At Burning Tree Ranch, we understand that anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone feels from time to time. It can help you get the motivation to study hard for a test or alert you to potential danger. But sometimes, anxiety occurs for seemingly no reason, and it can disrupt your life. For someone with an anxiety disorder, the worry becomes constant. Certain triggers can make your worry feel uncontrollable and may lead you to avoid situations such as social functions, work and everyday routines.
Anxiety Disorder Signs & Symptoms
Although every anxiety disorder presents with its own range of symptoms, some signs of this psychological condition are similar. Common symptoms of anxiety disorders include:
- Nervousness or restlessness
- Muscle tension
- Irritability
- Extreme fatigue or exhaustion
- Rapid breathing and heart rate
- Intrusive, worrisome thoughts
- Digestive distress
- Sleep difficulties
- Trouble controlling anxious feelings
Types of Anxiety Disorders
The most prevalent kinds of anxiety disorders are as follows:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Extreme worry that occurs most days for a minimum of six months. The apprehension doesn’t always have a specific trigger, but it is proportionally greater than the circumstance that incited it. You may feel continual anxiety about everyday, routine events.
Panic Disorder
Recurring episodes of extreme nervousness that culminates in a panic attack. These attacks involve physical symptoms, such as trouble breathing and a racing heartbeat. They may also create a cycle of further anxiety as the individual worries about the attack itself and attempts to avoid situations that might trigger episodes in the future.
Phobia-related Disorders
Excessive, irrational fear or aversion in specific situations. Simple phobias include a fear of flying, heights or blood and may produce panic attacks.
Social Anxiety Disorder
A complex phobia that results in excessive nervousness in social situations. This disorder often involves a feeling that you are being judged by others and produces intense embarrassment and self-consciousness.
Agoraphobia
A fear of crowds or open spaces, both of which could be difficult situations to escape if you were having a panic attack.
Substance or Medically Induced Anxiety Disorder
Sometimes, a physical condition, medication or illicit substance can produce symptoms of anxiety disorders.
The Root Causes of Anxiety
Experts aren’t sure what causes anxiety disorders. The source of worry is different for everyone. However, some of the most common causes of anxiety include:
- Trauma
- Stress due to a physical ailment
- Ongoing stressors, such as financial issues or caring for a sick relative
- Personality traits, such as perfectionism, low self-consciousness and a need for control
- Genetics
- Other psychological disorders
- Medications, drugs and alcohol
Treatment Options
Most people with anxiety disorders benefit from a combination of psychotherapy and medication. By working with a therapist, you can gain awareness about your emotions, learn coping skills and balance the extreme emotions that you feel.
Some types of therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, include exposure therapy, which allows you to retrain your brain and emotional responses to certain triggers.
Some antidepressants are also used to treat anxiety disorders.
A holistic approach benefits most patients. Learning how to establish balance in your everyday routines serves as a first step towards healthier living. From there, optimizing your physical and emotional health will be a whole lot more manageable, all of this leading to a reduction in anxiety-based symptoms.
At Burning Tree Ranch, we know that anxiety can play a major role in addiction disorders. We utilize a progress-based, customized approach in a structured, supportive environment to address anxiety and addiction disorders for the chronic relapser.
