Anxiety is a feeling almost everyone will experience in their lifetime and is also a feeling where you become uncomfortable due to the perception or the reality of a difficult situation.

Often, symptoms will show when you stress or worry too much about something in your life or something that may happen in the future. Anxiety can help us to become more aware or better prepared for an upcoming event, such as an exam or a job interview.

However, if anxiety emotes too much fear and disrupts your daily life, that’s when you know that it’s become a problem.

Symptoms Of Anxiety

Identifying anxiety is not as easy or straightforward as it may sound. As all people have experienced some form of stress in their lives, it can be difficult to judge how much worry is too much. However, when anxiety is considered a problem, the following symptoms can be identified.

  • Tightening of Chest
  • Overwhelming feelings
  • Sadness Or Depression
  • Fear or Panic
  • Muscle tension
  • Vomiting, Nausea, Physical Pain
  • Racing Heart Beat
  • Growing Worries
  • Obsessive thinking
  • Compulsive disorde

Types Of Anxiety

There are different types of anxiety, all unique in their way. The six most common types of anxiety are:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A person may feel anxious on most days and worry about numerous amounts of things at once.

This may be described as juggling issues of work life, school life and family life all at once. A person may suffer from General Anxiety Disorder if such feelings carry on up to 6 months.

Social Phobia

This is a type of anxiety if one feels self-conscious and has a fear of being criticised, embarrassed or humiliated in the eye of other people.

This type of anxiety can occur in everyday situations such as conversing in small talk, public speaking, eating in public. Those Who have social phobia, tend to keep to themselves and interact on a minimal basis with others.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This can happen to a person one month after they experience a traumatic event (War, assault, accident, critical situations). Symptoms of this include trying to avoid anything that reminds of or resembles the traumatic event.

People who have PTSD often have a hard time trying to relax and have uncontrollable flashbacks or nightmares of the particular negative event.

Symptoms of this include trying to avoid anything that reminds of or resembles the traumatic event.

People who have PTSD often have a hard time trying to relax and have uncontrollable flashbacks or nightmares of the particular negative event.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

A person may have unwanted or intrusive thoughts that lead to fear, paranoia and anxiousness. This may cause the person to behave or carry out strange behaviours or rituals.

For example, someone with a fear of germs may obsessively wash their hands more frequently than the average person would.

Panic Disorder

This is where a person may experience panic attacks that are intense, overwhelming and often uncontrollable. This can often be identified as feelings of anxiousness as well as physical symptoms.

A person who has a panic attack may experience increased heart rate, shortness of breath as well as dizziness. Sometimes people who suffer panic attacks may think they are experiencing a heart attack.

Specific Phobias

A person may experience fear or overwhelming feelings when exposed to a particular type of object or situation.

They will usually go great lengths to avoid the certain object or situation. For example, those who fear planes will find any other way to travel that doesn’t require getting on a plane.

Getting Help For Anxiety

For people suffering from anxiety, the good news is there are ways to reduce, manage or even eliminate anxiety. These can range from simple remedies you can practice every day or seek advice from a qualified professional.

By working with a psychologist, doctor or professional, you can get the best advice to treat your condition. You can even be medicated if necessary.

Head over to the Okadoc app to immediately book an appointment with your health practitioner.