In this day and age of juggling work and family, people are under more stress than ever. What may be a temporary bump in the road for some, can be downright debilitating for others. When people refer to anxiety they are often referencing a “feeling” that they get under exorbitant amounts of stress. And we have all experienced what is considered to be anxiety at one time or another. Anxiety disorder, however, is something very different; a general term that medical professionals use to describe a variety of psychological conditions related to fear, anxiety, and phobias.

Most noticeable, anxiety disorder can interfere with everyday activities, getting in the way of work responsibilities, social activities, and personal relationships. Even the most commonplace activities – shopping, driving; even leaving the house – can seem insurmountable to those suffering from an anxiety disorder. The conditions associated with anxiety disorder are numerous and not everyone feels them acutely as others. But these conditions are considered to be a disorder if they are ongoing, irrational, and interfere with daily life.

People who suffer from anxiety in any capacity will report varied emotions when faced with situations that activate their fight or flight response. This feeling of heightened anxiety can also be described as fear – an emotion that the body reacts to by releasing adrenalin throughout the body. When we are not able to calm this reaction – when the fear or anxiety takes over – the adrenalin takes over as well and a host of physiological reactions ensue. Those with anxiety report increased heart rate, sweating, the inability to catch their breath, and paralyzing fear.

Thankfully, there are a number of excellent medications on the market today that have been designed to help people who suffer from anxiety. But in order to treat sufferers appropriately, it is necessary to determine the anxiety disorder subcategory from which the patient suffers.

Generalized anxiety disorder refers to ongoing and persistent fear and anxiety that comes and goes with no particular catalyst. A sufferer of generalized anxiety may feel a heightened state of awareness, fear, and worry most of the time – manifesting itself in a host of physical symptoms including body tension, sleep disorders, headaches, stomach ailments, and heart palpitations.

Panic disorder refers to episodes of anxiety generally provoked by one or several catalysts. The sufferer reacts to a particular stress by experiencing heightened anxiety and panic translated to often severe physical symptoms that sometimes include hyperventilation, dizziness, shaking, and incapacitating fear. Many new sufferers of panic disorder have confused the symptoms of the condition with those experienced during a heart attack.

Social anxiety is anxiety experienced in any social situation, rendering the sufferer incapable of being within groups of people without feeling embarrassed or scrutinized. Often the anxiety is so great that those suffering from this disorder avoid most social interaction.

Phobias also fall under the umbrella of anxiety and include agoraphobia – where sufferers limit their visitation to places because of their fear of anxiety surfacing; many agoraphobics have difficulty leaving their homes for this reason. Other phobias are included in this subcategory as well; in essence, a phobia is an irrational and ongoing fear of a particular place, situation, or object. Often, the fear is so great that people will avoid the catalyst altogether.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is anxiety that is manifested through compulsive behavior – activities that the sufferer can not help but complete. Such disorders vary in severity and circumstance; those who suffer most strongly experience very real feelings of dread if they do not complete certain repetitive, often ritualistic behaviors – checking locks, counting steps, etc. Often the OCD sufferer is completely aware of how irrational their behavior is but they are unable to stop doing it nonetheless.

There are many comprehensive medications on the market today that have made significant strides in managing and even eliminating many disorders of this kind. Those who live with an anxiety disorder no longer have to suffer at the hand of their irrational thoughts; with proper medical diagnosis, supervision, and pharmaceutical intervention if necessary, anxiety need no longer run the show.

Anxiety attack symptoms are what we typically experience if we feel sudden danger is going to happen.

Anxiety attack can be a very terrifying experience. It is a period of sudden and intense fear or discomfort, typically with an abrupt onset and usually lasting for no more than 10 minutes. Sometimes a person can experience a panic attack all of a sudden without particular reason. Most people that experience one attack will usually experience another attack, and those who have recurring attacks, or feel severe anxiety about having another are said to have panic disorder.

Various individuals report different symptoms during an anxiety attack. Some of the common anxiety attack symptoms are:

Palpitations, a pounding of heart, or an accelerated heart rate

Increased sweating

Trembling or shaking

Shortness of breath

Chest pain or discomfort

Nausea or stomach discomfort

A feeling light-headedness, or faint

A feeling of unreality

Depersonalization or a feeling of being detached from oneself

Fear of losing control or going crazy

Fear of dying

Numbness, or a tingling sensation

Chills

Feeling of impending doom

These are some of the possible anxiety attack symptoms. A normal person may experience one or more of these symptoms from time to time. Having to experience some of these anxiety attack symptoms is considered normal if you have reasonable explanations for them. But if you are experiencing them with no apparent reasons, it can be a sign of a more serious condition.

A person with phobia will usually experience an anxiety attack as a direct result of exposure to the things that trigger the phobia. These anxiety attacks are short- lived and quickly relieved once the trigger is escaped.

Usually an anxiety attack begins with an unusual bodily sensation from the anxiety attack symptoms. A person having an anxiety attack will then react, with fear that the symptoms are indicators of a much more serious threat and in turn reacts with more fear which intensified into a state of intense anxiety and panic. Cases of the possible situations where anxiety attack can occur are: when driving, on an airplane, crowded areas, or during sleep at night. Sometimes anxiety attack occurs in a situation where the person cannot exit easily from a social gathering, or in a meeting, but others may experience an incident of anxiety for no reason while in comfortable place or even in sleep. Anxiety attack symptoms are more or less the same feelings we might experience if we feel danger is about to happen. They are signs of how we usually react if we are triggered by fear, worry, and concern. But, chill out! Fortunately, anxiety attack is not an illness.