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No doubt it's something you're already familiar with -- you're about to give an important presentation at work and you can already feel your palms getting sweaty before you start. Maybe you have an instrument recital or some other kind of performance facing you and you can feel that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. Perhaps you have felt the onset of headaches due to a difficult situation you find you can't stop worrying about, either at home or at work. Whatever is the cause, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has estimated that some 19 million people in the US have experienced anxiety in one form or another sometime during their day-to-day lives.

It is perfectly normal for someone to worry and feel tense or afraid when under pressure or facing any situation that's stressful. Anxiety is just the human body's natural responses to danger, an automatic alarm a person experiences when feeling threatened, something also referred to by medical professionals as the fight or flight response. Although it may not be pleasant while someone is undergoing it, most experts agree that anxiety may not always be such a bad thing. In fact, anxiety can help a person stay alert and mentally focused, spur someone into action where the tendency might be to let an unpleasant situation slide, and provide motivation to find positive solutions to the problems a person may be experiencing. When anxiety turns into something constant or overwhelming, and it begins to interfere with relationships and daily activities, it's then that anxiety has crossed the line from something normal into the realm of an anxiety disorder.

The accepted medical definition of anxiety is: a physiological and psychological state with cognitive, emotional, somatic, and behavioral components. The combination of these components cause an unpleasant sensation that is usually associated with fear, uneasiness, or worry. Anxiety is a condition of generalized mood that happens without a stimulus trigger that can be identified. As such, it is different than fear, which happens when there is an external threat. Also, fear is related to behaviors specific to avoidance and escape; however, anxiety occurs due to the perception of threats that are believed to be unavoidable or uncontrollable.

What this means in plain English is that anxiety is a problem that has both psychological and physical components. In more severe forms, it can interfere with things like the ability to think clearly, the ability to eat or sleep well, and if left untreated can lead to such serious physical complications as stroke, heart failure, a lowered immune system response to infection, and depression.

Some of the most common types of anxiety disorders include:

  Generalized Anxiety Disorder - It is characterized by bothersome constant, exaggerated thoughts and tension centered on everyday routine life events and activities, lasting for at least six months in duration. A person suffering from this almost always anticipates the very worst consequences possible, even though there is precious little reason to expect it. The accompanying physical symptoms are those such as fatigue, trembling, muscle tension, headaches and/ or nausea.

Panic Disorder - This illness has repeated instances of intense fear that occur frequently and without a warning being given. Physical symptoms can include pounding or racing of the heart, chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, feelings of unreality, abdominal distress resulting in nausea and diarrhea, and the fear of dying. It should be noted that it is possible to have one or two panic attacks during one�s lifetime without being a victim of the disorder.

Phobias - The two primary types of phobias consist of social phobia and phobia surrounding a specific thing. People who have social phobia suffer an overpowering and disabling fear of embarrassment, scrutiny, or humiliation while in a social setting, like being on a date or at a party, or participating in a work-related activity. This causes a person to avoid most possibly pleasant and activities that are meaningful. People with a specific phobia usually experience the disabling, extreme, and irrational fear that something harmless is a danger. This fear results in the avoidance of things like animals or situations like going outside or flying and can result in people unnecessarily limiting their lives.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - This disorder is characterized by repeated, unwanted thoughts or compulsive behaviors like constant hand washing that seems impossible for the sufferer to stop or control.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - This disorder is typified by persistent symptoms that occur after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event like a rape or other criminal attack, the horrors experienced in war, child abuse, vehicle crashes, or natural or manmade disasters. The sufferer is likely to suffer from vivid nightmares, flashbacks, the numbness of emotions, depression, and feeling angry, irritable, or distracted and being easily startled. Family members of the victims of any of the above triggers can also develop this disorder.

The exposure to stress and anxiety on a long-term basis can be debilitating both physically and mentally it is important to have a health care professional diagnose and treat them quickly.

Anxiety increases the heart's rate and pumping action while causing constriction of the arteries, and restriction of blood flow to the heart. This could be responsible for an increased risk of serious problems like abnormalities in heart rhythm, heart attacks, and possibly even death. Blood becomes stickier, raising the chances of a blood clot clogging the artery and higher risk for stroke during times of stress. People regularly experiencing sudden increases in blood pressure over the course of time developed problems with the blood vessels' inner lining. There is also the increased risk of infections and possible impairment of a person's bodily response to immunizations. Anxiety can cause low white blood cell counts, and people who harbor herpes or HIV viruses may be more susceptible to viral activation with anxiety disorders. Autoimmune diseases that are caused by inflammation and damage from immune attacks on the body include eczema, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, which some in the medical field feel may represent changes brought on by anxiety disorders, as well as possible tumor growth in cancer patients.





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