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Last time, we discussed how mental illnesses have been categorised into 7 different types, and we discussed the first category of mental disorders - the mood disorders. In today's article, we shall consider the next type - Anxiety Disorders. Anxiety is something that every individual has been through, at least once in their lifetime. Whether you are a student in middle school, or world’s youngest selfmade billionaire Kylie Jenner, anxiety spares no one. But when does this feeling turn into a disorder? What are its types and what it is like to live with anxiety disorders, we shall discuss in this chapter of mental disorders.
Having said that anxiety is a part of our everyday life, we understand how every person we know, every person there is, has moments when they feel anxious and fearful. However, in case of a patient diagnosed with any one of the anxiety disorders, these anxious episodes are far more repetitive and intense. And during these episodes, they reach the absolute peak of their anxiety or fear within a few minutes. Anxiety is usually accompanied by hyperventilation, increased blood pressure, trembling and other such symptoms that we shall be listing down further in this blog. But before that, let us first understand the different types of anxiety disorders and their symptoms. Starting with -
- Agoraphobia - Simply put, Agoraphobia is the fear of places and situations that could trigger one's anxiety and cause one to panic. People anticipate a panic attack and fear it to an extent that their normal functioning gets harder. The usual fear that these affected individuals have is the fear of their panic or anxiety intensifying in a place or situation where they wouldn't have someone to aid them or help them come out of. People with this disorder are often scared to leave the house alone, crowds, enclosed spaces like elevators, movie theatres, etc. These individuals also have a fear of using public transport. Agoraphobia can extensively hamper your ability to socialise and build any relations whatsoever and therefore it is advisable to get medical treatment for it.
- Panic Disorder - We have heard a lot of people talk about getting panic attacks, for example, our bollywood queen - Deepika Padukone herself is one of the patients of panic disorder. Individuals suffering from this disorder have frequent panic attacks that can be characterised with nausea, shortness of breath, hyperventilation, sweating, feeling doomed, chills, shaking limbs, increased blood pressure, heart palpitations, chest pain, etc. Usually these attacks have no trigger, they happen frequently and might look completely out of the blue to the unversed. People usually avoid doing anything that could possibly trigger someone’s panic and fear, best described as the fear of being in fear.
- Selective Mutism - Most common in children when they are unable to speak in front of a crowd or in a public setting because of anxiety but can talk perfectly in front of family and close ones. This might hamper with their confidence levels and also limit them from socialising and making friends, and also in some cases lead to other anxiety disorders as they grow up
- Social Anxiety Disorder - Also known as Social Phobia, is often confused as mere shyness of a person but it is deeper than what it appears to be. Social anxiety includes fear, nervousness and avoidance of people and situations, on the daily, with the fear of being judged negatively and thoughts about embarrassing or humiliating oneself in front of other people. Some of the emotional and behavioural characteristics of a person having social anxiety disorder are:
- Intense fear of interacting with other individuals
- Avoiding situations where one can attract a lot of attention, that is the fear of being the centre of attention in any situation.
- Anxiety because of overthinking about an event that might cause fear or anxiety.
- Reluctant while doing or speaking something in front of people in the fear of being judged and getting humiliated.
- Feeling uncomfortable in social settings
Substance Induced Anxiety Disorder - This type is caused by exposure to alcohol or other substances like drugs. This feels like any other form of anxiety and can have similar symptoms like sweating, increased heartrate, muscle tension, excessive worry and increased irritability.
Just like mood disorders, anxiety disorders too can affect one's personal and professional life. Therefore it is extremely important to take them seriously and get medical attention. Some of the causes of anxiety disorders are :
- Trauma - People with some sort of unhealed trauma often tend to develop anxiety. Children that are severely beaten up at home or bullied at school often grow up to be really anxious and under confident. Therefore it is extremely important to treat children with kindness, especially when they are little because their childhood shapes their entire personality, and what they believe they can or cannot achieve in life. However, going through some traumatic experience even during adulthood will cause anxiety if the trauma remains unhealed.
- Personality - There are a total of 16 personality types and a few of them are more prone to anxiety than the others. For example people with INFP and INFJ personality types are extreme overthinkers, INTJ personality type is often liked to perfectionism therefore also more prone to anxiety, people belonging to the ENFJ and ESFJ are often termed as people pleasers, therefore opinions of others matters a lot to them. Thus, it is scientifically proven that some personality types are naturally prone to developing anxiety disorders.
- Mood Disorders - People with mood disorders almost always have more anxiety and are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder.
- Drugs and Alcohol
- Genetics - People who have close relatives that have or have had an anxiety disorder in the past can also develop anxiety disorders.
- Anxiety Caused due to a Medical Issue - Also one of the most common causes of anxiety in adults, when they are diagnosed with a disease that that they believe is either incurable, or will heavily affect their physical, mental or financial condition.
Anxiety might not look so dangerous on its own, but can cause various issues inside one's body and also tamper with their personal and professional life. It can limit their ability to socialise and build social or even professional relations. Therefore it is extremely important and advisable to consult a professional and get treatment for these disorders before they get out of hand. That's all that we have for today. In the next update, we shall discuss in detail the third category for mental disorders - Psychotic Disorders