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History of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

History of Anxiety Disorders

What we now refer to as anxiety disorders (panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, etc.) were experienced by many people throughout the history of mankind. They were often misunderstood, abandoned in asylums, treated inhumanely, and otherwise mistreated. Anxiety disorders were first officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980. Before this time, those suffering in this way might receive a general diagnosis of “nerves” or “stress.” Medical professionals had no training and little understanding; thus very few people received effective treatment. Even if you do not have an anxiety background, the problem can appear. So, you must not take the problem lightly.

Ineffective treatments of the past included herbal preparations, hydropathy (exposing the body to extreme temperatures), harmful drugs, and electroshock therapy. During the American Civil War era soldiers suffering from shellshock (what we call PTSD today) were often treated with opium and other calming but addictive drugs.

Fear exposure therapy came into practice in the 1950s. A patient is systematically exposed to the trigger of their fear to desensitize them and lessen their anxiety or phobia. This method is still in use today. Whether or not you have a history of anxiety disorders, it is necessary to take proper precautions.

In the 1990s doctors began treating patients with anxiety with antidepressant drugs. They discovered that there was a chemical component that was shared between those with depression and those with anxiety.

Anxiety is the most common form of mental illness in the United States.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), over 40 million adults (persons over the age of 18) in the US suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. That is approximately 18% of the population. Of those, 7 million suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 15 million suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects approximately 7.7 million Americans.

A great many children and adolescents also suffer from various forms of anxiety disorders. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), one in eight children in the United States suffers from an anxiety disorder. With early treatment and support these children can learn to manage their anxiety and approach adulthood with their anxiety in check. https://adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children#

From these numbers, it is clear that anxiety disorders are a pervasive problem in our society. Each of those 40 million adults has family members, loved ones, co-workers, friends, and neighbors who are also impacted by these disorders. Seeking effective treatment for these individuals is of great importance. The action must be taken when was anxiety discovered. Feel free to contact us if you are willing to take help from online counseling.

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

Panic Disorder – How to Tell, What to Do!

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where the person suffers from frequent, sudden, panic attacks. These may last for several minutes, some may be longer, and can happen anywhere. While the feelings they bring on can be extreme, they are not medically harmful in and of themselves. The key is understanding that it is a panic attack and what to do when one is happening.

First, panic attacks and panic disorder itself are sudden, and severe anxiety attacks. Panic attack symptoms include:

  • Intense fear or worry
  • Impending sense of death or doom
  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Feeling out of control
  • Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing
  • Chest pain
  • Sweating/having the chills
  • Dizziness
  • Numbness or tingling in extremities
  • Rapid, pounding heartbeat
  • Feeling lightheaded or fainting
  • Nausea

To meet the criteria for a diagnosis of panic disorder, the individual must experience repeated panic attacks over a short period of time. It is possible to have a single panic attack, and then never have another one, or to have them infrequently.

What causes panic attacks? Panic attacks occur when the level of stress or anxiety in an individual’s life becomes very intense and overwhelming.  The typical coping mechanisms for stress become overwhelming and stop functioning normally. Each person responds to high levels of stress and anxiety differently, and what one person is able to manage, may completely overwhelm another.  This is not a judgement of strength, or character, but simply a medical fact.

There is strong evidence for a genetic basis for a predisposition to anxiety disorders.  If you have close family members with anxiety, you may be more prone to develop an anxiety disorder.

Living with a high level of stress for an extended period of time may also lead to developing panic disorder.  If this is you, seek help now, learn ways to productively manage your stress before it becomes a debilitating panic disorder.  Talking to a mental health professional, and learning coping methods can turn your life around, and back towards happiness.

How can someone deal with anxiety and panic disorder? It is possible to learn how to cope with, and overcome, panic disorder. The first thing needed is education. People need to know this is a medical condition where their nervous system is misfiring, and they are not in any medical danger. Another way to manage this condition is with medication; anti-anxiety medication helps lessen anxiety symptoms and lowers chances for future attacks. Lastly, talk therapy can be used to help understand what is going on, what triggers there may be, and ways to calm once the panic attack is starting. Simple breathing exercises, mindfulness techniques, and reassuring self-talk is very helpful in overcoming panic attack, or anxiety attack, symptoms.

Panic disorder is treatable with a high success rate.  There are a variety of methods and approaches available.  The important thing is to act sooner, rather than later. If you, or a loved one, are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, or panic disorder, reach out to a mental health professional.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

Coping Strategies for Living with an Anxiety Disorder

Living with an Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety can be a nightmare for some to deal with, especially people who have to deal with it every day of their lives. Chronic anxiety, living with it every day, can be torturous, but it is treatable. Reaching out for help would be the first step to getting this under control. While you are going through the process of therapy to treat your specific anxiety disorder, here are some ways to try to manage the day-to-day, when the anxiety disorder seems out of control.

Break things down into what you can do for your body, what you can do for your mind, and what actions you can take to help yourself out that day. Looking at what you can do for your body, adopting some healthy lifestyle traits will go a long way towards alleviating anxiety and improving your mood as well.

