Anxiety Disorder: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Anxiety disorder is a type of neurotic condition in which a person experiences incessant anxiety about life circumstances, his appearance and relationships with the people around him. Staying in such a state for a long time creates uncomfortable living conditions for the person, which become a reason for him or her to withdraw, not to develop their own abilities and to limit their social circle.

Symptoms and Signs

It is believed that when an anxiety disorder occurs, the symptoms are as follows:

• a pronounced form of anxiety and emotional tension before the onset of panic attacks;
• frequent mood swings;
• persistent sleep disturbance;
• constant conflicts with others;
• Reduced sharpness of reactions and sluggish thinking;
• increased sweating, rapid pulse;
• rapid fatigue and weakness, leading to a decrease in performance;
• complaints of pain in different parts of the body.

These symptoms of anxiety disorder have signs of autonomic and psychiatric disorders.

Distinctive features of the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder are:

• Total manifestation of anxiety before any circumstances in life;
• Inability to concentrate on household activities or work;
• constant motor tension;
• inability to relax;
• digestive disorders and stomach pain;
• heart disease.

Symptoms of anxiety-depressive disorder occur against a background of persistent depression:

• lack of interest in the manifestations of life and loved ones;
• lack of positive emotions;
• a sudden feeling of fear;
• vegetative disorders - rapid pulse, labored breathing, shortness of breath, increased sweating, proximity to fainting, etc.

Causes and development of the disease

Experts believe that the following factors contribute to the appearance of the disease:

• the presence of persistent circulatory disorders, hormonal malfunctions or chronic heart disease;
• a chronic form of dependence on alcohol, drugs, psychoactive substances, as well as abrupt cessation of their use;
• craniocerebral injuries and their consequences;
• being in a situation of prolonged stress;
• Character traits - melancholic temperament, anxious accents in the character warehouse;
• a tendency to exaggerate the dangers because of their high susceptibility;
• neurotic and mental disorders: depression, neurasthenia, hysteria, schizophrenia, paranoia, various manias;
• mental trauma in children at an early age and in adults in extreme situations - war, earthquake, being in a near-death experience, loss of a loved one or their support, etc.

Psychologists view the process of anxiety in different ways:

• The adherents of psychoanalysis believe that the cause is the regular suppression of one's own desires;
• the latter believe that the reason is the disconnection of the stimulus and the response of the psyche to the stimulus;
• Others believe that the cause is the reaction of the psyche to distorted mental images of the person.

Classification of the disease

ICD anxiety disorder is a neurotic disorder along with anxiety, moodiness, and post-traumatic stress disorder. One of the main hallmarks of anxiety disorder is the pathology of the origin of anxiety, a disproportionate degree of defensiveness to the stimulus factor.

Pathological anxiety:

• is not caused by any real danger;
• is not commensurate with the significance of the situation;
• is not due to a lack of time and knowledge;
• actively displaced;
• brings considerable discomfort to a person's life;
• is much more pronounced than normal;
• is time-consuming;
• has satellites in the form of tension and expectation of consequences, concerns and doubts, feelings of helplessness.

Types of anxiety disorder:

• Anxiety-depressive disorder is caused by the constant presence of anxiety without sources of danger, carries pathological changes in the patient's personality;
• Anxiety-phobic disorder is based on dwelling on past unpleasant consequences;
• social anxiety disorder is characterized by the patient's avoidance of contact with the people around him;
• Mixed anxiety disorder causes a simultaneous feeling of pathological anxiety and lowered mood;
• Panic anxiety disorder is characterized by the presence of panic attacks;
• Anxiety-neurotic disorder is associated with anxiety before any illness, intense shyness and anxiety;
• generalized anxiety disorder is accompanied by excessive fidgeting, anxiety without certain dangers or threats.

Risk factors and groups

Risk factors include child abuse, inherited mental disorders, historical family poverty, or other antisocial manifestations.

The risk group includes people prone to neurotic disorders - depression, hysteria, people taking alcohol, drugs, psychotropic drugs, women aged 20 to 30 years.

Complications

In the absence of adequate treatment, anxiety disorder leads to the following social and psychological complications:

• low self-esteem;
• self-isolation from society;
• insomnia;
• the emergence of a sense of hopelessness;
• depletion of the body.

Social complications include job loss, financial problems, broken relationships, alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse, and others. Physical complications are irritation in the intestines, heartburn, lack of interest in sex, loss or excessive weight gain, headaches and muscle strain, reduced immunity, development of allergies, accelerated aging, cancer, heart disease and many others.

Diagnosis

The accumulated information about this disease has made it possible to test reliable methods of treatment of medicinal and psychotherapeutic nature. The disease is of professional interest to psychiatrists and medical psychologists.

Specialists use the following methods to diagnose neurotic disease:

• Initial individual counseling involves an interview to determine emotional reactions and obtain information about the patient's lifestyle, motives, and interests;
• psychodiagnostic examination and projective testing, aimed at revealing pathological anxiety and concomitant disorders;
• observation of the patient and his life, his relations with the world around him and with people.

Preparing to go to the doctor

Before entering the therapist's office, the patient is advised to articulate all of his or her problems and to report on all substance use, including start/end dates and total duration of intake. In addition, the patient's positive attitude toward treatment and the effect it will have is extremely important.

Treatment

Treatment of anxiety disorder is a complex of methods based on changes in the patient's lifestyle, psychotherapy and taking medications. Treatment of generalized anxiety disorder is based on the use of psychoactive medications such as antidepressants. Under no circumstances should you stop taking medication on your own. Psychotherapy for anxiety disorder is carried out by different methods - individual, group, family. The basic direction of influence of therapy is an intensified influence on the attitude to the fears and anxieties that have arisen.

Among folk medicine, it is possible to use herbs, infusions and decoctions of them, such as melissa, chamomile. These herbs affect the human body, bringing a relaxing effect, thanks to this effect, anxiety disorders and their cause temporarily reduce their degree of activity.

Self-treatment of anxiety disorder threatens pain and neuroses of various kinds, which must be treated more deeply.

Prevention

Experts argue that there is no effective means of preventing anxiety disorders, with careful attention to their fears and the causes of their appearance in the early stages is more easily cured, giving a positive prognosis for the absence of relapse.

The need to seek help

There is a very thin, barely distinguishable line between normal and pathological feelings of anxiety, because anxiety is the body's natural defensive reaction to external stimuli. At the same time, self-diagnosis and treatment of the disease is not allowed, because it leads to complication and aggravation of the already existing condition.