What is anxiety?
It’s normal to feel anxious, worried or fearful in certain situations. These feelings are our bodies natural ‘fight or flight response’ to a perceived dangerous or risky situation. However if continuous feelings of anxiety impact your ability to carry out life as normal, you could have an anxiety disorder.
In the UK, a little over 1 in 10 of us will be living with an anxiety disorder at any one time – That’s over 8 million people. But everyone’s experience of anxiety disorders is different. Not everyone who has an anxiety disorder will experience the same symptoms. (Mental Health UK)
What Symptoms do people feel when they suffer with anxiety:
People usually experience physical, psychological and behavioural symptoms when they feel anxious or stressed.
Some of the most common physical symptoms are:
- Increased heart rate or increased muscle tension
- ‘Jelly legs’ or tingling in the hands and feet
- Hyperventilation (breathing too heavily) or dizziness
- Difficulty in breathing or a tight band across the chest
- Wanting to go to the toilet more often
- Feeling nauseous
- Tension headaches
- Hot flushes or perspiration
- Dry mouth
- Shaking or palpitations
- Choking sensations
Some of the most common psychological symptoms include feeling that:
- You might lose control and/or go ‘mad’; or feelings that you might die
- You might have a heart attack/be sick/faint/have a brain tumour
- People are looking at you and noticing your anxiety
- Things are speeding up/slowing down
- You’re detached from your environment and the people in it
- You want to run away/escape from the situation
- You’re on edge and alert to everything around you
- Restlessness and agitation.
- Inability to sit still and remain calm.
- Social withdrawal and isolation.
- Agoraphobia.
- Inability to properly meet responsibilities at home, work, or school.
- Irritability.
- Exaggerated startle reflex.
- Decreased ability to perform normal activities of daily life.
Although you may experience some or all of these symptoms your anxiety can be very unique and personal to you.
Anxiety = overestimation of the danger + the underestimation of your ability to cope. The most common coping strategy involves avoiding the situation that makes you feel anxious. Although this can produce immediate relief, it’s only a short-term solution. The anxiety often returns the next time you’re in that situation – and avoiding it will only reinforce the feeling of danger. And it means that you’ll never find out whether your fear about the situation and what might happen is actually true
What is the difference between Stress & Anxiety?
There’s a fine line between stress and anxiety. Both are emotional responses, but stress is typically caused by an external trigger. The trigger can be short-term, such as a work deadline or a fight with a loved one or long-term, such as being unable to work, discrimination, or chronic illness. People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms, such as irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive troubles, and difficulty sleeping.
Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don’t go away even in the absence of a stressor. Anxiety leads to a nearly identical set of symptoms as stress: insomnia, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, muscle tension, and irritability
There are many types of Anxiety:
Agoraphobia is a very complex phobia usually manifesting itself as a collection of inter-linked conditions.
For example many agoraphobics also fear being left alone (monophobia), dislike being in any situation where they feel trapped (exhibiting claustrophobia type tendencies) and fear travelling away from their ‘safe’ place, usually the home. Some agoraphobics find they can travel more easily if they have a trusted friend or family member accompanying them, however this can quickly lead to dependency on their carer.
The severity of agoraphobia varies enormously between sufferers from those who are housebound, even room-bound, to those who can travel specific distances within a defined boundary. It is not a fear of open spaces as many people think.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) causes people to experience an irrational preoccupation with a perceived body defect, either present in themselves or in others; the latter being dysmorphophobia by proxy.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder can leave people feeling that the perceived flaws in their appearance warrant extreme measures to either hide or fix them. Those who experience BDD cannot accept that their fears of their perceived body defect are out of all proportion, even when they receive reassurance from those around them. This can lead some people to seek plastic surgery or other measures in an attempt to rectify the perceived problem.
Claustrophobia is usually defined as the irrational fear of confined spaces. It can be rational to fear being trapped when there is a genuine threat. However, in claustrophobia, people experience fear even when there is no obvious or realistic danger in a particular situation. People who experience claustrophobia generally go out of their way to avoid confined spaces, including lifts, tunnels, tube trains, revolving doors, public toilets, and MRI scanners. Some people even don’t like to wear crash helmets. Unfortunately, avoidance may reinforce the fear.
Claustrophobia may arise from a one-off trauma at any age, developed when the person was a child (for example growing up with one or more claustrophobic parents) or emerge as someone gets older. Around 10% of the population may experience claustrophobia during their lifetime.
