Anxiety disorder is any one of several mental disorders. In these disorders, the sufferer repeatedly experiences mild to severe fear or dread. The fear or dread causes distress or disability. Anxiety is a common emotion. It is often accompanied by physical feelings of nervousness and urges to escape or avoid a seemingly threatening situation. Anxiety can be useful when it helps individuals notice and escape something that is dangerous. It can also be useful when it helps people meet the challenges of uncertain experiences. Such an experience may include delivering a speech or performing athletically or musically. Anxiety becomes a problem when it consistently interferes with normal life. It also become a problem when it occurs in response to objects or situations that are not dangerous or in response to nothing at all.
Mental health professionals typically recognize six general types of anxiety disorders. They are (1) phobias, (2) social anxiety disorder, (3) panic disorder, (4) generalized anxiety disorder, (5) obsessive-compulsive disorder, and (6) post-traumatic stress disorder.
Phobias involve strong excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects or situations that pose little or no threat. Common phobic objects and situations include certain animals, heights, water, and enclosed spaces. Social anxiety disorder is an excessive fear and avoidance of certain social situations. It is also called social phobia. Persons with this disorder unrealistically fear they may be embarrassed, humiliated, or otherwise negatively judged by others. Panic disorder is characterized by sudden surges of fear. Such surges are called panic attacks. They occur unexpectedly and without apparent reason. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) involves excessive uncontrollable worry about everyday life activities. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) experience intrusive, unwanted, and repeated fearful thoughts, images, or impulses. These ideas are called obsessions. The sufferer may find obsessions extremely distressing even while recognizing that they are highly unrealistic. Many OCD sufferers feel compelled to also engage in compulsions. Compulsions are mental or behavioral rituals that they feel help relieve the anxiety. For example, an OCD sufferers may believe he or she will get ill from touching everyday objects. Such a person may wash their hands dozens to hundreds of times a day. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves a distressing and disabling response to experiencing a trauma. Such a trauma may include being in a life-threatening automobile accident or the victim of an assault. Sufferers of PTSD experience intrusive uncontrollable recollections of the trauma in the form of nightmares or flashbacks. In a flashback, the person reexperiences the trauma while awake.
Anxiety disorders are often treated successfully with medication and cognitive behavioral therapy. In such therapy, patients gradually face, and work to overcome, their fears.
See also Obsessive-compulsive disorder ; Panic disorder ; Phobia ; Post-traumatic stress disorder