Tips to help your body (to get rid of anxiety disorder) include:

  • Limit or cut out alcohol and caffeine from your diet
  • Try to get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night
  • Eat regularly, and eat well-balanced meals
  • Set up regular exercise, for at least thirty minutes a day
  • Take frequent breaks from what you are doing

These may not seem like much, but anxiety can be intensified when you are, tired, stressed, or intoxicated. By doing this you will take care of your health and lower your anxiety disorder.

Caring for your mind to lower anxiety is a little more complicated. A lot of work can and should be done in talk therapy to help manage these conditions, but here are some tips to help alleviate some anxiety when it happens:

  • Ask yourself if this is something worth getting upset over
  • Ask yourself if this is something that will matter a year from now
  • Learn to accept what you cannot control instead of letting it consume you
  • Learn what you can and cannot control
  • Develop a strong sense of humor
  • Meditation and keeping yourself focused on the present

These are simple steps that may take a lot of practice but will go a very long way in the quest to rid yourself of anxiety.

Now, taking action is another thing that will help, especially when it is action aimed at fighting anxiety disorder, both being proactive and reactive. These can include:

  • Slow, deep breathing or some thoughtful breathing technique
  • Learning distraction techniques, like listening to music, reading, or talking to friends when you are upset
  • Set goals for yourself every day, attainable ones
  • Learn what triggers your anxiety and avoid it until you are strong enough to manage it

Coping skills to combat daily anxiety disorder are a necessary tool in living with it. There are things to do that will overall help lower anxiety, as well as things to do in the moment when the anxiety is getting bad. These will help in conjunction with any medication and talk therapy you are doing to eliminate chronic anxiety from your life.

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.

How Common are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety disorders are a diverse group of  similar psychological disorders. Anxiety disorders have the common elements of unusually high levels of fear accompanied by anxiety and behavioral abnormalities. The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders in its fifth edition (denoted as DSM-5) is the most recent publication which provides the definition and statistics regarding psychological disorders. The DSM-5 considers generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), social anxiety disorder, phobias and substance-induced anxiety to belong to the spectrum of anxiety disorders (Emedicine.medscape.com, 2018).

Anxiety disorders have high prevalence among all the psychiatric and mental health disorders. Anxiety disorders often occur in conjunction with another major psychiatric ailment, depression. Worldwide, the prevalence of depression was expected to be three hundred million as of year 2015. Anxiety and depression often co-exist so there is an overlapping prevalence of both the disorders. Similar prevalence of various anxiety disorders also exists.  Anxiety disorders pose a huge burden of disease with respect to disability. Anxiety disorders are ranked as the sixth largest contributor to worldwide disability standing at 3.4 percent contribution to global disability. Anxiety disorders resulted in a sum of 24.6 million years lost to disability in 2015 alone (Apps.who.int, 2018).

Do you know how common is anxiety? As per 2015 estimates, 3.6 percent of the people of the world suffer from one or the other form of an anxiety disorder. There are a total of two hundred and sixty four million people living in the world who suffer from anxiety. Anxiety and depression both have higher prevalence in the female population compared to the male population with 4.6 percent of females suffering from these disorders compared to 3.6% of the males. Females have nearly double the prevalence than males. When age groups are compared for prevalence, no significant differences exist between the different age-groups except for the elderly, who show a relatively lower prevalence. (Apps.who.int, 2018) How common is anxiety? Now, this question does not carry any importance. How to find a solution, this is important.

Although yearly data and statistical figures have their own importance, lifetime-prevalence is considered to be the most significant statistical figure in understanding the impact of the disease. The twelve months prevalence figures merely suggest the number of people having an anxiety disorder currently. The probability of people acquiring an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives is predicted on the basis of past life-time prevalence statistics.

The following expresses the probability of an individual acquiring an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives:

Any of the anxiety disorders 28.8%
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) 5.7%
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) 1.6%
Panic disorder (PD) 4.7%
Social phobia 12.1%
Specific (other) phobia 12.5%

 

References

Apps.who.int. (2018). [Online] Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/WHO-MSD-MER-2017.2-eng.pdf;jsessionid=73BCB4A79B8729A7D4218C2125BEFA2A?sequence=1 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].

Emedicine.medscape.com. (2018). Anxiety Disorders: Background, Anatomy, Pathophysiology. [online] Available at: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/286227-overview?pa=gF4MN9UD9tp%2Bo3F%2BizsZ9QwHkb2HRa%2FehEUmZABPnN%2BcxowQo3c%2B3CWCa%2F8KMQWh6p6oWviy8uflye2V0IfCGtRNZ1wOcAGVEOAmcrMialo%3D [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].

 

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Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post and any associated articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect opinions or policies of eTherapyPro. These posts and articles are shared for your enjoyment and consideration. Read them or not at your sole discretion and liability. They are not intended to replace counseling services rendered by licensed professionals. Consult with your counselor before implementing any content from these articles into your life.