Fear of flying (aerophobia) is an excessive worry about air travel. It is believed to affect one in ten of the population, however some studies suggest that the proportion is much higher. Fear of flying can be linked to the fear of airplanes or it could be an aspect of other psychological problems such as panic attacks, claustrophobia or post-traumatic stress disorder. People suffering from fear of flying often suffer increased anxiety and panic attacks at the thought of flying and many avoid air travel as a result of this. Those with a fear of flying commonly fall into one of two groups. Firstly, some people fear an “internal loss of control”. For such individuals, their fear of flying stems from a fear that they will lose control of their emotions during flight and therefore embarrass themselves in front of fellow passengers. For others, the fear is associated with external factors such as turbulence, bad weather or a fault with the airplane.
Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is the feeling of being anxious about almost everything and anything for no real apparent reason. Often, people affected by GAD will feel overly worried about a wide range of things relating to a variety of topics including health, money, work, school and relationships. GAD is therefore a condition leaves people feeling anxious about a multitude of things rather than any one specific thing. While most of us worry or feel anxious at some point in our lives, those who experience generalised anxiety find it particularly difficult to control their worries. On the whole, their feelings of anxiety are more persistent and often begin to affect their daily lives.
Some symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder include:
- feeling nervous most days over the past 6 months
- problems falling asleep
- bad dreams or wake up worrying
- feeling that your body is very tense or uptight?
- feeling that you want to shout or feel frustrated
Health anxiety is an anxiety condition that often goes hand in hand with the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) spectrum of disorders.Those affected by health anxiety have an obsessional preoccupation with the idea that they are currently (or will be) experiencing a physical illness.
The most common health anxieties tend to centre on conditions such as cancer, HIV, AIDs, etc. However, the person experiencing health anxiety may fixate on any type of illness. This condition is known as health anxiety, illness phobia/illness anxiety or hypochondriasis.
Those who are affected by health anxiety/illness phobia are convinced that harmless physical symptoms are indicators of serious disease or severe medical conditions. For example, if a person experiencing health anxiety feels their chest is getting tight, they may believe that they are having a heart attack. Those with health anxiety frequently misinterpret physical symptoms of anxiety as a sign of an impending physical health problem.
Hoarding is characterised by two key behaviours: acquiring too many possessions and experiencing difficulty getting rid of them when they are no longer useful or needed. When these behaviours lead to enough clutter and disorganisation to disrupt or threaten a person’s health or safety, or they lead to significant distress, then hoarding becomes a “disorder.”
There are many reasons why people hoard, however the most frequent reason for hoarding is to avoid wasting things that might have value. Often people who hoard believe that an object may still be useable or of interest or value to someone. Thinking about whether to discard it leads them to feel guilty about wasting it. It is a common misconception that hoarders save only rubbish or things of no real value. In fact, most people who hoard save almost everything.
- Difficulty throwing things away, even when they are no longer needed
- The amount of clutter you have accumulated is interfering with your everyday life
- You are finding yourself using more rooms as storage space for all your possessions
Fear of Injections
Many people fear injections to some extent, but once that fear becomes persistent, excessive and unreasonable, then the fear becomes a phobia. Injection phobia is the fear and avoidance of receiving various types of injections, and/or of having a blood sample withdrawn through venipuncture (pricking a finger). This is a specific phobia and is extremely common yet not very well recognised. It is thought to affect between 3.5 % to 10% of the population.
The avoidance, anxiety or distress caused by needle phobia can significantly interfere with a person’s normal routine, occupational or academic functioning, and social activities or relationships.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders, with up to 20% of the population suffering from it at some point in their life. The typical symptoms of IBS include either recurring diarrhoea or recurring constipation, and some patients also suffer from both diarrhoea and constipation at different times. Additional symptoms can include stomach pain (which is sometimes relieved by a bowel movement), bloating, nausea, and wind. IBS can wax and wane, and patients may experience a few weeks or even a few months of good health before the symptoms return.
IBS has come to be closely linked with both stress and anxiety. Even people who do not experience IBS can find themselves needing to go to the toilet when they are experiencing more stress,, nervousness or anxiousness.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be looked at in two parts. Firstly, obsessions that are repetitive, obtrusive, unwanted thoughts that are experienced and result in unreasonable fears and compulsions. Secondly, acts or rituals carried out in response to fears generated by obsessions. The classic OCD condition is that of compulsive hand washing in response to an irrational fear of germs/contamination. In addition to the more classic forms of OCD there are a number of more specific variations including Compulsive hoarding, Compulsive skin pickingand Trichotillomania.
Those who experience an OCD disorder feel less anxious once they have carried out a compulsion. It is possible to experience obsessive thoughts only and not have the desire to carry out a compulsion. Examples of compulsions are excessive cleaning, counting, checking, measuring, and repeating tasks or actions.
Panic Disorder
The common thread between most anxiety disorders is the panic attack. However, when panic attacks are experienced out of the blue, without an apparent trigger, this is classified as panic disorder.
