Essay Sample on Overcoming Anxiety: What You Need to Know

Introduction

Anxiety disorder is a condition whereby a person experiences persistent, distressing, and excessive fear and nervousness hence interfering with normal functioning. These feelings of anxiety and worry usually are hard to control, and they can last for a long time.

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Some general symptoms of anxiety disorders are having difficulties in sleeping, unable to stay calm and still, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dry mouth, having a sense of impending danger, trembling, having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety, dizziness, tense muscle, feeling cold, sweaty, numb or tingling feet or hands. According to Knowles et al. (2018), these symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years and continue into adulthood. This paper will give an analysis of anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders and how their symptoms can affect the quality of life.

Anxiety Disorders Causes

Anxiety disorder is caused by a combination of factors that play a role which includes:

• Environmental stressors like relationship issues, difficulties at work, and family issues.
• Medical issues, for instance, symptoms of a particular illness or effects of a specific medicine.
• Withdrawal from an illegal substance.
• Inheritance from a family member

Types of Anxiety Disorders

The different types of anxiety disorders include:

Agoraphobia - This is a disorder whereby a person fears and tends to avoid situations or places that may cause them to panic or feel embarrassed. A person with this kind of disorder may also have a fear of bridges, big crowds, using elevators, or staying outside alone.

Panic disorders - this type of disorder involves frequent episodes of extreme fear and anxiety that reach a peak within minutes (Cox & Olatunji, 2020). Panic attacks are accompanied by symptoms such as shaking profusely, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, and confusion. In most cases, panic attacks occur and intensify quickly, peaking after ten minutes. They can, however, last even for hours. Anyone can experience a panic attack, and individuals with panic disorders can experience regular attacks more often. Research shows that panic attacks can happen as a result of other conditions, such as PTSD and generalized anxiety disorders (Comer, 2018).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - This disorder develops after one is exposed to a traumatizing ordeal wherein serious physical harm happened. Examples of traumatic events that may cause post-traumatic stress disorders are accidents, military war, violent personal attacks, human or natural induced disasters, and many more.

Social anxiety disorder - This type of disease is also commonly known as social phobia. It is characterized by extreme emotional discomfort, distress, or worry about social situations. According to Stein et al., (2014), Individuals with social anxiety disorder fear being embarrassed in social situations. Therefore, they fear to interact with other people. Research shows that this type of disorder begins in early childhood as a regular part of social development and cannot notice until adulthood (Stein et al., (2014). Social anxiety can be considered to be a medical condition when daily social interaction causes self-consciousness, fear, and embarrassment.

Generalized anxiety disorder- This is a disorder whereby a person is nervous about nonspecific life situations or objects. In most cases, a person worries for little or no reason, and it may even be challenging to control the feeling. Mostly, this happens when one is depressed when he/she has other types of anxiety disorders.

Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

Medical treatment for anxiety may not be necessary for some people because a change in lifestyle may be enough to deal with the symptoms. However, in more extreme cases, some anti-depressant and sedative drugs may be recommended to help one overcome the symptoms. Meeting with a psychotherapist can also improve one learn some strategies to deal with anxiety when it occurs. Other natural remedies to treat anxiety include exercising and staying active, getting adequate sleep, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, meditating, eating healthy diets, among many others.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive disorder - this is a form of mental disorder that causes a person to have unwanted thoughts, ideas, or sensation (obsession) as well as repetitive behaviors (compulsive). A person with this type of disorder may, for instance, spend a lot of time in a day washing his/her hands, keep on checking and rechecking whether a stove, faucet, or light has been switched off. These behaviors significantly disrupt a person's social interactions as well as daily activities (Comer, 2018).

People mostly have repeated behaviors, but this does not interfere with their daily lives. However, for people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, thoughts are always unwanted and persistent. Practices are also rigid, and failure to do them may cause considerable suffering. Although most people know or suspect their obsessions are not real or do not make sense, they usually find it hard to stop the compulsive behaviors (Knowles et al., 2018).

Treatment

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is managed using anti-depressant medicines like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications may as well help in controlling the symptoms. Exposure therapy is also another method of treating (OCD). In this type of treatment, individuals with this type of disorder are put in a place where they are slowly exposed to their obsession. They are then asked to do compulsions activities that relieve their apprehension. Usually, this is done at their own pace, and they should not be forced to do anything that they do not want. The next step is where the therapist arranges the compulsions in a list and classifies them, starting from the activities that do not worry about the victim so much to the terrifying situations. The therapist then asks the victim to confront their fear of something on the compiled list. He then designs some activities that are likely to expose the victim to that particular fear. An example of an event would be for the victim to touch a public door handle. If the usual response would be to wash the hands immediately, then the therapist would request the victim to wait a little bit longer before washing the hands. This may be repeated several, and over time, this exposure, as well as the delayed response, can help the victim learn how to control their fear of germs without necessarily having to wash their hands.

Related Conditions

Other conditions that are related to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder include body dysmorphic disorder, which involves an extreme obsession with an imaginary defect in physical appearance, hoarding disorder, which is accompanied by difficulty in parting with personal effects, heedless of their usefulness or actual value, and neurologically based disorders such as Tourette's syndrome.

Conclusion

In conclusion, anxiety disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and other related disorders may affect the way a person carries out their daily activities in an adverse manner. Since the disorder is a result of a different combination of factors, the signs and symptoms tend to vary among people. Some may experience extreme fear that happens without warnings, while others panic in the middle of their thoughts. The most common treatments for these disorders is through behavioral therapy whereby, the therapist tries to make the behaviors, obsession, and compulsion disappear through regular training.

References

Comer, R. J. (2018). Abnormal psychology. Macmillan. https://www.worldcat.org/title/abnormal-psychology/oclc/1002642367

Cox, R. C., & Olatunji, B. O. (2020). Sleep in anxiety-related disorders: A meta-analysis of subjective and objective research. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 101282. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2674551

Knowles, K. A., Jessup, S. C., & Olatunji, B. O. (2018). Disgust in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: recent findings and future directions. Current psychiatry reports, 20(9), 68. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30094516

Stein, D. J., Craske, M. A., Friedman, M. J., & Phillips, K. A. (2014). Anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, trauma-and stressor-related disorders, and dissociative disorders in DSM-5. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(6), 611-613. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24880507