Anxiety - Causes, Types, Symptoms & Treatment

Types of anxiety disorders that we see anxiety is not just one kind of disorder that presents with one symptom or something it is a range or a plethora of disorders the most common is generalized anxiety disorder I would probably try and explain uh the different types of anxiety disorders with examples.

everything that you do or think about in your life has you jumping to a negative conclusion for example if you're crossing a road and you're thinking about oh my god what if I have an accident uh so that would be a generalized anxiety disorder, the other kind of disorder anxiety disorder is a social anxiety disorder which would be present in social situations .

Like if you are attending a marriage function instead of enjoying the food and company in that marriage function you are thinking about have I dressed up properly or uh have I answered this person you know correctly and things like that the third kind of anxiety disorder is agoraphobia which usually happens in like places like marketplaces or bus or train or lift and like you are in a lift and you suddenly think uh what if the lift stops or the bus meets with an accident and you feel that you cannot escape that place at all and that leads to kind of panic attack there are other selective disorders which are there like selective mutism which is very common in children a lot of parents say that the children

Are very peppy and happy at home and they are very talkative but the moment they land up in school or a social function they are completely tongue-tied so that would be selective mutism also the specific type of fears or phobias which are preventing you from leading a normal life are again anxiety I mean they are a spectrum of the anxiety disorder

for example I have this patient who is a salesman and he's a salesperson and he needs to travel a lot but he has this fear of flying I he has tried going to the to he reaches in the airport but he cannot bring himself to get on the flight so and he tries to avoid flights by all means so this would be again something which is really

Affects his life and then it needs to be treated also an underlying metabolic condition or use of medications or illegal drugs can lead to anxiety and it is very important that we recognize this whenever anxiety becomes so prevalent in your life and uh so all-encompassing that it is preventing you from leading a good personal professional or social life you

Should seek professional help it could be with a psychiatrist or with a psychologist but do seek professional help at that point now that we have spoken about the what is anxiety let us get into how do we recognize anxiety or the symptoms of anxiety uh there are some very good self-assessment questionnaires I follow the hamilton a

Self-assessment questionnaire the link to that questionnaire would be in the dropbox below do try and self-assess yourself it is not diagnostic but definitely, it can indicate if you are suffering from anxiety some of the common symptoms of anxiety are though we might not think of it as anxiety loss of concentration or lack of focus people say that they are not able to

Concentrate on their work or studies and they don't know why they are suffering through it jumping to the negative conclusion in any situation unnecessary fears or phobias which have become very acute like I have this patient who thinks every time he has heartburn or uh some kind of dyspepsia he thinks that he's suffering from

Gastric cancer and he has done all sorts of google searches and talked to at least 10 gastroenterologists spending a lot of money and his family time just trying to uh get some confirmation that maybe he's suffering from gastric cancer and it needs treatment so specific phobias are again a symptom of anxiety also a lot of somatoform or

Psychosomatic presentations happen in anxiety it could be palpitations it could be piloerection which means your hair is standing at its end you are sweating unnecessarily you are very restless and you cannot concentrate on anything so all these somatic symptoms or bodily symptoms like breathlessness heaviness of chest all these things if they become

 sign of anxiety

Acute it is a sign of anxiety disorder a lot of patients spend a lot of time and money doing rounds of different kinds of doctors going to cardiologists because of their palpitations or gastroenterologists because they are suffering from some kind of gastric disturbances without realizing that the underlying cause is anxiety until the anxiety is treated

symptoms of anxiety

Their physical symptoms will not be treated so I would want you to be on the lookout for these symptoms your chronic pain chronic headache chronic package something that has been there with you for a year or two and you have done multiple rounds of doctors multiple doctors have told you that there is nothing wrong with your heart

Or with your head and you still cannot find a solution you must consider anxiety as the underlying cause now that we have looked into what is anxiety and how do we recognize anxiety let us look into the why of anxiety and why does anxiety happen there are considered to be multiple factors because of which it could happen it could be one or a combination of all