People living with panic disorder often feel fine one minute and totally out of control and in the grips of a panic attack, the next. Panic attacks produce very real physical symptoms, from a rapid increase in heartbeat to a churning stomach sensation. These physical symptoms are naturally unpleasant and the accompanying psychological thoughts of terror can make a panic attack a very scary experience. For this reason, those experiencing panic attacks start to dread the next attack, and quickly enter into a cycle of living ‘in fear of fear’.
A phobia is an irrational fear of an object/situation that would not normally trouble most people. As the name suggests, simple/specific phobias are phobias that are about specific objects or situations. They can be quite distinct in nature and easily identified. For example, fear of spiders, fear of thunderstorms or fear of heights.
Any phobia may produce a state of panic when the sufferer is confronted with the phobic object/situation. A wide variety of physical symptoms are experienced such as nausea, increased heartbeat and jelly legs. For this reason, many people with simple or specific phobias enter into a pattern of avoidance which can vary enormously in severity from someone who would not want to touch a spider, to someone who cannot even look at a picture of a spider in magazines, and therefore has to vet everything they come into contact with. The latter demonstrates just how debilitating even a simple phobia can be.
Separation anxiety is a term used to explain a feeling of anxiety or stress when you are away from your parents/family/guardians, for example, when you are at school. You may find that you worry a lot when your parents or guardians are not with you or when you are away from your home. This will affect how you act towards other people when you are in certain places such as school. You may only feel comfortable and stop worrying when you are at home or with your parents/guardians. You may also feel afraid of going to sleep alone and when you do get to sleep, you may have nightmares about being apart from your parents/guardian. You could sometimes have a tummy ache or headaches when you are away from your parents and you may also create stories, like saying that you don’t feel well to avoid being away from your parents or your home
Social Anxiety
Social or public situations of any kind may induce this disorder which is often expressed as a fear of being the centre of attention, or of others noticing the sufferer’s anxious behaviour. Social phobia can also be classed as ‘specific social phobia,’ such as when there is social phobia only in specific situations like public speaking. The fear of behaving in an embarrassing or humiliating way can lead to a complete withdrawal from social contact, as well as avoidance of specific social situations such as public toilets, eating out etc. The physical manifestations of this phobia include blushing, shaking and sweating etc.
Stress
The word stress is usually used to describe the feelings that people experience when the demands made on them are greater than their ability to cope. At such times people can often feel overloaded, under tremendous pressure and very tense or emotional. Stress affects everyone, young and old and is a completely normal reaction that all human beings will experience from time to time when faced with situations that they feel under pressure in.
Stress can be looked at in terms of external and internal stressors. External stressors are sources of stress that we are aware of around us, these can include traumas, life experiences or simply daily hassles. Internal stressors are the sources of stress that are inside us and are often the most common sources of stress. They are the thoughts and feelings that pop into your head and cause you to feel unease, these can include unrealistic expectations, uncertainties, low self esteem and apprehensions.
Some symptoms of stress may include:
- Obesity and Over-eating
- Increased or excessive drinking of alcohol
- Loss of appetite
- If you smoke – you’ll smoke more
- Increased coffee consumption
- Excessive and continuing irritability with other people
- Substance Abuse
- You can’t make decisions, large or small.
- Unable to concentrate – (common symptom of stress)
- Increased and suppressed anger
- Not be able to cope with life, feeling out of control
- Jumping from one job to another without finishing things
- Excessive emotion & crying at small irritations
- Lack of interest in anything other than work
- Permanently tired even after sleep – (another very common symptom of stress)
- Decreased sex drive / libido
- Nail-biting
Trichotillomania
The main feature of trichotillomania is the recurrent pulling out of one’s own hair which results in noticeable hair loss. Sites of hair puling may include any region of the body in which hair may grow, the most common sites being the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes. Stressful circumstances frequently increase hair pulling behaviour, but increased hair puling also occurs in states of relaxation and distraction (e.g. reading a book or watching television). Having pulled out hair from any area of the body, the tension and anxiety that those who live with trichotillomania experience is relieve
Let us help
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.
It is most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems.
Solution-focused brief therapy – also known as solution-focused therapy – is an approach to psychotherapy based on solution-building rather than problem-solving. Although it acknowledges present problems and past causes, it predominantly explores an individual’s current resources and future hopes – helping them to look forward and use their own strengths to achieve their goals.
Learn more about Solution-focused brief therapy
Psychotherapy involves regular personal interaction and the use of psychological methods and techniques particularly, to help change behavior and overcome problems in desired ways.
Schema Therapy helps you to understand and gain clarity of where and why difficulties have developed in life and provides a treatment plan for healing.
Learn more about Schema Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy and has been described as the fourth wave in therapy following CBT.
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a data driven science of all behaviour.