The Problems of Anxiety Disorders :: Anxiety Disorders Psychiatry Health Essays

The Problems of Anxiety Disorders Anxiety is a normal reaction to a sonorous situation and results from an increase in the amount of adrenaline from the sympathetic sickish system. This increased adrenaline speeds the heart and respiration rate, raises blood pressure, and diverts blood run away to the muscles. These physical reactions are appropriate for escaping from danger but when they cause worry in many situations throughout the day, they whitethorn be detrimental to a normal lifestyle. An concern disorder is a disorder where feelings of hero-worship, apprehension, or anxiety are disruptive or cause distortions in behavior, (Coon, 526) they are psychiatric indispositiones that are non useful for normal functioning. At times, an underlying distemper or disease can cause persistent anxiety. Treatment of the illness or disease will stop the anxiety. Anxiety illnesses affect more than 23 million Americans with about 10 million Americans suffering from the more or less com mon, general anxiety disorder . (Harvard, 1). Common anxiety disorders are panic attacks (panic disorder), phobias, and general anxiety disorder (GAD). consternation attacks Panic attacks can lead off with a feeling of intense terror followed by physical symptoms of anxiety. A panic attack is characterized by unpredictable attacks of severe anxiety with symptoms not related to any particular situation. (Hale, 1886). The person experiencing the attack may not be aware of the cause. Symptoms include four or more of the following pounding heart, difficulty breathing, dizziness, chest pain, shaking, sweating, choking, nausea, depersonalization, numbness, dismay of dying, flushes, fear of going crazy. Heredity, metabolic factors, hyperventilation, and psychological factors may contribute to anxiety causing panic attacks. (Hale, 1886) Panic disorder tends to run in families with first degree relatives of patients having four to 7 times greater risk than the general population. Metab olically, the levels of three neurotransmitters, nor-epinephrine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and serotonin, may play a role in anxiety. These neurotransmitters act as signals among brain cells. Drugs that change the levels of these neurotransmitters are useful in the treatment of anxiety. Hyperventilation (rapid school breathing) can cause a decrease in carbon dioxide in the blood. This decrease in carbon dioxide has been associated with anxiety. Anxiety can be caused by psychological factors as well. One theory is that there is an unconscious encroach between certain wishes and desires, and guilt associated with these desires. Another theory is that certain imposing childhood situations provoke anxiety later. This later theory has been associated with agoraphobia in that the fear of being abandoned in the past may lead to fear of public places.