Of these it could be because of an imbalance or disturbance of the neurochemicals or the neurotransmitters in your brain and in those cases you do require medications or pharmacotherapy for treatment it could be because of substance abuse uh like drinking too much tea or coffee, especially towards the evenings

Can lead to these are stimulants coffee is a stimulant and it can lead to uh anxiety attacks especially towards the evening or night um having a bad lifestyle like a lack of exercise or a bad eat sleep exercise routine can again lead to it to anxiety attacks also substance abuse alcohol and use of illegal drugs is known to cause anxiety underlying metabolic conditions uh

I have personally seen that uh decreased levels of vitamin d3 vitamin b12 or anemia can also lead to some kind of anxiety or disorders or panic attacks and once you correct the underlying uh condition it could be thyroid hyperthyroid or it could be correcting these levels of vitamins or hemoglobin in your blood once the underlying

Condition is corrected the anxiety attacks do go down so again it requires professional help to diagnose what is causing your anxiety and then treat it now that we have looked into the what why and how of anxiety let us briefly look into what can we do from our side besides seeking medical help and support

To take care of anxiety while stress is one of the most common factors which leads to anxiety there are some small things which can do from our end these small changes can go a long way in taking care of her anxiety the building block which I feel is very important to take care of ourselves is to take care of our body we are not just our mind we are a combination of our body and mind

And when we are suffering from any mental disorder we forget that we need to take care of our body so having a good eating sleep exercise routine goes a long way in treating our anxiety eating on time eating good nutritious meals on time sleep on time get up on time and exercise on time exercise causes a release of

A lot of good hormones and good neurotransmitters in our brain like endorphins which help to take care of the anxiety, of course, uh psychotherapy or talk therapy or counseling helps you to identify what is the stressor and more importantly what are your thought patterns it is usually our thought pattern which leads to these anxieties again I would

Like to explain this with a common example I'll give this example about myself just uh like, for example, the milk boiled over while I was trying to warm the milk, and immediately my thought went to oh my god I can't I'm so overwhelmed and so overworked I have to take care of the house the clinic and a lot of other things so immediately it leads to this

The milk boiling over is one incident but immediately I start feeling overwhelmed or anxious the thought pattern in between which is the bridging thought pattern is that I am overwhelmed which has got nothing to do with the milk boiling over but the moment I realize that this is the underlying thought pattern I can correct it so realizing what is your underlying thought pattern can help you take care

Of your anxiety and break the thought emotion behavior cycle that usually is the underlying cause of inciting and cognitive behavior therapy can go a long way in getting you to recognize your thought patterns and then controlling their mindfulness and meditation-based cognitive behavior therapy again I feel is a good method it is a very recent science uh just 20

Years old the western science of western psychology has started giving importance to meditation and mindfulness but it has shown a tremendous amount of good results in trying to control our thought patterns while living in the present which is the most important factor in controlling anxiety because anxiety is nothing but a fear of the future the more and more you train your mind to

Live in the present and not worry and fear the future the better it is I would like to end this talk with an example anxiety is like a pet dog you train a pet dog and you train and you take care of the pet dog you train it to just bark at the strangers, not bark and bite uh people around you in your neighborhood or uh or the delivery man who is coming from amazon right

But it's your pet dog you have trained it well but then it is not behaving instead of helping you it is turning against you and it has become a nuisance for your anxiety is exactly like that the fear or worry for the future is a good thing it helps you prepare better for your future it improves your attention and concentration like just before an exam a little amount

Anxiety just before an interview is good for you because it helps you prepare better but if it turns against you and it starts acting in situations where it should not normally be present like I gave the example of anxiety in a social function or a marriage function where it has no role you should be enjoying yourself in a marriage function

But instead, you spend the entire time being anxious so that is exactly what an anxiety disorder is it comes and raises its head where it should not be present and if you are suffering through anything like this recognize it the earlier the better and the sooner you seek support and help from your loved ones and from a medical profession it would

Be better so I hope this talk helped you in recognizing when anxiety is okay because all of us feel it and when it is not okay and when to seek professional help.