What are anxiety disorders?
How Can I Tell Which One I Have? First of all, everyone has anxiety. Anxiety can be quite normal in certain instances. It keeps us busy doing things that keep us safe and out of harm’s way. For example, having some anxiety because you discovered the battery in your smoke detector is dead will hopefully bother you enough to motivate you to purchase a new battery soon which might save your life. But sometimes anxiety becomes a problem, not a help. We call this an anxiety disorder. There are just a few anxiety disorders. Here is a really brief explanation of the anxiety disorders for laypersons. If you read one of these explanations and it sounds strongly like what you have, you may do well to see your doctor and obtain one of the books listed below under that particular anxiety disorder from your library or bookstore. Generalized Anxiety Disorder – anxiety baseline is elevated all the time – excessive worry – can cause bothersome physical – symptoms such as tension, nausea, fatigue, head
fmri.jpg Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps one deal with a tense situation in the office, study harder for an exam, keep focused on an important speech. In general, it helps one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling disorder.
There are many different disorders that fit the category of anxiety disorders, including phobias (intense, irrational fears), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The common theme for these is that fear or anxiety is the most significant symptom. Anxiety disorders are thought to have the best chance of long-term recovery.
