Psychoeducation for Anxiety Disorders

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 40 million Americans, or about 18 percent, have an anxiety disorder. There are several types of anxiety disorders and effective treatment methods to help people learn to manage and possibly eliminate their symptoms.

Definition

• Anxiety is defined by dictionary.com as "distress or uneasiness caused by fear of danger or misfortune." At some point, every person has experienced anxiety over a specific situation or circumstance. It is important to differentiate between typical anxiety, meaning distress experienced over a realistic fear, and the maladaptive behavior observed in anxiety disorders.

  The general criteria used in diagnosing any symptoms as a disorder is when the experience continuously interferes with a person's normal functioning.This means that an anxiety disorder includes distress or uneasiness that is a constant barrier to someone getting by in her day-to-day life.

Common Symptoms

• While there are many different types of anxiety disorders, they all share a common list of symptoms, which can include nervousness or feeling jittery, muscle tension, feeling tired all the time, racing heart/ palpitations, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling, worrying, sleeplessness, difficulty concentrating and hypervigilance (a highly abnormal awareness of surrounding sights and noises).

Types of Anxiety Disorders

• Some of the types of anxiety disorders are (1) Generalized Anxiety Disorder: prolonged vague, unexplained fear that is not attached to any specific object. While the fears may seem real, there is no apparent danger. This disorder typically describes people who constantly worry about minor things that most people would be able to let go of. (2) Panic Disorder: A panic attack is a sudden burst of anxiety triggered by stimuli in the environment. A person who experiences recurring panic attacks will be diagnosed with a Panic Disorder. (3) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: unwanted, uncontrollable obsessive thoughts that will be accompanied by ritualistic behavior designed to get rid of the thought. For example, a person with OCD is afraid of dying because of other people's germs and will therefore repeatedly wash his hands. (4) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: fear or anxiety experienced long after a person has been involved in or witnessed a traumatic event. Typically, PTSD will emerge six months or longer after the event has occurred. The person with PTSD is overly fearful or anxious of the event reoccurring.

Phobias

• Phobias are a specific type of anxiety disorder that has three different subcategories: (1) Specific Phobias: a marked, persistent irrational fear of an object. Common specific phobias include arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and acrophobia (fear of heights). For a full listing of specific phobias, visit phobialist.com. (2) Social Phobia: fear or embarrassment when dealing with others and their reactions. A person with a social phobia will avoid situations involving interpersonal contact, including public speaking. (3) Agoraphobia: fear of entering certain, typically unfamiliar situations. This tends to be paired with panic attacks. Agoraphobia is triggered by the person's internal cue they are entering an unsafe situation. Severe agoraphobia may result in a person no longer leaving her home.

Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

• The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) cites cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as highly effective when treating anxiety disorders. CBT helps individuals change their thought patterns in order to produce a different behavioral outcome.

  For example, with generalized anxiety disorder, the client can connect specific thoughts to his symptoms. If he starts thinking "nothing is going right" and his heart begins to race and his palms are sweaty, the goal would be to replace the negative thought with more positive and realistic thoughts, which would help alleviate the symptoms.

  NIMH also references medications such as antianxiety or antidepressant medications. NIMH states that while medications cannot cure anxiety disorders, they can be beneficial in managing symptoms while the client undergoes psychotherapy.