Have you ever felt like you might have anxiety? Mental health awareness is on the rise, and this can prompt self-reflection about whether mental health terms or diagnoses could apply to you. There is a difference between feeling anxious from time to time and having an actual anxiety disorder, but it can be difficult to discern on your own. Below I outline common anxiety diagnoses in adults to lend some understanding around different ways that anxiety can manifest.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): GAD is characterized by excessive worry that is hard to control. These worries can span a large spectrum and include things like work performance, health, relationships, future success, the wellbeing of loved ones, whether you locked the door when you left the house, and much more. In addition to very high worry, you must also consistently experience at least three of the following: feeling restless or on edge, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, or trouble sleeping.

Specific Phobias: Specific phobias tend to be, well, specific. They entail an intense amount of fear and anxiety related to a particular thing or situation, such as spiders, heights, or flying on airplanes. Individuals with specific phobias avoid feared objects or situations, and the fear they feel is disproportionate to the actual risk. Outside of the feared object or situation, individuals who are only experiencing specific phobias tend not to have much anxiety.

Social Anxiety Disorder: Social Anxiety Disorder requires high anxiety or fear in situations where one could be observed or judged by others. These could include things like social interactions, meeting new people, performance situations such as public speaking, or being observed engaging in an activity where one feels self-conscious, like eating. Individuals with Social Anxiety tend to avoid these occasions or suffer through them with intense discomfort.

Panic Disorder: Panic Disorder involves experiencing repeated panic attacks (for a breakdown of what panic attacks are see my blog post here). In addition to the panic attacks themselves, individuals with Panic Disorder start to experience fear or worry about having more panic attacks and change their behavior to try to avoid this possibility. For example, a person who had a panic attack at the grocery store might start ordering their groceries online to try to avoid additional panic attacks that they think could be provoked by being in the same setting.

Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia is the experience of pronounced fear or anxiety in at least two of the following situations: using public transit, being in open spaces, being in enclosed spaces, being in crowds, or being outside of the home alone. This fear stems from the possibility of being unable to escape or obtain assistance if one were to experience panic-like or other embarrassing symptoms. Individuals with Agoraphobia tend to avoid feared settings or situations or only take them on in the company of other people. Agoraphobia can accompany Panic Disorder or occur on its own.

There are two additional diagnostic requirements for all anxiety disorders, including the ones mentioned above. They must be persistent (generally defined as lasting for six months or more) and they must cause some kind of impairment in functioning, meaning that they interrupt your ability to work, study, have satisfying relationships, relax, or participate in your life in some other meaningful way. Anxiety disorders can occur by themselves, in combination with other anxiety disorders (e.g. an individual who experiences both Generalized Anxiety Disorder and a Specific Phobia), or alongside other mental health conditions like depression or ADHD.

Accurately understanding what we might be experiencing is the first step toward taking control of it. If any of the descriptions above resonate with you and your experiences, know that help is available and that anxiety treatment is highly effective. Also note that, though these are common forms of anxiety in adults, they are not the only ways that anxiety can present. If you suspect that anxiety might be interfering with your life and wellbeing, contact me today to start working on a plan to treat it.

Source:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).