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Anxiety and Stress
The root causes of anxiety and its presentations reach far and wide. For some, the experience of anxiety is worse than others and living with acute symptoms is a daily struggle. Over many years we have worked with a whole spectrum of anxiety and anxiety disorders including those outlined below. With the right help and support it is possible to move past anxiety. On this page we have included some information on common Anxiety conditions.
Anxiety Symptoms
and Disorders
Anxiety is a common state and frequent experience for all humans. We have an inherent stress response that is triggered whenever there is a perceived threat, commonly known as fight/flight/freeze/fawn. From an evolutionary perspective this is a positive and protective response; it's what keeps us safe. For some however, the stress response is overactive and triggered in everyday occurrences even when there is no true threat to safety, causing distressing and sometimes pervasive symptoms.
Triggered by our central nervous system, the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response can be automatic and significantly affect thoughts, emotions and behaviour. If this response is activated too frequently or over long periods of time it can also cause debilitating impacts on physical and psychological health. A pervasively overactive nervous system response causes undue stress on one’s body and brain, which may lead to unwanted physiological and emotional symptoms such as sleep disturbances, panic, tension headaches, shallow breathing, reactivity and unexplained fatigue. Perfectionism, being a “control freak” and people pleasing are some more subtle ways anxiety can show up in behaviour while excessive worry, rumination and critical perspectives are how thoughts can be impacted by anxiety .
Below are some common anxiety disorders and how they may present in someone's life. If you recognise yourself to be living with some of these symptoms or conditions and wish to seek support please feel free to contact us for more information.
Panic
Characterised by “panic attacks,” someone may be experiencing painc when sudden feelings of terror arise that recur repeatedly and without warning. Symptoms of panic attack include chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach upset, feelings of being disconnected and fear of dying. Often the person experiencing a panic attack feels a perceived loss of control even when they appear to be in no apparent danger. Panic atttacks happen involuntarily and can be triggered by specific events or memories, consciously or unconsciously.
When someone is frequently experiencing panic attacks they may develop Panic Disorder. Someone with Panic Disorder may worry excessively about having panic attacks and may become ashamed and self-conscious, sometimes limiting daily activities and avoiding locations or situations where panic attacks have occurred in the past.
Social Anxiety
Disorder
Characterised by an intense fear of social situations, Socialised Anxiety Disorder (SAD) often negatively affects personal relationships at school, work and in social settings including parties and family gatherings. SAD is often associated with an irrational fear of being humiliated in public. The fear of behaving in an embarrassing or humiliating way can lead to a complete withdrawal from social contact, as well as avoidance of specific social situations such as public toilets, eating out etc. This disorder may have symptoms similar to “panic attacks” (e.g., heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath), blushing and shaking, or may experience severe sweating (hyperhidrosis) when in social situations, which may lead to avoidance of those situations.
Specific Fears
and Phobias
Someone with a specific fear or phobia experiences an acute and irrational fear of something that poses little to no actual threat. Phobias can centre on particular objects (e.g., bugs, dogs) or situations (e.g., flying in an airplane, being in an elevator) that cause feelings of terror, dread and panic. Individuals with phobias often feel intense shame about their fears and focus much of their energy on avoiding objects or situations on which their phobia centres, that leading a “normal” life becomes difficult.
A wide variety of physical symptoms are experienced such as nausea, increased heartbeat and “jelly legs”. For this reason, many people with simple or specific phobias enter into a pattern of avoidance which can vary enormously in severity from someone who would not want to touch a spider, to someone who cannot even look at a picture of a spider and therefore has to vet everything they come into contact with. The latter demonstrates just how debilitating even a simple phobia can be. Below are some of the more common phobias that people may have.
Some common phobias
are listed below
Claustrophobia
The fear of being trapped when there is a genuine threat against us can be rational. However, someone experiencing claustrophobia can experience intense fear even when there is no obvious or realistic danger in a particular situation. People who experience claustrophobia generally go out of their way to avoid confined spaces, including lifts, tunnels, tube trains, revolving doors, public toilets, and MRI scanners. Some people even don’t like to wear crash helmets. Unfortunately, avoidance may reinforce the fear and perpetuate the experience of claustrophobia.
