Anxiety Talk

Anxiety is something that plenty of people everywhere struggle with. While many experience anxiety related symptoms when it comes to starting a new job or talking to a crush, others struggle with different disorders that can hinder their lifestyle.

There are many different illnesses that can be classified as an anxiety disorder, but the ones people are most familiar with are General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorders, and plenty of phobias that people battle with. While all of these may sound similar, they are completely different and function in their own ways. 

GAD is a disorder that impacts 3.1% of the U.S population, but this number does not include undiagnosed individuals or adults not receiving treatment. It is a very common form of anxiety that shows itself in excessive worrying and constant tension surrounding things that can occur everyday. People with this form of anxiety might experience fatigue, trouble sleeping, and sometimes even impacts physical health. GAD is different from other anxiety disorders because there is no exact trigger. Anything can cause the person anxiety in their everyday life which makes this anxiety disorder extremely difficult in its own right. People that struggle with GAD are often diagnosed with depression as well. Depression and GAD often coincide with one another, which is why many antidepressants aim to cover both disorders. 

Another common form of anxiety is Social Anxiety. It is a disorder that causes a person a large amount of anxiety when they expected to be social or when they experience humiliation or rejection from a social interaction.  This disorder used to be labeled as a social phobia considering the fact that individuals tend to fear being social in a sense. Common activities that cause the majority of people to experience anxiety are triggers for this specific disorder/phobia. Public speaking, going to parties, starting a new school, etc. are all examples of things that people try to avoid or fear when it comes to social anxiety. In this habitats they are worried something embarrassing or emotionally hurtful will happen to them, thus the individual starts having symptoms of social anxiety. 

The conversation around social anxiety then leads to all different types of phobias. Not many people know that all the different phobias like arachnophobia, fear of spiders, or claustrophobia, fear of tight spaces, can be identified as forms of anxiety. Specific phobias generally cause people to go out of their way and to extreme lengths to avoid something that causes them an abnormal amount of fear.  Symptoms of phobias are very similar to other forms of anxiety such as increased heart rate, trouble breathing, sweating, dizziness, etc. Unlike GAD, phobias and social anxiety are things that are easily treated and can even be done in a couple of therapy sessions, but if not treated they can cause a large negative impact on your life. Not treating any form of anxiety can lead to complete isolation from the outside world and a major decline in physical health. 

Mental health as a whole is extremely important to educate ourselves on, but anxiety is such a common disorder and feeling that people everywhere deal with, but know nothing about. To begin to overcome things that ail us we have to start with learning about it.