Misconceptions

• Not all treatments for anxiety involve prescription medications. Other techniques employed include relaxation therapies, learning about problem solving skills and gradual yet supervised exposure to fears.

Considerations

• A particular stressful situation can produce extreme anxiety in one person while having almost no effect on another. Our predispositions to how anxiety affects us may be partially in our genetic make-up and partially determined by our personalities.