Emetophobia
Emetophobia is a fear of vomiting or seeing others being sick. Someone who experiences emetophobia may also fear being out of control while they are sick or may fear being sick in public, which can trigger avoidance behaviours. It is a condition that is not widely diagnosed even though it is a fairly prevalent anxiety disorder. Emetophobia varies enormously in how it affects people; most worry excessively about vomitting even though they are less likely than the general population to be sick because of all the steps they take to avoid being ill. For instance, some people may be unable to leave home if there are known any stomach bugs going around or they will avoid family and friends who have an illness.
Aerophobia
Aerophobia is the fear of flying and/or excessive worry about air travel. It is believed to affect one in ten of the population, however some studies suggest that the proportion is much higher. Fear of flying can be linked to the fear of airplanes or it could be an aspect of other psychological problems such as panic attacks, claustrophobia or post-traumatic stress disorder. People suffering from fear of flying often suffer increased anxiety and panic attacks at the thought of flying and many avoid air travel as a result of this.
Injection /
Needle Phobia
Injection/needle phobia is the fear and avoidance of receiving various types of injections, and/or of having a blood sample withdrawn through venipuncture. Someone with needle phobia would rather endure discomfort and or severe pain to avoid an injection of anaesthetic. Many people fear/dislike injections to some extent but once the fear becomes persistent, excessive and results in avoidance, it is described as a phobia that may require treatment to overcome.
Obsessive
Compulsive
Disorder (OCD)
There are two parts to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The first part is obsessions, which are repetitive, obtrusive, unwanted thoughts. Obsessions then result in the second part, unreasonable fears and compulsions (what someone does). Compulsions are acts or rituals carried out in response to fears generated by obsessions. Some individuals with OCD have specific compulsions (e.g., symmetry, cleaning, cleaning hands, counting, measuring, obsessively organising, repeatedly checking to ensure they’ve completed a task like locking the door) that they feel compelled to complete multiple times a day in order to temporarily release anxiety about something bad happening to themselves or to someone they love. People with OCD may be aware that their symptoms are not rationale to others but may believe that their thoughts and fears could be true.
Trichotillomania
Someone experiencing Trichotillomania will frequently pull out their own hair which results in noticeable hair loss. Sites of hair pulling may include any region of the body where hair grows, the most common sites being the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes. Stressful circumstances frequently increase hair pulling behaviour, but increased hair pulling also occurs in states of relaxation and distraction (e.g. reading a book or watching television). The tension and anxiety that those who live with trichotillomania experience is relieved when hair has been pulled out from any area of the body.
Generalised
Anxiety
Disorder (GAD)
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) causes the feeling of being anxious about almost everything and anything for no real or apparent reason. Often, someone affected by GAD will feel overly worried about a wide range of things relating to a variety of topics including health, money, work, school and relationships. Individuals diagnosed with GAD have feelings of worry that last for at least six months, which make it difficult to concentrate or carry out daily activities and often occur for many hours each day. Some individuals with GAD experience physical symptoms of fatigue, tension, headaches and nausea due to the severity of their anxiety.
Health Anxiety
Someone affected by health anxiety has an obsessional preoccupation with the idea that they are currently (or will be) experiencing a physical illness. The person experiencing health anxiety may fixate on any type of illness; a common example is fear they have/will get cancer. Those who experience health anxiety are convinced that harmless physical symptoms are indicators of serious disease or severe medical conditions. For example, if a person experiencing health anxiety feels their chest is getting tight, they may believe that they are having a heart attack. Physical symptoms of anxiety (physical sensations) are usually misinterpreted as a sign of an impending physical health problem.
Chronic Stress
“Stress” is usually used to describe the feelings that people experience when the demands made on them are greater than their perceived ability to cope. At such times people can often feel overloaded, under tremendous pressure and very tense or emotional. Stress affects everyone, young and old and is a completely normal reaction that all human beings will experience from time to time when faced with situations that they feel under pressure in. However, if stress is enduring over time it can become a chronic condition which begins to manifest in more serious physical and mental symptoms or diseases.
