How to Recognize Clinical Anxiety Symptoms

If you think that someone you know and care about is suffering from an anxiety disorder, you'll want to get them help. However, it's not always easy to determine whether someone is experiencing a normal amount of anxiety or an abnormal amount of anxiety. Another complication when determining if someone suffers from anxiety is the fact that there are multiple anxiety disorders with different symptoms. You'll be better equipped to figure out if a loved one suffers from an anxiety disorder if you know the main symptoms.

Instructions

• 1

  Assess the situation. Does the person's anxiety interfere with her daily living? Does it interfere academically, at work, socially or with family? These are key questions when determining if someone suffers from an anxiety disorder. If the answer is yes, the anxiety does interfere with daily living, the person should seek the help of a licensed mental health professional.

• 2

  Ask the person if she becomes anxious about many things, has difficulty concentrating and becomes irritable easily. If yes, she may be suffering from generalized anxiety disorder.

• 3

  Determine if the person becomes incredibly anxious without a specific cause, has a racing heart, feels like he might die and has a hard time catching his breath, to gauge whether he might be suffering from panic attacks.

• 4

  Ask the person if he has intrusive thoughts, impulses and a need to repeat behaviors. If yes, he may be suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

• 5

  Figure out if the person has suffered from some type of trauma and has symptoms of anxiety, because she might be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. If she has trouble concentrating, becomes overly angry and has nightmares, PTSD could be the disorder she is suffering from.

• 6

  Ask if he has an intense fear of speaking in public and becomes extremely nervous in social situations, to determine if he might suffer from social phobia anxiety disorder.

• 7

  Observe the person to answer the following question. Does the person get headaches and stomachaches often, sweat when nervous and have a lot of muscle tension? These are more signs that the person may be suffering from an anxiety disorder.